Guitar-string jewelry

Show your love for heavy metal, literally. Local artisan Xavior Symown takes discarded musical-instrument strings and makes them into jewelry. Her line Strings and a Dare features strings from a variety of instruments (take your pick: guitar, bass, violin or piano) that are wound and twisted into artful, archaic necklaces, earrings, rings, bracelets and pins. Symown made her first piece to memorialize a friend and fellow musician, and the jewelry line does well to carry on the memory of a broken guitar string.

Covered opens 2nd location

Local boutique Covered has just opened a second -- and bigger -- location in Uptown. Expect a wider selection of the women's denim, tops, dresses and accessories the original Dinkytown location carries, and a new addition: menswear. The store specializes in denim, including hard-to-find lines like William Rast, Hudson and Serfontaine. The shop also recently picked up "The Hills" star Lauren Conrad's new clothing line.