Playing with Charms Again

Last week I stopped into our nearby Michael's Craft store while I was out shopping with the girls and came across a couple of chains marked down for clearance. I couldn't resist this one with its copper patina color, and at only $2.50 for a 24" length, it was a bargain! Over the weekend I pulled out some of my charm-making materials and played with them for a few days, so here's my latest jewelry creation. I do love the way charm bracelets sound, jingling and clinking on your wrist as you go about your day. Of course, I have a ton of beads and such in that aqua color, and happened to discover that if you smear a metallic aqua acrylic paint over copper metal charms (ones with engraving details work best) and wipe off the excess, it's a nice simulation of a patina. That's how I got the color on some of the charms above, especially the leaf-shaped one on the far right, the three little leaves in the center, and the dragonfly wings. I had purchased a bunch of small copper charms from artbeads.com a few years ago (they have a nice selection and don't charge shipping in the US) so I'm still incorporating those into my jewelry and art. One of those was that little picture frame towards the center of the bracelet. I glued in a small piece of quilted "paper cloth" I made a couple of years ago and embellished it with a small seahorse from a tiny paper punch (another bargain impulse buy a few years ago). A couple of the other charms are made from polymer clay and one bead was rolled out of paper cut from an old National Geographic magazine!

I have enough chain left to make 3 more of these! When am I going to get around to opening that ETSY shop, anyway? (or maybe I can try these at the Putnam Arts Council Holiday sale this year...)