I Hit the Jackpot!

I take an art class at a small strip-mall business that is technically a music store that offers music lessons. We get some nice (and very repetivive) music reverberating through the art room-- Peanuts' Christmas, Pachabel's Cannon, and The Entertainer are some of the songs that are now forever stuck in my head.

Several weeks ago, I was inspired to try making some jewelry using guitar strings. (UnkamenGifts sparked this inspiration with their string jump rings). The problem: my family is not musical and we don't have any discarded guitar strings.

So, a dear and super awesome friend sent me some broken harp strings! The first project I made was the hair jewel above (it's still in progress, but when it is finished it will work like this hair skewer). However, harp strings are very, very sturdy and are difficult to do detailed jewelry with.

I wanted to find some smaller strings...

On a whim, I asked my art teacher if she knew whether the music teachers kept broken guitar strings.

I hit the jackpot!

Not only did they have broken guitar strings, they had piano strings and violin strings and strings from other instruments!

And I got to bring them all home. :)

Of course, there are downsides to giant boxes of broken strings with twisted ends...

Honestly the tangled mess is somewhat beautiful.

a bangle

I've had a lot of fun learning new techniques!

Guitar/string-instruments' strings do not behave the way that ordinary wire does. They are very stiff and do not bend into shapes easily. You can't use wirewrapping techniques. 

But the strange behavior of these strings opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

These will not be available in the Shoppe for a week or two. There is a possibility that I could sell some of these locally and I need to build up some stock before I put any online. :)

P.S. I'm working on even more designs while watching the World Series baseball game. GO CARDINALS!!!