Thimble & Needle Charm

Hand crafted from recycled piano keys and engraved with a line drawing of a traditional thimble and crossed needles – thanks to my friend Ethan Danieslon – these start life as the ivory-coloured bits in front of the black notes on trashed pianos. I collected them from the piano bashing place, arranged for them to be washed and trimmed, then I set about sanding the corners before they went to my engraver.

You can attach the charm to scissors or your project case. I have even seen them as earrings! Supplied with a hand-crafted twisted cord, each charm varies slightly but measures around 2 x1in (5 x 2.5cm).

Many years ago, Bill and I had visited a piano hospital in Sandwich in Kent. (Bill was considering becoming a piano tuner). I was shattered to see some of the old wrecks that were not going to survive. Sometime later, I was given a pendant decorated with hand-painted roses and I was told it was worked on old piano keys. The memory of the piano hospital came back to me, and I put two and two together! I started searching for sources of old piano keys and created these little treasures.