Can you remember when charm bracelets were all the rage? I remember my mom wearing this absurdly clunky thing back in the day. I think I even had some kind of child’s version. Are they coming back? I’m not convinced.

But Martha is, so this next project is to make your own charm bracelet. And you know what? It’s actually pretty easy. I chose some tiny sterling silver peace signs and hearts for my charms, and I had some leftover sterling chain. The links probably weren’t quite big enough, but it worked out.

There were a few issues that I had to problem solve. Namely:

See that charm 3rd from the left? How it’s all wonky while the rest lay flat? Thank goodness I figured that out at charm 3 and not at charm 9 or something. You need to make sure that you are inserting your jump ring into the same part of the link every time. Otherwise, you get wonkiness. To illustrate:

This was the best I could do with the photo. See how all the charms except for the one with the “wrong” arrow are hanging to the top of the bracelet? They were all attached on that side of the link. The misfit was attached on the bottom side of the link. It’s easier to see when you are working with the chain, but the point is, if you want it to be close to perfect, you need to be careful about not letting your chain twist and being consistent with how you attach.

The Encyclopedia doesn’t give any instructions for making the bracelet beyond “attach the charms with jump rings.” You also need to have a system for spacing them out; I chose to put 6 links in between each charm so that I knew they’d be spaced just right.

I actually really like it. I even wore it to yoga class today. It seemed appropriate.

I might actually keep and wear this one.

TIME INVESTED

About an hour

DIFFICULTY

Easy to Moderate (Opening those jump rings just right and getting everything consistent is a little tricky.)

TOTAL COST

• sterling chain, 6″ @ $8.00 per foot = $4.00
• charms, 5 @ $1.55 ea and 6 @ $0.65 = $11.65
• clasps, $1.99

Total cost = $17.64

WAS IT WORTH IT?

Yeah, I think so. It does seem kinda pricey when you can probably get some charm bracelet for around the same, but this one is sterling. And you can customize it however you want. It would make a great gift.

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