Experiencing the convenience of designing your own personalized jewelry from a wide array of beads and charms is extremely rewarding. There are thousands of awesome Pandora style designs of lampwork type glass beads, that make it possible for you to get noticed, be unique and most importantly create your fashion statement.

An article of jewelry that can be transformed to reflect your personal style, mood or perhaps the occasion when you will be wearing it, is certainly a wonderful concept, it’s no surprise the Pandora styles and designs are becoming more popular by the day. There are plenty of Pandora style beads to choose if you want to create a unique item of jewelry.

It’s really very easy to create a Pandora style bracelet and bring your imagination to life.

It only takes is a starter bracelet and just a few Pandora style beads or charms to create an impressive piece of jewelry that is completely unique. Silver is a very popular and commonly used metal to make bracelets in the Pandora style which is so popular these days and even solid silver bracelets can also be purchased as well if you wish. You need only add your collection of beads, charms and what-have-you to create a completely unique piece of jewelry to represent your individuality whenever you wish.

Having a variety of multicolored Pandora style glass beads and charms is sufficient to transform your bracelet into an almost infinite number of unique pieces of jewelry. Without having to swap your chain or even your spacers, just rearrange your different beads to match your wardrobe. For an even more unique presentation you can replace your silver chain for a leather bracelet and create a totally different look. On the contrary, if you are starting with a leather bracelet you can bling it up with a silver bracelet or chain for a special event.

Antique beads are always stylish especially when enhanced by an assortment of with beautiful colored Pandora style beads or charms.

Your charm bracelet can also be transformed into a necklace simply by purchasing a chain and your beads and charms can be transferred onto it to create an entirely new item of jewelry. Earring’s are another popular way of using your beautiful glass beads however you may want to consider resin beads for this purpose as they are very lightweight and look awesome. They come in an infinite range of colors and make a good choice for earrings that are not only unique but also very light.

Children’s charm bracelets, is a subject that requires some serious consideration. It’s the most natural thing in the world that little girls will imitate their mothers from a very early age. And it’s safe to say that if you like to wear jewelry like charm bracelets your daughters will very likely find them irresistible too.

Children find charm bracelets particularly fascinating and who can blame them. The sparkly miniature pieces that replicate so many things a child sees around them, from tiny little animals like they’ve seen at the zoo to miniature cell phones that open and close. Companies like Chamilia who produce exclusive lines of tiny Disney characters, craft these little gems for adults and children of at least 6 years and older. Children under 6 years should never be given or be allowed to play with a charm bracelet on their own.

The Child Safety Protection Act (CSPA) has a very clear set of guidelines covering what constitutes a chocking or swallowing hazard for small children. Just like some toys and other items with small pieces pose a danger to small children, the same applies to jewelry, especially with beads and miniatures. A small child can easily mistake Pandora glass beads or perhaps a Rembrandt miniature ice-cream cone charm for a piece of candy.

The CSPA has established 6 years as a safe minimum age that a child might be trusted with toys or games containing small pieces; that would include their first charm bracelet but it really depends on the individual child. To my mind a child of 6 would probably not understand the danger to smaller children they might be playing with.

Certainly you can celebrate your child’s birth by buying a bracelet for them and adding charms to mark special occasions and even show it to them as something they have to look forward to having and wearing in the future; this goes for nieces and granddaughters too, but it’s always hard to see the expression on their faces when it’s time to put their future treasure away for safe keeping.

As a mother of two girls and an avid collector of charm bracelets and charms, since before they were born I can offer a couple of tips that worked well for me. I always made sure I had a couple of candy bracelets we could each put on to smooth over that moment when it’s time to put their charm bracelet treasure away again. I always loved candy bracelets as a little girl, you probably know what I mean and it seems that they lose none of their charm from one generation to the next. Come to think of it, that could explain my life-long fascination with charm bracelets…lol.

