Originally on Blogger 6/25/11

30 Days of Creativity Day 10

I was cleaning out my cabinet where I keep my jewelry when I found a little pile of sterling charms.  I remembered that a “few ” years ago I had made a special request at Christmas.  I asked that Marty give me a sterling charm bracelet.  I then asked that the kids each get me a charm that represented them.  That year they all did just as I asked.  I am sure I was thrilled at the time and I put all the pieces in a safe place until I could get it together.

So…here it is a few years later-not put together! I gathered all the charms -some from then and some that were new and set about putting it together. Every charm had a story.

Katie gave me the comedy/tragedy charm.  Perfect.  She had always wanted to go into performing and was involved in many performances through high school.  Josh gave me the football helmet as he was playing football at the time. Here my memory gets fuzzy but after talking to Megan, we think she gave me the crystal butterfly.  She may have given me the bunny but I may need to talk to niece Rachael about that.  The stingray and dolphin were purchased when Megan and I went to Discovery Cove. The Birthday Cake may have been given to me by Marty-my birthday is Christmas Day. The Bible and Angel…not sure.  May have to talk to sister Daun on this.  It is possible my niece/nephew also gave me charms that year.  The silver charm on left bottom is from Mexico when Marty took me on the cruise.  It’s neat because it has pictures all over it of things people consider lucky.  The teacher charm…not sure.  The pearl, totem, and blue flower all came from Alaska this last year. The maple leaf I picked up in Vermont when I visited my niece.  The last two I just got this last December.  Marty gave me shopping money for Christmas and Birthday.  I got the charms free when I made a purchase.

As for the charm bracelet Marty bought me-it was in a safe place-I could not find it.  I decided to put the charms on a chain maille bracelet I had made.

My chain maille bracelet.

I arranged the charms in order-four didn’t make it!

I laid out the bracelet, then arranged the charms as I thought I would put them on. I slipped the football charm right over the clasps and to the middle-it had a very large bale and did not need a split ring. In sorting I-four charms that just didn’t seem to go. They are pictured at the top of the bracelet.

I put each charm on a split ring and then put it on the bracelet.  The work was a bit tedious but not difficult.  I did use the split ring tool most of the time to open the rings and get the charms on-then to thread it onto the bracelet.  One thing to consider when doing this is the placement of the charm on the chain.  Keep laying the bracelet flat to make sure placement is correct.  My chain maille bracelet had double links-I place charms on the bottom set of links so that it lays nicely.

After getting all the charms on I was pleased but it seemed liked it need more.  I had a necklace I bought but never wore.  While the stones were beautiful the chain was not what I wanted and I did not like the piece.  The great thing about jewelry is once you learn a few skills-nothing is wasted.  You can change/alter/embellish until you are happy.  I decided to put stones in between each charm.

I did not have a lot of space to work withbut I did not want to redo each stone with a new headpin.

I loved the stones, but not the chain.

Now this was a bit tricky as each stone was on a short headpin with a loop at the top.  I did not want to redo them so I had a very short piece to work with. The little extra effort was worth it though.  I saved using my stock of headpins and I do like the way the stones are close to the chain and the charms are further away-it adds depth. I was very happy with it when I finished it.  It was nice that while I worked on this, my friend Dawn was here working on a project of her own.  Having company doing projects distracts you from the sometimes mundane parts of the process. Of course I had to add a finishing touch-I had a cool charm and added a Swarovski.  I attached this near the clasp.