Time for Holiday Bracelets as Gifts

I gathered some of my past and present bracelet creations for inspiration as I start to make new ones to sell and to give as gifts. And what would be better than a yummy, full charm bracelet? A yummy, full charm bracelet with a full, yummy bottle of wine!
The top three bracelets are my own. The first one is my Blythe Bracelet. This one has been through a few iterations. It first started as the result of a charm swap a few years ago in the Arte-du-Blythe group, hosted by Miss Vicky of Cut-It-Up fame. Then I added a few kitschy things to it. But in preparation for Blythecon 2012 in Dallas I sent it to Natascha of Insanely Sweet Jewelry on Etsy to bling-it-up another notch.
Next is my All Pink bracelet with a favorite handmade ceramic goth girl charm by Melanie of Earthenwood Studio. I love to look at it but often forget to wear it! Plus, as much as I do love pink, I hardly ever wear the color with the exception of fuschia now and then.
All of these bracelets contain many elements by the talented Amy Labbe of Art-i-Cake. I especially love the playful bracelet I flung on a wine bottle to photograph, and then realized what a great gift idea. This bracelet has a lot of my favorite things: Mini Lalaloopsy, a tuxedo cat, a Blythe maryjane shoe, vintage enamel flowers, soldered charms, pearls, rhinestones, multiple chains and BLING!.
Time to get busy and make jewelry to sell in my little display at Feja's Salon and Day Spa.

Back to charm bracelets again

I took a little painting break this weekend to whip up this charm bracelet, inspired by the great vintage-look findings at Michael's, including 'Industrial Chic' by Susan Lenart Kazmer, whom I met at Art & Soul one year, and 'Vintage Groove It' by Jill Schwartz.

I've been selling a few bracelets along with other artisans at Feja's Hair Design and Wellness Spa in Gaithersburg. It's a beautiful two-floor affair in an historic building, and owner Feja Kim is an artist in her own right, now only with hair, but with beautiful watercolors, which can be seen on her Web site, including the charming painting of her building.
If you are charm bracelet crazy like me, or into making jewelry, here's a few of my previous charm bracelets here, here and here.

The finished product

I realized I never posted a picture of the finished charm bracelet I made for Bryanna of The Canary's Cupcake. This was one of the things I sent her. I "warned" her it was going to be a kitchsy/crackerjack/childhood/colorful charm bracelet. I especially liked the tree, from Hi-Ho Cherry-O (I think), the Monopoly hotel, the glass-blown rubber duck, the dancer from a little girl's jewelry box (I had one), the panic button and the Sally Jean soldered house charm. I hope Bryanna did, too. Check out the gorgeous Mermaid totes she's been making, on her blog!

Charmed, I'm Sure

I remain crazy as ever about charm bracelets and am glad other people share my enthusiasm! One of my favorite co-workers, Ms. Caroline, asked me to make up some charm bracelets for her daughter, future daughter-in-law and of course, herself. The requests were black and white and beach-y, turquoises and beach-y and antique brass and neutral for Caroline--who has the tiniest wrist ever--5 3/8"!

You can click on each photo above for a larger view. The squares at the top are actually blue and green mother-of-pearl, a lime-y sort of green, although they look yellow in the picture. Ick. There's some actual turquoise and other natural elements as well as a glass fish and many fun charms.

The antique brass bracelet has brown pearls, brown mother-of-pearl, wood beads, foiled or dichroic beads, resin flowers, picture jasper and lots of brass findings. That's jewelry-speak for "metal accents." The adjustable chain clasp has a brass filigree dragonfly and crystal accent.

The black and white bracelet has some vintage buttons as well as big black and white lace-y glass beads, black and white swirl mother-of-pearl, pearls in silver bead cages, nautical charms and a nautical lobster-style clasp. That's also jewelry-speak for a claw-type clasp that actually has nothing to do per se with the nautical theme, except that this one is shaped like a buouy.

I love making each charm and dangle. They are always so hard to part with. Every time I make a bracelet for someone else, I tell myself I will make one just like it. But I never seen to get around to it. At least I have my pictures to remind myself in case I ever do.

Insomnia Must Be Purple

With a 6 a.m. alarm looming, I found myself unable to stop stringing pendants for this charm bracelet, even at 1 a.m. I didn't even get the idea for this until about 10 p.m. And actually, stringing is a misleading term: there's no string, not even wire. It simply means forming the danglies on headpins (straight pins) and wire-wrapping the stem to make a loop. This pink and purple beauty has over 25 different charms and lots of whimsy.

After forming and wrapping all the charms, I attached each one to the chain with jump rings and then attached a sterling-filled magnetic clasp closure to the ends. It's going to take a bold outfit or a bold wrist to wear this one, as it should be. And go figure: I woke up at 5 a.m. ready to photograph and blog about it.

Charms, Charm Swaps, Charm Bracelets: All So Charming!

While I was waiting for charms to dry this weekend, I decided to photograph some of my bracelets from past charms swaps. These beauties contain all original artwork from so many special art friends. They're really too bulky and noisy to wear, and I don't want to break or lose any of the charms, but I have worn some of them before, to art events. I wish I had a good way to display them all the time so I could enjoy looking at them.

I also photographed my high school charm bracelet. It's the mostly silver one above, containing Monet charms from the 1970's. The black and white charm bracelet above is one I made for myself in recent years. The turquoise bracelet was made by the talented Altered Kat/Great Musings of ZNE and on Etsy. I have purchased several from her for gifts. And the very full white and clear bracelet is by Miss Vicky, who sells these gorgeous versions in all colors and all themes in her store, The Funny Pharm.

The charm bracelet with antique brass and the silver one with beach-y charms like the pail and sand dollar are bracelets I have made and sold in my Etsy shop, Lilly*s of London*ish. The silver one uses fantastic lampwork beads from Marianna as well as Coach charms from a deconstructed keyring.

