Creating The Perfect Charm Bracelet

 

The concept is simple, you buy a base bracelet and over time you build your unique bracelet by buying charms and adding them on. 

 

The concept has been around since Victorian times so why has it suddenly become so popular now? These new charm braceletsare different. It's all about attaching sentimental meaning to your beads and so over time the bracelet becomes a record of your story. It's this ability to make a piece of jewellery so personally resonant that makes the current charm bracelets so fantastically addictive.

 

Wonderful and poignant moments can be treasured forever. So my first and biggest tip is to make it personal. Give a bead meaning and let it be a commemoration or celebration of something in your life. It could be an anniversary, birth of a child, a perfect day out, how much someone loves you or personal achievement. As a bead, that precious moment can last forever. The more emotional investment you put into your charm bracelet the more it will mean to you.

 

That brings me on to my next point, which brand do you choose. At the inexpensive end are masses of fully completed, cheaply made bracelets typically manufactured in China. To buy a bracelet like this that is already made up with all the beads on misses the point of making it personal to you. The bracelet in effect has very little value to you other than as a fashion accessory. They are certainly cheap but have none of the emotional power of making the bracelet yourself.

 

At the top of the pile are brands like, Troll beads, Chamelia and the brand leader, Pandora. If you want to still be able to add to your bracelet in years to come then these are the brands to aim for. The beads and charms are of a very high quality, each piece being created entirely by hand using traditional techniques.

 

So which beads do you choose? Some are based around cute animals and other objects but you don't need to always go for something as literal as these. Beads can be more representational, a beautiful blue glass bead for a perfect day spent in the sun. A bead with a single diamond in to represent love, you get the idea. The more abstract beads can make the bracelet feel even more personal to you.

 

You can use some of the amazing coloured glass beads, or beads set with coloured gems to add colour to your bracelet. Bracelets usually look best if you stick to just one pallet of colours, sky blues and royal blues, pinks and lilacs, lime greens to apple greens. Bracelets made from a rainbow of colours never seem to look as good as you might think they should.

 

Lastly there are a few technical aspects to consider. First is size, choose a base bracelet about 2cm bigger than your wrist, this will give you enough space to get the beads on comfortably. Secondly most bracelets have two nodes on them that divide the bracelet up into three sections. These create compartments on the bracelet to stop all the beads sliding around to the bottom of the bracelet and out of sight. There are special beads that clip onto these nodes to disguise them. Thirdly you can buy a safety chain for your bracelet. The clasp on the bracelets are usually very good but the bracelets can become very valuable in more ways than one, so it's usually a good idea to attach a safety chain to both ends of your bracelet.