So Many Charms....

So I love dimensional charms, the ones made out of Swarovski crystal that people attach to their cell phones or purses...I LOVE them a lot and there are so many different designs out there that it's hard to just pick a few to decorate my purse. But sometimes having a bunch of them each individually attached to your purse via cell phone straps can get overwhelming and what if heaven forbid one breaks off? Well here's what I've been doing...



Get a length of chain, here I used 12 inches worth but the length will vary depending on how many charms you want to attach and how you want to have it on your purse which we will get into shortly. Attach a lobster claw clasp on each end. I attached my charms to the chain but purposely kept a few inches of chain on each end free of any charms. Then attach to your purse in 2 different ways...


The chain can go directly across from one end of the purse to the other by attaching the ends to the purse straps, the lobster claw clasp can be hooked directly onto the chain after looping through the purse ring or strap. This gives a very nice display of your charms.

The second way has the chain looping around just one purse strap, this allows you to have a slight overlap of the ends of the chain (again the lobster claws are hooked directly onto the chain) which results in a very secure closing because you now have 2 catch points! If one lobster claw fails then the chain is still attached together by the other lobster claw.

Because I wanted my chain very secure I did 3 things.
First, I made sure that all the links of the chain were closed links (soldered close) which is usually the case with sterling silver chain rather then base metal chain which stands the chance of being able to be pulled apart due to open links (like jump rings).
Second, I attached the lobster claws by wire wrapping them to the chain.
And Third, I wire wrapped the charms to the chain. Now you could attach your charms to the chain via a lobster claw clasp which would allow you more versatility since you would be able to then easily change out the charms. Or you could attach the charms via a split ring but I got turned off from split rings after one snagged into one of my purses, but hey...that's just me. Attach your charms the way you like best!

I really like this method not only because it allows you to display your charms but because you can also do it in a theme! Special thanks go out to Stephanie, our administrative assistant at Mapunapuna, for allowing me to use her purse as a model! By the way, the instructions for the monkeys are in that beading book I blogged about a few weeks ago so come pick up the book if you want to make some yourself!

Have a great weekend and I'll see ya later!

Lynn @ Mapunapuna Bead Shop