The second thing you might try as a clever substitution, if you have misgivings about candy and kids teeth, you can try spending a little quality time with a terrific kitchen table craft. Paper bracelet making; Inna Dorman, of Ina’s Creations says: “Children love these bracelets made from paper strips. The idea isn’t new, I made origami bracelets from candy wrappers when I was a child…” more

Also

Starburst Wrapper Bracelet Tutorial: Here.

From my past experience and I anticipate with my grand children too, (but not too soon), I can pretty much guarantee that either candy bracelets or paper bracelets or both will substitute nicely until your little divas are ready to have charm bracelets of their own.

Rembrandt charms have been in business for over 40 years and have distinguished themselves in the jewelry industry by specializing in classic charms and charm bracelets, boasting the worlds largest charm collection.

World famous for their uncompromising craftsmanship Rembrandt has created thousands of charms and offers each one in your choice of sterling silver or gold plate, 10k yellow gold, and 14k yellow and white gold.

Rembrandt makes their charms in their factory in New York using the a time honored technique known as the “lost wax method”. A charm starts out as a tiny original sculpture carved by an artist in incredible detail. Then a mold is made from the original and liquid wax is poured into the mold. When the wax hardens it is dipped in plaster until a strong shell is formed around it. Next the plaster shell is baked in a kiln at high temperature until the wax evaporates (that’s how the wax gets lost), leaving a perfect little hollow mold to receive the molten metal the finished charm will be made of.

A lot of time is spent buffing and polishing the finished charms until they sparkle and it’s easy to see that each one of these little gems has earned its RQC quality stamp and no amount of effort has been spared in the process.

With major competitors heavily invested in modern bead style charms and proprietary charm bracelet systems which keep their charm creations in place on the bracelet, Rembrandt has stuck with the traditional and still very popular link chain charm bracelets in silver and gold and charms that fasten to the individual links of the bracelet; simple and efficient. In fact, Rembrandt charm bracelets conform in every way to the traditional idea of a piece of jewelry with a multitude of miniature 3 dimensional shapes depicting just about every subject from romance to travel, family, sports, hobbies, religion etc.

Collecting charms and giving a charm bracelet as a gift, on which to fasten charms collected over time is a tradition that has been around for centuries and that is the market Rembrandt Charms has focused on and built their very successful business on. Their quality is first rate and their affordable collection continues to grow and probably will for generations.

Charm bracelets, brand new, strait out of the box are a thing of beauty and a treasure to keep for a lifetime. A quality charm bracelet lovingly cared for can quite often outlive its owner or owners and be handed down from generation to generation.

But there comes a time when even the most exquisite bracelet, whether it’s a Pandora, Chamilia or Trollbeads creation will need some kind of cleaning and maintenance. So many things contribute to the transformation from dazzling to drab.

Better quality charms and bracelets, especially gold ones, will resist things like corrosion and tarnishing but the tendency to become dull will eventually befall even the highest quality charms, beads and bracelets.

For instance, a bracelet will often come in contact with soaps and detergents, skin lotions and other chemicals, not to mention normal skin oil, on a day-to-day basis and the result is a dulling of the original luster.

The first line of defense is obvious; don’t wear your bracelet while doing the dishes or working in the garden etc.

You can take your bracelet to a jeweler to have it professionally cleaned, but unless you are a regular paying customer, this service will have a cost, not much but it will add up over time.

You could invest in a small, ultrasonic jewelry bath. They are not expensive and if you have several charm bracelets, and other jewelry it would probably be the cheapest and best home solution.

However, if your only caring for one or two bracelets you can try this technique:

Put a few ounces of warm water in a bowl with and a small amount of clear baby shampoo. Baby shampoo tends to be very gentle soap that does not leave any soapy residue.

After letting your charm bracelet soak in the soapy water for a minute or two, take a clean soft makeup brush, the kind used for applying blush, or a sable artists brush. Hold the bracelet under the water with one hand and with the other, apply the brush to the bracelet in a swirling motion making small circles around the individual charms and beads.

