(Tangle Free) String Wrapped Earphone Project

Images: Pinterest

Most of us are familiar with the story of the king and the poisoned well.

Everybody in a town, except the ruling king, drink from a poisoned well which was the only water supply. They all go mad and think the king is acting strange and unfit to rule. As they begin a rebellion, the king drinks the water and joins them in their madness. The people rejoice, for their king has regained his reason.

There have been a number of times that I've tried my best to avoid 'drinking from the well' but sadly, certain situations dictate that I must at least dip my toes in it from time to time.

Let me paint a picture.
If I wanted to listen to music on the go, my only option was to tape which ever album I wanted, from a record or CD, to cassette tape and listen on my Walkman. Yes, I was still using a Walkman up until a year ago. But now, with iPod in hand, I'm just like you, so my giddiness and apparent slip into madness seems commonplace as I walk around the city with some of my favourite - sorry, strike that - ALL of my favourite music at my finger tips.

One thing, I refuse to wear those silly little white earbud headphones.

The main reason I held off buying an iPod (and it's a silly argument I know, but it's my argument) was seeing fleets of people gliding to and from work with skinny white cables protruding from their ears like some 1950's version of a dystopian future...well actually, exactly like some 1950's vision of a dystopian future...
"And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind." 
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

I have opted instead to wear my skinny black earbuds, which are TOTALLY different from the fleets of people gliding to and from work with skinny black cables protruding from....blah blah blah
(I never said I had a strong argument!)

However, if you don't really care if you have skinny white cables or skinny black cables, my guess is you might be interested in this.
Wrapping your skinny white cable/black cable earphones in thread eradicates the annoying and frankly incomprehensible issue of tangled earphones and to be honest, I actually  think they look quite good.
                                                

Image: Start Acting My Age

This tutorial comes from Allie over at  Start Acting My Age, a great blog with some great craft projects.
Jump over to her site for her full list of step by step instructions and handy, practical tips.

Images: Start Acting My Age

1. You'll need a pair of scissors, a safety pin, selection of embroidery thread (try somewhere like Hickeys) and clear nail polish.


2. Pin your earphones to a pillow or blanket.


3. Choose your colour thread and tie to the top of the earphone.


4. Keeping the colour threads together, start wrapping them around the cable, trying to keep them tight.

Images: Start Acting My Age

5 & 6 When you get to the end, tie 2 knots and pull tight







7. Cut off any excess thread.


8. Dab some clear nail varnish to seal the knot and make sure it doesn't unravel.

Use the same process for the rest of the other cables.




Check out the pages of Pinterest for a number of other ideas and tutorials.

Image: Apartment Therapy

Now that I have my one of a kind earphones and all my music in the one place it feels a bit like a hollow victory. Listening to my ipod while in transit, well... it's just me listening to that music. And mostly just to past the time from one destination to another. Nothing can beat the joy of listening to a record on a turntable, being shared by a room full of people.

I might have gone mad, but I'm not crazy.