Washer and Ribbon jewelry

Girl walks into a hardware store… actually this girl walked into two hardware stores in order to find the perfect washers for this necklace. At the first store, I had to hunt and peck through little drawers filled with all sorts of washers, but also there were some at crazy prices. I found some that were $.16 each that I thought would be great. Although, I then realized I didn’t buy enough.

I headed to a second store with my best friend and we actually asked the guy in the nuts and bolts aisle for his help. To a simple, “what size washers do you need?” I had no idea. I had to pull up the project on the phone while saying, “as you can see I don’t belong in a hardware store.”

I settled on four small bags of containing six washers, 1/2 inch size at about $1.18 a bag. Not too shabby compared to the fact that there were washers that could cost that much for one.

Supplies: At least 13-14 washers and about 4 ft. of grosgrain ribbon 5/8 in.

I went with black ribbon to pair with my silver washers. The photo above has more washers than needed.

Seal the ends of your ribbon with clear nail polish, that way they won’t fray. Then stick a washer onto the ribbon.

Make sure you have enough space to the left of the washer for however long you want the necklace to hang as well as for tying into a ribbon at the end. Say about 10 inches to a foot.

Move on to the next washer. Thread the ribbon through the hole of this washer, but make sure it’s over the top of the washer into the hole not threaded from underneath.

You will then thread the ribbon through the previous washer.

As you pull the ribbon, the washers should lie flat on top of one another.

Then pull the ribbon through the hole of the second washer. Do the whole process again. Take another washer, thread the ribbon over the top of the washer through the hole, stick the ribbon through the previous washer’s hole, pull ribbon. The washer will lie on top of the previous washer. Thread ribbon through last washer’s hole and do it again until you’ve used all your washers.

The first time I did this, I didn’t cut the ribbon long enough. Three feet of ribbon (or one yard) made too short of a necklace. But it was good for a bracelet. I just cut down the excess ribbon in the end.

But used 4 ft. of ribbon made a great necklace. It hangs low enough and looks pretty awesome. You need to adjust the washers a bit. Some might be tighter than others when you curve it for the necklace.

Cute huh? I like that it’s something you can just get at a hardware store. I might try painting the washers in the future too.

UnCommon Designs