Wrap Your Wrists in Rock Stars' Used Guitar Strings
by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York 
on 12.13.08
Photo courtesy of Spitting Out Teeth
Attention green music fans—how much do you love rock music? Are you such a huge Clapton fan that you'd clothe yourself in his guitar's byproducts? Do you love Queen enough to press that which guitarist Brian May's fingers once caressed upon your arm? Would you don Keith Richard's, Jack Johnson's, or Jack Black's silvery strings as proud evidence of both your greenness and devotion to all that rocks?
Or maybe you've just been patiently waiting for the day when rock memorabilia would finally at long last intersect with eco-wear. If any of the above applies, rejoice, friends. The time for you to wrap your wrists in jewelry made from rock gods' rusty old guitar strings has finally come.
Wear Your Music has come up with a rather ingenious way to combine music memorabilia, a staunch reuse ethos, and charitable donations—they take guitar strings donated by rock, country, and pop stars and handcraft them into unique bracelets. The strings are bound by 100 percent recycled silver, and bear the initial of whichever rock star's strings are wound round your wrist—and 100 percent of the profit from each goes to a charity of the artists' choice. The bracelets range from $75 to $500 (depending on the rock godliness of the axeman donating the wares), and make for an extremely unique gift.
Elvis Costello, Pete Townshend, Peter Frampton, Bonnie Rait, Slash, Rivers Cuomo Avril Lavigne, Good Charlotte, and Death Cab for Cutie are just a few of the artists and bands participating. And new arrivals are updated frequently.
More on Green Gifts:
Holiday Gift Guide: For the Pop Culture Fan
Holiday Gift Guide: For the Fashion Buff
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Support Green Live Music: Sarah Harmer
- Support Live Green Music: Serj Tankian
- Support Green Live Music: Reverb and Guster
- Don't Buy Guitar Picks, Make Them From Leftover Cardboard
- We Love 5min.com for Simple DIY Solutions
- Is School Food Harming Kids? Enlist a Labor Day Eat-In To Promote Fresh, Healthy Food
I hope they clean them. Strings get *disgusting* and start turning black and the gaps between the spirals get all full of gunk after about...well depends how much you play. A few months for guitarists...a bit longer for bassists. I changed my strings yearly for my bass, but I didn't play very often.
I have a ring I made out of a guitar string from my favorite band. I guess with big bands the guitar tech brings a new guitar when someone breaks a string, but with a smaller band I just went down to the stage at the end and asked somebody for the string the guitar player had pulled off and thrown on the stage. Guitar string jewelry is pretty easy to make, except for the silver part...I skipped that.