When you finish, rinse the bracelet in some clean fresh water. It’s not recommended that you do this step under a running tap as you can drop your bracelet and perhaps damage some of the charms (Murano glass beads). There is also the possibility that you will have to call a plumber to retrieve your bracelet from down the drain and considering what plumbers charge, you will probably have to sell your charm bracelet to pay his bill.

Now thoroughly dry your bracelet with a soft cloth and then use a fresh dry cloth, like a jewelers cloth to buff and polish the charms and, Presto! you have a brand new charm bracelet.

Although this technique works like a charm (excuse the pun) it is not recommended for bracelets made of leather or charms made of wood or bone. For a technique for cleaning these specialized materials you will need to read, “Cleaning Charm Bracelets Made of Natural Materials“.

Cleaning charm bracelets made of natural materials is a very different matter than the typical jewelry cleaning techniques. I’m referring to the modern version of perhaps the oldest style of charm bracelets known. These are bracelets often made of strands of colored leather and sporting charms made from exotic wood and bone like the line introduced by Chamilia Beads in recent years.

Because natural elements like leather and wood have an adverse reaction to water, the method of cleaning calls for a different approach from conventional soap and water or heaven forbid an ultrasonic jewelry cleaning bath.

Wood responds well to lemon oil and leather responds well to saddle soap, but not visa versa and no one really wants to disassemble the entire charm bracelet to clean the elements separately.

But there is a way to clean your bracelet and you can do it at home with surprising ease.

• Step #1 You will need about an ounce of cool water. Yes I-know-I-know, I just said water is bad but trust me, this works.

• Step #2 Squeeze and strain the juice of half a fresh lemon and mix it with the water (no cheating, ReaLemon™ juice will not work, so beware)

• Step #3 Take a soft makeup brush or sable artist’s brush dip it in the lemon mixture then squeeze out the excess so it’s just damp, not soaked and apply it in circling motion to a couple of beads at a time, dry off those beads, then move to the next couple of beads and repeat.

• Step #4 Take a fresh piece of soft cloth and rub it briskly against the outer skin of a lemon. This will pickup a tiniest amount of natural lemon oil. Now polish your bracelet with the cloth.

The more you rub the more luster the charm/beads will develop and over time, after applying this method a few times your charm bracelet will develop a rich quality superior to when it was new…and it will smell great too!

You needn’t worry about the lemon juice attacking the leather bracelet because the leather they use is specially treated to resist such things but as I said the trick is to use a damp brush but never soaking and only doing a couple of beads at a time and drying them before moving to the next ones.

Trollbeads are such a popular brand of beads and the online market place has been the cause of a tremendous influx of bead collectors and companies trading in beads online. The internet is a fast and practical marketplace that has proved to be great economically as well. You will find just about every kind of Trollbeads you are likely to want, to satisfy your personal bead collecting hobby or commercial enterprise within minutes on any internet connected computer or smart phone.

The popularity of Trollbeads with women as well as men and children too, offers an limitless marketplace, with an unimaginable variety of Trollbeads to cater to every taste.

An extra selling point of Trollbeads are their versatility. Charm bracelets can be thoroughly personalized by the person wearing them by merely shifting or exchanging the beads to match your personality. There are so many styles and different colors and shades, shapes, and sizes not to mention textures and materials, that you can potentially create your bracelets to match your outfits or any occasion on a daily or even hourly basis.

People shopping for Trollbeads prior to the availability of online shopping would have had little choice but to search their from store to store and have to cope with limited selection and usually higher prices.

There are numerous online sources such as online art boutiques, jewelry dealers, and online auctions like Ebay. Online sources are very advantageous because they are in a position to supply a greater variety of beads of all kinds, at lower prices. This is because it’s less expensive to operate an online business than a bricks-and-mortar operation. Because many of the costs related to operating a physical store really don’t apply at online businesses. Online vendors can easily pass on those savings to their customers. Alternatively, online auctions have become another excellent way to reduce costs significantly. Auctions are especially useful for locating the most unique Trollbeads in crystal and glass Murano and other gemstone styles as well as classic and so called “retired Trollbeads”.

