Create fun LED jewelry from everyday materials! This LED bracelet was just one of the many creations to emerge from our LED Build Night.

This project was inspired by Make Magazine's LED Binder Clip Bling.

Step 1: Materials

pipe cleaner

medium binder clip

foam or felt

LED

3V coin cell battery (CR 2032)

scissors

Step 2: Design Your Bracelet

This is the creative part! I chose to keep it simple and make a foam flower with LED center. But you could also use paper, felt, or another material of your choosing. Once you've figured out your design, start cutting!

Step 3: Adding LED & Completing the Circuit

Now let's add some light! Poke your LED leads through your design. Take your battery and place it between the leads so your LED lights up. (Remember, the longer lead is positive!)

To keep your LED lit, we'll use a binder clip to pinch the leads and battery together. You may need to bend the leads a little so they fit. If you're using a metal binder clip, remember to insulate the leads with an extra square of your material (foam, paper, felt, etc). If you don't you're LED won't turn on.

Step 4: Add a Strap & Wear With Style!

The final step is adding your pipe cleaner strap. I kept it simple (and maybe boring) yet again, and chose a single white pipe cleaner, but you could create a stranded strap by twisting a few different colored pipe cleaners together.

Make a small loop at one end of your strap by bending about 3/4" -1" down and twisting.

If you haven't already, bend the legs of the binder clip back. Slip your pipe cleaner(s) about 2/3 through one leg of your binder clip, from the non-looped end, and loop it back around. Then twist. Slip the rest of the pipe cleaner through the other leg of the binder clip, leaving about a 2" gap between the legs. Loop the pipe cleaner back through and twist.

To fasten your bracelet, slip the remaining pipe cleaner through the looped end and fold it over until it's secure on your wrist.

Now you've got a smashing LED bracelet! Enjoy!

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4 Comments

katdawson1

6 years ago

My students loved this project. I am wondering if anyone has an idea for an easy way to have the bling turn on and off without losing the battery and lights when you open up the clip. I tried hot gluing just the positive leads to the positive side of the battery so at least the lights and battery would stay together when they unclipped them, but the glue doesn't want to stay on the battery. When it was sticking, I could just move the battery slightly up and down inside the clip, so that the wires would above the clip and not light or inside the clip and light up. However, once the glue came off this no longer worked. Any ideas would be appreciated (I'm working with 8 year olds, so I definitely want to avoid using super glue)