Alison Bailey Smith has posted a couple of messages around the site recently about the things she makes out of old wires – culled from old televisions and the like – and they’re so fab, I thought they needed featuring a bit more prominently than buried in the comments section.

Alison has been repurposing old wires to make “jewellery and other wearable art” since 1988 and has made some truly gorgeous items. One of my favourite things is the blue hat, which is made from television wire and coffee bag wrappers, and I also love the beautifully shaped data cable basket and jewellery, including the bangle below.

I’ve made various bits of jewellery out of old wires (as we’re both geeky and hoarders, we’ve got loads of random dodgy cables lying around) but all my efforts have been a lot chunkier and plainer – Alison’s work has inspired me to keep at it with the hope that one day I’ll be able to make something as pretty and delicate as her items. But she also takes commissions so if you like something but don’t fancy giving it a go yourself, you should get in touch with her :)

• How can I reuse or recycle a bundle of wires?
• How can I reuse or recycle old televisions?
• How can I reuse or recycle a wire guitar strings?

A few weeks ago now, we had a weekend away (to Lindisfarne – was great) and when we returned, we were greeted by a big bundle of wires in the middle of our garden path. A neighbour had found – and disassembled – a broken sunbed while we were away and the wires were leftover. He knows we like using odd things so left them out for us.

So I took them in and sorted them by colour – but don’t know what to do with them. They seem to be quite thick – but malleable – copper, coated in pretty tough plastic. They mostly range in length from around 50cm (20″) to about 1m (40″), but there are some shorter ones at about 20cm (8″) too.

The wires look pretty flexible and strong but I don’t know if they’re bendy enough to use for something like macrame – at least fine knotting – but I like the idea of using them from something crafty. So any suggestions?

Or any more practical ideas?