Bic Pen Goes Glamorous

Taking advantage of the cement-like properties of Sugru you can take an ordinary, and quite pedestrian, Bic pen and make it like no other. It's also fun and comfy to hold. By wrapping a thin sheet of Sugru around it you can attach just about anything. For this Instructable I used beads but I would love to see what you come up with.

If you don't yet know about Sugru I will give you a little information here, otherwise move right along to the steps. So, Sugru is a really great new product made in London. It acts like sticky clay for a few minutes, then acts like clay for half hour or so, then it hardens and acts like rubber. In fact it is silicone rubber. The hardest thing about using it it to open the package and think what to do with it - once you do that though the ideas just keep coming. But don't open the package until you know what you want to do.

It bonds to itself, aluminium, steel, ceramics, glass, wood, leather and some plastics. Go to their website to find out how to buy it and for lots of great ideas on what to do with it at Sugru.

This is my entry into the Sugru contest so be sure to vote for me if you like this idea, staring when the voting starts.

Step 1: Supplies

• Bic pen
• Pasta machine
• Sugru - 1 packet's worth
• Beads
• Pliers 

Step 2: Mixing Sugru Colors

I wanted an indistinct background for my pen so the beads would stand out more. I mixed black and orange to get a brown color.

The best way to mix two or more colors to achieve the color you want is to pull apart the Sugru by stretching and folding it back on itself and stretching some more. The stretching is what blends the colors.

Step 3: Preparing Your Pen

Using some type of pliers, remove the ink part from your pen. There is just no reason to remove other than you don't want to get ink all over your hands.

Step 4: Rolling Sugru Through the Pasta Machine

Flatten the Sugru into a disk and using the widest setting on the pasta machine feed the Sugru though. Repeat this with the past machine set at thiner and thiner settings until it is so thing it shreds the Sugru, then you know you have gone too far.  Roll it into a ball and flatten and start over and this time stop at the setting before the one that shredded it. On my machine I stopped at setting 5.

You can skip starting over if you think it is thin enough at any one setting, you want it to be large enough to cover your pen.

Step 5: Wrap

Wrap the Sugru around your pen so that you don't have any air bubbles, just smoosh and pat and tear and seal the holes you may make, it's pretty easy.

Step 6: Roll

Roll your Sugru wrapped pen back and forth in the beads until it is all covered, you can press down on individual beads but it's not necessary because they will be fairly firmly embedded from the rolling.

Step 7: Trim

Step 8: Wait

Wait 24 hours before you use your pen and wait that long until you put the ink cartridge back in too, just to be safe.

Step 9: Done

I have been using this pen for about 6 weeks, it feels soooo good to write with even if it's only a Bic pen. I have tried dropping it when ever I think about it and have dropped it probably over 100 times onto the granite countertop. I wanted to see if the beads will come off. To date one little bead came off but it is not noticeable.

It bounces.

I hope you will make a pen with Sugru and embellish it with something cool - a patch to anyone who attaches a photo in the comment section.

So, thank you for reading, please rate my Instructable, subscribe to me for more Instructables coming soon and if you like this one vote for it in the contest. While I am making all these suggestions be sure to sign up to get a pro-membership as it is just better to view Instructables when you are "pro", and it supports this great website.