It was a chilly day in October when I realized I had become a charm hoarder. I didn’t think I had a problem…and my collection always seemed to be under control…it just all sort of dawned on me one day. The symptoms include: not knowing when/where you bought some charms, not having a proper storage for said charms, having a whole bunch that didn’t have any significance or meaning in your life (like I had a pair of gold handcuffs and the novelty of them is cute but there’s no way I could relate to handcuffs). Once you’ve realized you have a problem and admit it, you can then begin your action plan — which is exactly what I did!
1 — I first began by pulling out all of my charms from every nook and cranny and compiling them into one big pile. I then started to sort them into similar groupings, like all my figas, all my Egyptian-inspired charms, gemstone charms, all-gold charms, etc.
2 — If there were charms that didn’t fit into certain categories or ones I had no attachment to (ones that I questioned why I even bought them in the first place) then I knew those were ones I needed to part with! I then took all the charms in the “SELL” pile and began photographing them to sell.
3 — Then I looked at what was leftover and realistically thought about how I wear them. Certain charms I love wearing on chains, either as pendants alone or a cluster of charms. I noticed the charms in my all-gold pile actually told a story…each one had a significance and that’s when I thought they would all look great on a charm bracelet together.
So it was decided. I would take my 9 gold charms and have them put onto a charm bracelet. But that’s where things got tricky…as I’m sure happens for most of you as well. How am I supposed to find a jeweler with enough patience to solder all 9 charms, place them nicely/correctly onto a bracelet and do a good job?! Almost every jeweler I’ve worked with has no patience for jobs like this. Also, the bracelet — I hadn’t even thought about that aspect yet but it is also hard to find a good gold bracelet to put charms on. I made the mistake of finding a vintage one and once I began adding charms, realized that the links weren’t strong enough from the gold wearing out overtime and every link had to be “built back up” in order to salvage it. So expensive.
Luckily I have answers for you! I teamed up with Always Aleda who solved ALL my problems above. She became my go-to for this project from start to finish, all I had to do was send her my 9 charms and a perfectly handmade bracelet was created, based on my preferences and odd wrist length, and every charm was soldered to perfection (with matching size jump rings). I knew what order I wanted my charms to be put in, so prior to sending I lined them up accordingly and snapped a photo which I sent to her.
If you have a charm problem or simply need the “charm bracelet of your dreams” started, I highly suggest contacting Aleda at hello@alwaysaleda.com — begin yours today! Happy charm collecting!
