Designer's live jewelry a curiosity in Salt Lake City boutique

SALT LAKE CITY — Jewelry designer and boutique owner Jared Gold creates eye-catching creations that are alive: 3-inch-long Madagascar hissing cockroaches bejeweled with Swarovski crystals and attached by a chain to a pin.

His "roach brooches" are free to crawl around on a blouse or jacket, attached to a limiting lead. They hiss when upset and, unless the wearer is careful about the roach's feeding schedule, they can soil clothing.

Gold has been astonished by the reaction to his creations; he can't keep them in stock.

Gold uses only male roaches — females bite — which he gets from a Los Angeles breeder. It takes about an hour to decorate a cockroach, using a secret technique to make the crystals and clasp adhere to the roach's hood, or carapace, a hard shell that covers its head.

The roaches can live up to four days without food or water, Gold said. He recommends giving them a nice dark place to live when they're not being worn. They eat fresh fruit (bananas are a favorite), and they drink water from a saturated paper towel or cotton ball. The most common cause of death is dehydration, Gold said.

If well cared for, the roaches can live for up to a year. However, they molt, and it's possible a brooch wearer could end up with a plain old hissing cockroach after it sheds its shell.

Gold recommends against feeding the roach a day before wearing it to avoid any unwanted excretions.

The roaches sell for about $40 in the Salt Lake City store or $80 on the Internet, including overnight shipping, for other parts of the United States.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals finds the roach brooches inappropriate.

"It gives a new, sad meaning to the term 'fashion victim,' " said PETA spokesman Michael McGraw.