Making Beaded Charm Bracelets

Charm bracelets are fun and have a lot of great options to them. With a little bead work and a lot of fun you could soon find yourself with a great charm bracelet, the perfect gift for someone else, or even something worth selling. It just takes a little work and a little imagination.

Charm bracelets have been around for a long time and in the past hundred years become popular with some eras having most girls owning at least one charm bracelet. The charms can include anything and often everything. You can have a telephone, megaphone, car, or insect including butterflies, dragon flies, and bees. The wide range of charms available is huge as is the things that they are made of.

While charms don't always mean "luck" or "good luck" they have had some association with that message and many have worn lucky emblems along with other charms that are available.

One way to make a beaded charm bracelet is to attach charms to a beaded chain. There are lots of chain ideas that you can use to make a great piece.

Simple. One option is to add charms to a simple beaded bracelet. You can do this with wrapped wire loops and then string them with the beads. Make sure that you have beads big enough to hold them in place.

Woven or shapped. You can also make a chain that has spaces where the charms can be added. This could be done with light weight wire, nylon coated wire, or even monofilimate string. One example is the squared pattern hear that is done with 24 guage wire and would make a good chain to add charms to.

Complicated. You can even use more complicated stitches such as the right angle weave to make a fancy chain and then add your charms to it.

One great option is to add beads to your charms. To do this hook your charms onto eye pins and then add beads to the eye pins. This can make for a great beaded option. They can then be added to beaded chains or to regular chains with that being all the beads that you add.

Another great look for a charm bracelet is to add beads with your charms. For this project you would add your charm to an eye pin (with or without beads above it) and then you would add lots of beads to head pins. You will then add them to a traditional chain for a great look, or to a beaded chain for a great look, the choice is yours.

There are lots of ways to put your charm bracelet together and it really depends on which option your choosing as to how it all works. However, most bracelets will be put together by beading your chain or cutting your chain to size. Add a clasp of some sort (for more information on this check out Choosing the Perfect Clasp For Your Bracelet). Then you will want to add your charm to the bottom of an eye pin and any beads you will be adding. You can then trim the eye pin to about 1/8" above the beads and then fold it over, or for a more secure work make a wrapped wire loop. A wrapped wire loop will make it so that you don't ever have to worry about your charms falling off, but is more time consuming. Attach the charms where and how you see fit.

The other option is to attach them while beading your chain. This works well if you are making a single strand of beads into a charm bracelet. You will need to be aware of the size of whole you leave in your loop and the size of the beads around it. If the loop is larger then the beads your charms won't stay in place. You can even do this method with stretch cord if you wish.

Charm bracelets are one of those things that you can have a lot of fun designing and the only thing holding you back is your own imagination. There are litterally hundreds and maybe even thousands of different things you can do with charms, beads, and a dash of imagination. So take this wonderful concept and see where it can take you.