On the 'Crafty' side of things. The optical 'eye' in optical mice are quite nice to look at.

I think that they can be used for jewelry, theres Gold wires in them as well as the optical chip.
I have a feeling that the optical chip will bounce light back into a camera if a photo is taken of it while using a flash. Sorta like the 'red eye' effect.
When I get them I scrap the guts out and the plastic goes to the recycling depo.



The roller ball type mice have several LED's and sensors, all with Gold wire in them' The eye has about 7 Gold wires.
Actual Gold wire is not worth much because its so thin, but in bulk its worth money. Like if you have a quart bottle full of LED's its probably worth getting the Gold out.
Its not hard to do. 'Patnors method' is whats used, no chemicals at all and its basicly the same as Gold panning.
Panning the wires out of the charcoled plastic.