Oh So Charming Swap - continued

Before mailing off my charms for the Oh So Charming Swap I took pics of the whole bunch of charms. They just seemso much cooler all together for some reason! Forgot to take a pic of the little tag I included with my "Fly Away Home" charms though. It was done in a similar fashion to the one shown with my "Blue Moon" charms. I've seen some wonderful charms in the postings for this swap so far and can't wait to get them all in my hands to ooh and aah over. It seems that a lot of charms are done using recycled or "found" items. Wish I had thought of that too, but we'll have a nice mix this way.

Wire-Worked Bracelets

Well now that I've made a bunch of charms and
will be getting a bunch in the swaps I'm in, I
figured I better have a bracelet on which to hang
them. Also, my group of close friends in the
"Radish Ladies" wanted me to demo how to make a wire bracelet for THEIR charm swap. So I set to work playing with copper wire to see what sort of linked bracelets I could find to make.

I admit to finding link designs all over the internet and I reproduced them to make my own bracelets. Some were harder than others. Two were free-formed using just chain nose and round nose pliers. The one with heart links and the one with a sort of "S" link were formed using a Thing a Ma Jig with little pegs to bend the wire around - and pliers too.

Oh So Charming Swap

I just had to try my hand at some of the very cool
hand made charms I've seen posted on the 'net. So
I joined the art-e-zine sponsored "Oh So Charming"
Charm Swap that is hosted by Dawn Sellers. What
fun! And of course, I can't ever seem to just do
something "a little bit" - I had to make TWO sets
of 25 charms! Now two of my other (face to face)
groups are also doing charm swaps within their
memberships.

My first charms - "Blue Moon" were made with
some little cobalt blue glass mosaic pieces I found
at the craft store - wrapped with 18 ga. copper wire.
I added a little dangly with more copper wire and
some extra beads and added an extra jump ring for
hanging on the bracelets.

The second batch of charms - "Fly Away Home"
were made with a purchased polymer clay,
flower-caned bead that I found in the 25 cents a
pack aisle - whoo-hoo! - at the craft store. I used
antiqued brass wire for this one and made two spirals
for the top and bottom of the bead, plus a loop at the
top and added a dangly with a ladybug and another
little antique brass bead, all hung off another big jump
ring.

If you get the chance to participate in a charm swap,
I highly recommend it. Even 25 charms don't take
huge investments of time or money and with a little
warning, you can even be on the lookout for "found"
objects to incorporate. Can't wait to get my swap
outs back and see everyone elses handiwork!