Wish Upon a Wrist

If you’ve been wishing upon a star--to no avail--then maybe you should wish upon a bracelet instead. Wish bracelets, colorful little hand-woven cotton bracelets made in Guatemala and Mexico, are turning up on the wrists of the truly trendy.

How does a bracelet grant you a wish, you ask. Simple: Place the bracelet on your wrist, and, just before tying the bracelet’s knot, make a wish. Wear the bracelet constantly until, finally, frayed and worn, it falls off of its own accord. When that happens, legend has it, you get your wish--vastly less aggravating and, at as little as $1 each, less costly than playing the stock market.

“They last for about a year,” said Heidi Weeks, who sells the wish bracelets at The Soap Plant on Melrose Avenue. “Towards the end, they get to be pretty disgusting. You see these people walking around with what looks like just yarn on their arms.

“It’s kind of a hippie revivalist thing,” she observed, “but now it’s getting really mainstream, too. I was watching something like ‘The Cosby Show’ and one of the actors was wearing one.”

Apparently, a lot of wishful thinking must be going on, because, as Weeks says, many people don’t stop at one wish bracelet--they wear five or six at a time.

“I call those people ‘Wish Hogs,’ “said Weeks, who confesses she is not a believer.

“I put one on, and, after taking a few baths, it got so disgusting--it was like taking a bath with your socks--so I cut it off,” she said.

“Needless to say, I didn’t get my wish.”

Auditory Odyssey, a poster shop in North Hollywood, sells lots of wish bracelets.

“They sell like crazy,” said Kim Murphy. “We can’t keep them in the store.”

She swears the things work. “My wish came true.”