There were almost as many different mediums represented as there were participants.
Linda made ones from beads and wire harvested from deconstructed necklaces:
Michele used a silver bezel, cloth and beads to make a 3-D charm of tiny pink flowers:
Melissa made a charm with pink rhinestone, little silver hearts and tiny pink and pearl beads:
Amy made little silver charms to which she added cloth and words:
Kelley and I both constructed charms from bottle caps. Kelley filled her bottle caps with sparkly stuff and a rhinestone heart:
I folded over the sides of each bottle cap and then pounded them flat. It took a lot more pounding than I had anticipated. I smeared each bottle cap with black textile paint and silver lumiere and then wiped some of it off. On the inside I glued a little rose reproduced from a bit of a vintage postcard (as a signature for "The Tattered Rose"). On the outside, I glued various paper images reduced from vintage postcards, photographs and bridge tallies. I even made my Sis, also in the swap, a little charm with a tiny colorized pic of our parents and the word "Valentine:" I used Sparkles to accent the charms. After they were good and dry, I covered each side (letting one side dry overnight before going on to the next side) with a generous helping of Diamond Glaze.
Jessica and Pat both made charms from Polymer Clay. Jessica made hers into a tiny little valentine stamp with a tiny red bead at the end and presented it on a shipping tag wound with loads of laces and ribbon for future projects:
Pat made her heart charms from red and white clay that look good enough to eat:
Wanda made a clever little charm from a little glass bottle containing little pearls, glitter, and pink and white sequins attached to a tiny frame containing the words "No. 9". I confess it took me a moment to figure out it was Love Potion #9!:
My sister Sharon and my friend Marianne both made felted charms. Sharon felted little red and pink hearts and decorated them with little beads, buttons and rhinestones:
Marianne made dangle with two tone pink beads and attached them to little glittered and cloth hearts:
Holly hand painted little love birds on shrink plastic: and built them up with different paints:
Susan made a quilted heart and added colorful little heart shaped buttons:
Corrine made micro-macrame charms into which she wove little silver hearts and beads:
Bobbi G. carved little hearts from gourds and hand painted them red with little squiggly designs and the word Love:
Barb trapped little bits of butterfly wings between glass and soldered a charm:
I made everyone a little card stock charm of the swap from the original vintage postcard I used to announce the swap. I admit that I had numerous troubles with this little baby as it was my first time trying to use the new Melt Pot I bought myself for Christmas. I covered the little card stock images by dipping them into molten UTEE. I made myself send them out even though they were not as perfect as I would have like just so everyone could see how simple a medium (and inexpensive) a design could be.
I truly hope that everyone who participated had a great time and that posting our results here may encourage others to try their hand at charm making. It was a great pleasure to give myself permission to experiment in a new medium and an even greater pleasure to see how everyone else rose to the challenge. It has made my Valentine's Day all the merrier and I hope that everyone who participated enjoyed making and receiving their charms. My great gratitude goes out to each and every one of you for making this a great charm swap! Please stay in touch and I hope all of this year's participants and anyone else who is interested will consider signing up next year for "Romancing the Charm Swap - The Sequel. Watch for the announcement in December 2009.
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!
Cheers,
The Tattered Rose
