Bingo!

This project was sort of commissioned by a friend.  Her aunt, who was an avid Bingo player, recently passed away.  She had some of her aunt's Bingo chips, and wanted them made into a necklace.  Said Bingo chips were passed on to me, and I decided to tackle the challenge. 

Materials: Bingo chips, jewelry wire, jump rings, necklace closure, round and flat pliers, beads, something sharp (like a needle or awl), soda can tabs, wire cutters.

The first thing I did was use my something sharp to punch two holes in the Bingo chips.  This would give me a way to feed jump rings through them or otherwise attach them to the decorative beads.

Example of wire swirly thing

Since I am a glutton for craft punishment, I opted not to use jump rings on the chips.  Instead, I threaded wire through the holes and made decorative swirly things. See example to the right.  They took a little longer than forever, but I am very happy with the way they turned out.  Nature channel documentaries help pass the time while wrapping.

After each chip had its swirly deal, I attached a jump ring to each side.  I then attached the beads with another jump ring. Rinse and repeat until all Bingo chips are hooked to beads.  Add your necklace closure of choice ( I went with lobster clasp), and you have a finished piece of jewelry.

But wait! There's more!  I had more Bingo chips leftover, and thought it would be nice to make some earrings to match.  I recently saw earrings in a magazine that had been made with soda can tabs.  I decided to incorporate them into phase two of this project.

I started by using wire to attach a bead to the tab.  I used more wire to attach the Bingo chip.  I bent the stray ends of wire with rounded pliers to make them a bit prettier.  Once done, I added some earring hooks and I had a pretty set of matching earrings.

 

Sorry I didn't try the earrings on!