Memory
Bike spokes upcycled into handy oversized paperclips
Faced with high unemployment in Switzerland, poverty in Africa and a hobby of collecting old bikes, social entrepreneur Paolo Richter started
Gump- und Drahtesel, a program in Bern which puts the unemployable to work restoring and upcycling bicycles. Most of the bikes go to Africa, but among the products the workshop produces—
rubberbands made from bike tires, bike rims repurposed as hangers—this clip might be the most elegant.
The design plays off the classically useful shape of a paperclip, poetically named Memory, substituting a bike spoke for the metal and made by hand. At just over 3″ tall, it comes in handy as a bookmark, money clip, for papers or any number of other clipping purposes.
Pick it up from Uncommon Goods for $10 or check out Gump- und Drahtesel’s store Pico Bollo next time you’re in Bern.
