Vintage Mac Jewelry Brings New Life to Dead Computers

Nicole Martinelli ()

apple-earrings

Macs continue to live on, long after they’re on the scrap heap – these vintage Apple logo earrings or pin are made by a woman whose family runs an electronic scrap business.

She plucked little plastic Apple logos (like the ones decorating the front of the 128K, though other Apple products had the rainbow logo, too) from devices bound for the dump.

This isn’t the first time we’ve run across ways to adorn yourself with Macs — including silver power button cuff links or earrings or, similarly pricey rings and pendants from keyboards — the ones above go for a modest price of $13.99 (earrings) or $8.99 (pin).

What’s the verdict: geek chic or unwearable e-waste?

DON'T MISS

Via Etsy

7 comments »

About the author

nicole_martinelli

Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco native who has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek. You can find her on Twitter , Facebook and Google+.

If you're doing something new/cool that's Apple related, email her about it.

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Posted in Clothing, Cult of Mac, Top stories |

  • http://WWW.TWITTER.COM/HONETBUNNIE734 Stacy Blitstein

    So cute how can I order some? I need those earrings!

  • ged

    The Apple geek in me says cool..

    BUT they are not logos, “IBM” designed by Paul Rand is a logo (short for logotype).
    The Apple symbol is, in geek typographer terms, well, a “symbol”.

  • http://www.zoomata.com Nicole Martinelli

    Ged — I see your point, though it looks like both mirriam websters & wikipedia use “logo” as a synonym for “symbol” so maybe for non-geek typographer use it’s ok…

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo
    http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/logotype

  • http://techdweeb.com univac

    I’ve been doing this for years too!

    Every Apple product (NeXT also) I’ve found that was definitely destined for the junkyard I’ve pried the logos off with my trusty Leatherman.
    Its very hard to remove them without slightly damaging the edges of the logo.
    (Notice the mark on the left side of the left earring…)

    I’ve made large Apple rainbow logo lapel pins (from Laserwriters) and NeXT cube logo pins.

  • ged

    I have tried to change wikipedia on this issue, as a semi-active wikipedian. If you look at the discussions the debate is there.

    I would say this issue is lost cause, as in common parlance “logo” has come to mean symbol, I do not know which idiot made the change, but words do change their meaning and spelling throughout history.

    You know once French was the educated man’s language, but times DO change….
    “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” turns out to be not true. Ironic?

  • http://www.zoomata.com Nicole Martinelli

    ged — words do change their meanings and in this case common usage is less precise than maybe it should be…

    Had an interesting conversation with some Italians about the term “latino,” since, by many standard definitions a “latin” (incidentally, “latino” in Italian) is anyone who speaks a Latin-derived language but “latino” is commonly understood (at least by US census standards/common use in US) only someone from Latin America or Spain…

    Anyway, I love these kind of questions — and would welcome any suggestions for sites where you follow them…(btw, I’m a big fan of http://www.wordspy.com for neologisms).

  • http://amandabynesnudiesny.xanga.com lilikindsli

    OS7MDe I want to say – thank you for this!