More and more companies are offering Trollbeads as well as competitive brands such as Chamilia and Pandora as well online to both the individual retail shopper and wholesale small business and typically stock a much greater range of beads to choose from.

There is such a variety of Trollbeads that can be found online. Prices can vary from the very inexpensive glass beads to very pricey gold or precious and semi-precious gemstone beads.

Remember to set your budget…

Some websites will offer better quality beads and prices than others, so take your time to shop around to find the best you can afford and be sure to set a budget because it’s easy to get carried away.

For an idea of what types of Trollbeads and bead charm bracelets are in fashion, look at some of the splashy ads that expensive jewelry companies put online and in magazines; take note of the styles that seem to be the best sellers. This technique will help you to make educated choices when buying beads for yourself so as not to waste your money on beads that may not appeal to most charm bracelet buyers.

Chamilia beads were the creation of Killian Reider and Jeff Julkowski, two Americans who started the brand in 2002, in Minneapolis, USA, where the company headquarters are still located.

They began with a small line of original hand crafted beads made of sterling silver and 14k Gold, Italian Murano glass and Swarovski crystals and in less than a decade their brand has steadily grown in popularity and their collection has grown to over 500 unique pieces.

Although it is common to find some very imaginative spellings of Chamilia; Camelia, Camilia, Camelia, Camilea, Camella, Camila, Chamealia, Chamealea even Kamilia, Kamilea, Kamelia, Kamelea. The name Chamilia actually owes its name to the chameleon which has mastered the art of changing its appearance by changing its color at the drop of a hat, so too an owner of a Chamilia bracelet can easily change its style and appearance to suit their mood. Chamilia have adopted the motto, “Your Life, Your Style”, which sums it up very nicely, don’t you think?

The Chamilia collection is grouped by color and also by themes like alphabet beads, occupational beads, birthstone beads, animal charms, religious beads, hobby and sport charms etc.

In order to compliment the collection they also produce a wide range of bracelets in silver, gold, and leather of various lengths and available in an assortment of colors.

Chamilia beads have a threaded core like some other brands, but their bracelet design is one smooth piece, and instead of the system of “stops” used by Pandora for their bracelets, Chamilia employs their own system of special locking pieces, that can be placed anywhere on the bracelet to keep the beads in place.

And if you’re wondering about compatibility, you wear your Chamilia beads on Pandora, Trollbeads, Biagi, Tedora, Bacio and Lovelinks bracelets and vice versa.

A bold and brilliant marketing strategy for Chamilia was to strike an exclusive deal with Disney to create line of beads featuring some of the best loved Disney characters including Mickey and Minnie Mouse, the whole Winnie the Pooh gang and many others. This collection has struck an affectionate chord with charm collectors both young and old.

They also have a “Give Back” program which annually donates a portion their revenue to important charities like autism, poverty and world peace incentives.

Although Pandora is currently the largest producer of charm bracelets globally, the growth of Chamilia has made significant inroads the into the market as they continue to increase their distribution network of retailers. Chamilia has been steadily carving out an impressive share of the UK market in recent years as well.

Chamilia beads may not be the oldest or the biggest…yet, but their style is a welcome addition to the charm bracelet market as far as consumers and collectors are concerned.

Trollbeads, began in 1976 in Denmark as family owned business run by the Neilson family. Pre-dating its major competitors, Trollbeads are known not only as the originals but also for their distinctive detail-rich designs and their interesting combinations of materials.

Originally Trollbeads charms were fashioned from silver and then gold from 14K to 24K and later still introduced color to the collection by creating lampwork Italian Murano glass beads.

The product line has continued to grow over more than three decades to include some of the most innovative combinations of elements. Using materials like silver mesh, silver wire, gold and silver leaf and foil and dichroic glass. Family member Jens Nielsen is even credited with developing the technique of drilling holes through fresh water pearls without damaging them.

Charms available in precious metals include, animals, flowers, fairy tale and mythical characters, or abstract shapes. You can even choose letters of the alphabet and classic shapes like hearts and stars but all fashioned in the unique Trollbeads style.

