In these recessionary times, we’ve noticed less expensive jewelry appearing under the Christmas tree. But maybe the best substitutes for gemstones are the credit cards once used to buy them.
One of our favorite holiday presents this year was a bracelet made out of, yes, expired credit and gift cards.
Edie Ashman, Edith Meriwether’s Richmond, Va.-based designer and owner, has been making jewelry out of credit and gift cards for about five years, and selling them through trade shows and on her web site. She said in an interview Monday that she makes about $20,000 a year on the card-based baubles, which she sells for between $15 and $38 each.
Ashman’s primary sources for raw materials are expired gift cards from friends and even some retailers. “That’s the recycling end of it, people save their old cards for me now,” she said. “This time of year, after the holidays, is a big time. … I do have a few retail outlets that will save old gift cards for me, but a lot of them, because of the fraud issues, are afraid” of giving them away to be re-used.
Ashman said she hasn’t noticed much difference in demand for her card-based jewelry over the past year. But industry-wide cutbacks in credit – and the
“In the current economy, using credit cards to rack up high-interest debt is the world’s dumbest idea. The time has come to throw that credit card away - or to give it a whole new life as something else,” began a May
A June