Some of the most full bracelets above are made from charms swaps. The very top one represents charms collected at Art & Soul, Hampton 2008 and contains 32 different charms from 32 artists. The bracelet with the soldered 'G' Scrabble tile front and center is from a swap at the ZNE Castle in the Meadow event in Detroit this past summer, and the silver bracelet with the fabric circle charm, soldered Marie Antoinette charm and brass and metal findings charm, among others, is from Art & Soul Portland, October, 2009. At Portland I was lucky enough to swap with members of the exclusive Charmsters group, thanks to my 'in' with art buddy Michelle Geller, who also made several of the charms on this bracelet.

One of the best parts of charm swaps is the presentation of the charms. I have received charms in matchbooks, match boxes, test tubes, mint cans, on Moo cards and in some many creative and elegant presentations it makes it tempting not to take them apart to attach to a bracelet.

So with charms due for the Arte du Blythe charm swap and a charm swap sponsored by Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, as well as wanting to turn in a project for my pitifully-neglected spot on the Hannah Grey Design Team, I banished myself to the basement to see what I could do.

The "I Dream in French" charms are made by stamping on rolled-out paper clay with a rubber stamp from Hannah Grey and a basic ink pad (Staz-On does not work for this project). I cut the charms out with canape cutters and poked a hole with a wood stick. The charms dry light and hard within about 24 hours. I sprayed some with a clear finishing coat and some, I sprayed the backs with silver or gold spray paint and edged them with a silver or gold leaf pen. I added a French brass charm also from Hannay Grey and jump rings and tied them to watercolor paper artist trading cards. The cards are stamped in French script with a large stamp from Stampin' Up; the stickers are from Paula's Kit Club as well as the ribbon.

The "little girl" and "eyeball" charms are a completely different project, obviously. There are eight members of my Arte du Blythe group making and swapping charms, for a bracelet hosted and finished by Miss Vicky. Some of the charms are just outstanding. Check out my Blythe blog for a sneak peek.

'By the Sea' Treasures from Art & Soul

I felt like a kid on Halloween night, dumping out all of my treasures from Art & Soul Portland; arranging, rearranging, mentally cataloging and slowly putting away all that I had collected in the way of supplies, trades, purchases and finished art.

It is tradition to bring small pieces of art to swap, such as charms and artist trading cards. Charms were very popular since many A&S attendees belong to a group called Charmsters, including my hostess Michelle. I swapped enough charms to make an entire bracelet, nicely full of handmade goodness (top). A few extra charms from Michelle made their way into my pile of goodies during our 1:1 swap (second photo). I also received two lovely 4 x 4 fat book pages from her for my 2008 book. The other pics/piles are more swap receipts, ephemera collected, class supplies, purchases from the on-site store, Collage, and vintage finds from around Portland.

The bottom three photos are my background papers completed in Traci Bautista's Doodling & Letters class. The will now be cut up for ATC or other backgrounds.

Yes, You Can Buy Charm!

Even though I have a zillion paper projects to do, and even though I am tempted to write a rant on the lost art of spelling and punctuation, I set aside both those needs today, and after a nap and a yummy supper at Panera, I finished these two seaside charm bracelets for my etsy shop at the early hour of 2 a.m. I would have done a third, but I have some beads to pick up Tuesday that will just make a perfect antique brass one to go with these above of silver and bronze-sort of an Olympic trifecta of charm: charm bracelets, that is, chock full of charms like shells and fossils, lampwork, a little key, a lock, hearts, a pail and shovel, fishies and more. The handmade lampwork beads, including an octopus and starfish, are by Star Girls Jewels, also on etsy. Come check out my shop http://www.hpsgsmith.etsy.com/.

Charming, charming, charming

I guess I was feeling charming at 3 in the morning, because I woke up early yesterday/Friday, to storms, licking cats and a noisy water softener (again) and decided it was high time I assemble my charms from the ZNE http://www.zneart.com Castle in the Meadow charm swap last Sunday in Detroit. The bracelet in the bottom pic is the result. All but three were made by ZNE members in quantities of 25 each for the swap. The green glass rings, ruler bit cut for me by Kris of Retro Cafe Art Gallery in Indy http://www.retrocafeart.com and baby moon by Melanie of Earthenwood Studio http://www.earthenwoodstudio.com I added later. The soldered charm in the very middle, the Scrabble 'G' is by Donna of Bonnie Blue Denim http://bonniebluedenim.blogspot.com who was nice to enough to make everyone a charm with personalized initials, so mine has an 'S' on the back.

Immediately above my ZNE bracelet is the nautical charm bracelet I also made Friday morning, this one for my sister-in-law. It has procrastination all over it, since she had given me four charms from Michael's in late March and asked me to make her a bracelet like the one I got from Kat of Altered Kat or Great Musings on etsy and here http://alteredkat.blogspot.com. That one is the turquoise bracelet in the second photo from top. It has over 50 charms on it, so trying to make her four charms into something like that took me awhile to pull together. In the end, I used little glass fish from Debbie/Oh Kitten at Chubbyville, glass beads from Laurie of Loud Life on etsy and Living Out Loud http://loudlife-laurieblaumarshall.blogspot.com and also the mother-of-pearl charms from my Altered Kat bracelet. Who says I can't make nice and share?

And finally, in reverse order, the top photo is a review of my Art & Soul Hampton charm swap. Yes, there is a charm bracelet in there somewhere, along with 32 unique, hand-made charms.

And now a word from Art & Soul

Soooo happily exhausted am I from my 1,600 mile/4-day art retreat at Art & Soul, Hampton, VA., that I thought I'd let my pictures do the talking. I figure they're worth about 15,000 words.