Without a doubt the Trollbeads Murano glass bead collection has been a huge success for the company. All their Murano beads are hand crafted in the centuries old process known as lampworking where molten transparent and opaque colored glass, is fashioned on hand wound mandrels around a silver core. Combining the incredible array of colors and shaping each bead into a unique creation which bears the unmistakable mark of a master craftsperson.

Chains for Trollbeads bracelets come in gold, sliver, or even colored leather, which is surprisingly strong. A full bracelet will accommodate 16 to 18 beads and all bracelets conform to the industry standard diameter which allows you to use your Pandora and Chamilia beads and charms all on the same bracelet to create a truly unique piece of jewelry.

You will no doubt encounter the term retired Trollbeads in ads and searches; this term refers to beads or charms which are no longer being manufactured however they are still available from stores and dealers but gradually, as supplies dwindle will no longer be available. Some dealers specialize in retired Trollbeads as they tend to go up in price as they become more rare. So if a retired piece catches your fancy and it is truly retired I would advise you to snatch it up as its value will undoubtedly go up over time.

Trollbeads supplies 1,500 retailers worldwide. The company employs twenty independent affiliate designers who strive to push the envelope and introduce new materials and techniques stretching the limits of imagination and design while preserving the Trollbeads legacy as an original.

You will find internet malls and shopping sites are great places to become an expert on everything to do with charm bracelets and you will also notice that many display just about every kind of Trollbeads ever created, from new creations to retired, for virtually every personality and taste and a Trollbeads collector’s dream come true.

Pandora
charms…

originated in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1982 and have since established outlets in Germany, Australia, Denmark, Switzerland, Canada, United Kingdom and the United States. Their patented system was designed to improve on the traditional charm bracelets link design to make their bracelets stronger but just as easy to add and subtract and re-arrange individual charms and beads.

Choosing Charms and Beads … inspiring envy.

There are so many gorgeous charms by Pandora it’s almost impossible to know where to begin, and that’s not even counting the beads! Virtually all are hand-crafted and many are unique one-of-a-kind creations. There are many ways to find Pandora product lines both on and offline. Most quality jewelry shops and boutiques carry the Pandora charms line. Even though the choice of charms and beads is practically inexhaustible, you can still have your very own design of charm or bead custom made for you.

The beauty of Pandora charm bracelets is they are just as easy to customize and interchange charms and beads as traditional charm bracelets. Where most bracelets have their charms and beads soldered in place the Pandora patented threading system is designed to be easy to use. You can re-arrange the charms and beads any way you like as often as you wish, in minutes. Imagine a piece of jewelry your friends can admire over and over again. Even several times a day!

Materials and Quality… decisions, decisions.

Made from silver, platinum and gold in a range from 14k to 24k as well as other metals, I personally can’t imagine why, but they have them too. Beads of ceramic and sculpted glass, semi-precious stones and some are wrapped with gold, silver or platinum bands, which makes them more beautiful than you can imagine.

The designs range from the traditional favorites like hearts, crescent moons, stars, animals, flowers and even shoes and hats to abstract designs of limited or one-of-a-kind editions. The quality is such that you never have to worry about corrosion or tarnishing and of course they are all waterproof.

The Bracelet … heart of the system.

The Pandora charm bracelet uses a patented design to link the charms together and make it easy to add and subtract as well as re-arrange the charms and beads of your bracelet. Links measure about a centimeter wide, give or take, depending on the bead or charm.

It is common to find dealers offering a starter bracelet kit which includes 5 or 6 charms and tiny screwdriver tool all together in a nice box or a velvet bracelet bag. Depending on the materials and charms; a Pandora bracelet can cost anywhere from $35 to over $1000. Charms and beads start around $8 and once again, depending on the materials and uniqueness can run into the hundreds of dollars.

The great thing is Pandora charms and bracelets don’t need to cost a fortune to look great and because they are modular you can gradually build a stunning piece of jewelry over time.