How to Make an Alphabet Safety Pin Pendant

Make an attractive letter pendant with safety pins.

Make a safety pin pendant with the first letter of your name — or one that spells out a whole word — and pin it to your shirt or book bag. These types of pendants use small, round "E" beads to create a pattern on vertical safety pins that hang from a horizontal safety pin. A coilless safety pin — often referred to as a French safety pin — is useful for the horizontal piece because you don't have to try to get the hanging safety pins around a bottom coil.

Things You'll Need

• Coilless safety pin
• Coiled safety pins, size 3
• "E" Beads

Instructions

1. Open a coilless safety pin. Determine the number of coiled safety pins you want to use. Feed the open end of the coilless safety pin through the round, bottom coils of the coiled pins.

2. Close the coilless safety pin and turn it upside down so the side of the coiless safety pin that opens is facing upward.

3. Place the coilless safety pin horizontally in front of you with the coiled safety pins hanging vertically. Open the first safety pin on the left and feed "E" beads onto it until the beads fill the side of the pin that opens. Close the pin and count how many beads it takes to fill that side of the pin. Multiply this number by how many pins are hanging from the coilless pin.

4. Draw a grid on a piece of paper that is made up of as many squares as the number you determined in Step 3.

5. Color in the squares with a pencil to create the shapes of the letter or letters you want to include in the pin. Follow this pattern to create the shapes of letters on the series of hanging pins.

6. Add colored of beads to the pin to make up the background for your letters. Follow your pattern to count which beads to add to create the letters. Each column of squares in the grid represents one of the hanging safety pins; the squares at the top of the grid are the beads you have to add first to that row. Work your way from the left safety pin column to the one on the right.

Tips & Warnings

• Use beads of the same color to make up the background as this will make your design more prominent.

References

• Making Friends: Easy Coiless Trefoil Pins