Charmed

I picked up a copy of Charmed Bracelets on sale last week and now I have a new obsession. Unfortunately, after a terrifying weekend examination of our post-Christmas finances, I realize I do not have the money to support it. Therefore I've only been Windows-shopping. There are some gorgeous charms on etsy and some incredible vintage ones on ebay. After digging out a charm bracelet from my childhood, I did spend  some time sifting through old jewelry and craft supplies in search of stuff to stick on it. But it's hard to put together a beautiful charm bracelet like the ones featured in this book -- and I've found it even harder because I would like everything on the bracelet to have a significant meaning. Ideally, all the charms, arranged carefully on a bracelet -- like words in a sentence -- would together tell a story.

So far, this is all I've got:

 

A bracelet with one charm on it probably doesn't exactly qualify as a charm bracelet, does it? I once had a strange and beautiful experience with a feather. I wrote a non-fiction short short it featured in:

We were sitting on an outcropping of rocks on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the ocean. A hundred feet in front of us there was a tree that had grown up out of the side of the cliff — it looked dead, like it had been hit by lightning. Perched on the very top of this tree was this bird, I don't know what kind. It had a long beak and wings that, when unfurled, were bright orange. We were sitting there watching it preen when another bird just like it flew over and joined it. The bird we'd been watching, I guess it was a male, promptly jumped on the second bird's back, and they mated. When the male bird jumped off, the female's back was rumpled and a little feather was sticking off her. I pointed this out and as I was talking, a rising wind caught the feather and lifted it away. We watched as the wind carried the feather into the sky. Then, in a slow curve, the feather fell right into my hand. Not a word of this is a lie.

The experience was actually stranger, more magical, than that, but sometimes the truth is too unbelievable to write about convincingly. I suppose I could find charms to represent the other events in that short short. Anyway, so there's my charm bracelet. It's made out of a Dollar Store charm that cost about 10 cents and a Walmart chain and will have to be kept well out of Vie's way as everything she touches goes straight into her mouth and god knows what's in that metal. Someday maybe I'll put together a sterling silver or gold version. (It still wouldn't be okay for her to eat it, of course. Just very slightly healthier, if she did.)

Comments

[daysgoby]

My mother has three old charm bracelets - one is hers, one is my great aunts, and one is my great grandmothers. I love hearing the stories behind the charms (my great-aunts, for example, has a little silver drink-shaker cup. When you open the wee lid, a little red devil sticks his head out. Bertie grew up in the Depression.)

Mom never liked wearing them as bracelets, though - they catch on sweaters and things. If you open them all up and clip them end-to-end, though, they make a gorgeous and remarkable necklace.

[Steph]

Ooh J, we need photos of those bracelets! I love the idea of making a necklace out of them, too.

[Heather]

Oh, I understand! I spent way too much money on jewelry-making supplies before the holidays in order to make some charm-style bracelets using vintage buttons in lieu of charms. But now I'm out of vintage buttons, and those can be pricey, and I didn't even make one for myself.

I'm a sucker for charm bracelets and wear one of my mother's--from her high school days, mostly. My elder sis got the one from her travels in Europe, of course, because she was "practically born in Germany." Sigh.

[Alisa]

That looks like a fun book!