It all started with licorice laces. You know, the candy that sort of looks like string or spaghetti?
When Mike Madden was a kid, he would braid the laces and make bracelets out of them.
“Then I would eat it about five minutes later,” he said. “I got pretty good at braiding, and then, too, sort of a technique that locked onto itself when I just mushed the ends together.”
Buy yourself something nice!
Mike Madden’s repurposed guitar-string jewelry is available in Durango at Urban Market, 865 Main Ave., and at the Artisan’s Market in the Durango Arts Center, 802 East Second Ave.
Pieces are also available online at www.coloradorestrung.com.
Those skills would come back to Madden as a grownup, in a pretty unusual way.
“Way later down the line, I was changing out some of my guitar strings about 14 years ago and I started just sort of fiddling with them,” he said. “I started braiding them in that same formation and that same technique that I used with the licorice and it just looked really cool.”
After working to refine his technique, Madden – who by day is a school counselor at Mountain Middle School – began to create and sell his repurposed guitar-string jewelry under the name Colorado Restrung. He still makes braided bracelets, and also offers rings, necklaces and sets.
His pieces include braided designs, using acoustic and electric guitar strings, and some are braided with pearls and other stones.
And people are snapping up his pieces: Madden now travels to music festivals all over the country, and he said, when he’s not at school, he’s working on building his inventory. He also sells online at Coloradorestrung.com and locally at Urban Homestead and the Artisan’s Shop at Durango Arts Center.
“I made the bracelets first and then I made my wife a pair of earrings once I realized that I could make jewelry out of it,” he said. “Then I figured out a cool way to make my wife a pair earrings, just this simple pair, and then I took about 12 of them to a flea market and sold them in about an hour. Now I do some of the largest music festivals and art shows in the country.”
A couple of local guitar music shops provide Madden with strings, including: Jimmy’s Music & Supply in Durango; Telluride Music Co. in Telluride, Main Street Music in Aztec and Curt Mangan in Cortez; as well as other bands and musicians who donate their strings.
“I love it. It’s so much fun. … I get to meet a ton of amazing people. I get to meet musicians. I have a box full of famous musician strings that I have made stuff for. I get to know the backstage techs when I do music festivals on a regular basis and so they’re the ones who can get me the really good strings. At country jam last year I got a set of Tim McGraw’s guitar strings; I’ve gotten Blake Shelton’s and mostly country music singers. And then their families come in and shop from me … it has just taken off like crazy and I’m struggling to keep up with my inventory.”
While Madden said both of his jobs are full time, his jewelry making is still his way to decompress after a long day at school.
“I’m a counselor and a therapist and so it is really my way of getting into my own state of Zen and creativity and it’s very relaxing,” he said. “It’s very good for my mental health because not only does it provide financial stability, it also gives me something to do that I feel like I am using my time wisely.”
Madden also names the environmental factor as important to what he does.
“I’m keeping the strings out of the landfill because most people will just throw them away,” he said. “The metal is sort of a mixed metal and it’s really hard to recycle.”
katie@durangoherald.com
