Having Fun With Charms

For the past several days...okay more than a few days, I've been trying to get caught up on all the art charm swaps I'm in. I am hosting a Postal swap and a Pendant swap and like a sucker I just couldn't resist signing up for 2 sets each.

The pendant swap was pretty easy as I love to play with wire. So I made several different types of wired up pendants. These first ones are all the same and I call them my crystal ball pendants as they are made out of quartz crystal.

This next set was me just playing around. It was kind of fun.

Then the hard part started.... My postal charms, oh what to make. I was not very creative at all and finally decided to make my soldered charms for my first set. I just love these. I used mostly old stamps that my husband had rejected out of his collection. Can you believe we found one in here from 1895. Yup, someone is going to receive that one in a swap.

My next set was harder to figure out and finally I just glued a ton of postage stamps to a piece of card stock as a collage and then used Diamond Glaze to affix a glass piece over the top of the pieces that I cut out. A simple coil and loop for the hanger a little more Diamond Glaze on back and there you go, postage stamp charms. Probably out of all of them, these are my favorite because they are so different.

Another swap I signed up for was the Amulets and Talisman swap. This was hard. I did lots of research and several test charms. It was hard keeping them to under 1 1/2". The bottle charm got kicked out as it was too big and I ended up not liking the triangle with the eye in the middle. So four different charms the amulet bag made out of leather and filled with various protective stones, the symbol of the moon out of silver with crystal, the wishbone in gold (not really just brass) and the protection amulet with a binding and protective stones.

So, I think I am now all caught up. Whew, that was a lot of charms. I can't wait to see what I get in return.

One more thing, I have a Bonsai Gem Tree class coming up June 30th at Shipwreck Beads in Lacey, WA, so if you have been wanting to learn how to make a gem tree, this is a great starter class. Come have fun with us.