Make a Charm Bracelet
Easy Instructions Using Jump Rings, Bails and Loc-Links
Charmed jewelry is one of those perpetual favorites that never seem to go out of style. Careful selection of charms for your jewelry make for a personal statement.
Charmed jewelry is one of those perpetual favorites that never go out of style. When done right, and why would you want to do it any other way, your charmed jewelry is a wearable statement of your personal life. Getting the charmed jewelry 'right' involves building your jewelry from scratch so that all the charms interlink and tell the tale that you want told.
Many jewelry companies offer mass produced charmed jewelry that is built around the theme they select. Using market research the jewelry company decides what charms their customers would like to see combined. This changes the charmed jewelry from a piece of wearable art to just an ordinary piece of jewelry.
One notable exception is TIffany and Co. Tiffany and Co has a line of lock charms showcased in their Charmed by Tiffany section of their website. This section has links to customized your own charm jewelry in gold, silver and platinum, a link to look at some of their most popular designs and a link to get some design ideas for necklaces and bracelets.
TIffany lock charms are very cool in the fact that the lock mechanism allows you to easily move the charms around. For example, you could start off by buying three Tiffany charms to start a charm bracelet and over time purchase more. If after purchasing your additional charms you did not like the original placement of the charms it is quite easy to undo the lock and move the charms around on the bracelet. Of course, depending on the type of precious metal you choose and the design of the charms and chain, a piece of charmed jewelry from Tiffany and Co. can be rather pricey.
If you have about 30 minutes it is very easy and inexpensive to create your own charm bracelet combining charms that have special meaning to you. Subsequent articles will give directions to make the Surfer Girl Charm Bracelet shown on this page. Directions to hang the charms from the bracelet will be given three ways: using bails, jump rings and loc-links.
Each of the three methods is quite easy to master so you can choose which method makes more sense to you. However, please note, while jump rings are very inexpensive using this method will require purchasing a jump ring tool, which will add to the expense of making your bracelet.
And while the specific charms shown on the Surfer Girl charm bracelet will be used for illustrative purposes in the instructions the methods you will be taught can be applied to just about any charm you want to use. So this will truly be a personalized piece of jewelry reflecting your style.
The first method to be discussed is using bails. Jump rings and lock links will be discussed in subsequent articles.
2008 Update: The jewelry making project for Mother's Day gives instructions on how to tie charms onto a cotton cord for a bracelet or a precious metal chain for a necklace.
