What’s in a charm?

When I was a little girl one of the first pieces of special jewelry that I received as a gift was a charm bracelet. It only had a few charms on it. One of those charms was a mustard seed incased in a little glass bubble. Another was a charm my mother had as a teen engraved with her initials. Charms were attached throughout the years when graduations, travels or new friendships happened. Charm bracelets were like scrapbooks in my day and if you were lucky enough over the years you would have collected lots of special shiny silver or gold trinkets that were a celebration of where you had been and what you had become. What I loved most about wearing a charm bracelet was not the little trophies and trinkets but the unique “tinkling” sound that the charms made whenever you lifted your hand. It was an angelic sound to me kind of what you might imagine tinkerbell sounded like flitting through the air…you know, magical!

I’ve seen a lot of charm bracelets recently and I’m happy to see them make a come back into the accessory scene. There are lots of new and interesting materials and themes to these recent designs. Some of them have so many charms attached to them I just can’t even imagine the amount of time it took to attach all of them much less decide which ones go where. I thought long and hard about creating a “Beadliotheque” version and set out to find what materials would make a signature charm bracelet and I think I ended up with the right ingredients. The best surprise of all was in the lightness of the brass was the sweetest, most angelic, high pitched, “tinkling” sound I’ve ever heard! I think the fairies would be pleased. You can find these charm bracelets listed on my www.Beadliotheque.etsy.com site.