A CHARMED LIFE
Over the years I have collected numerous small charms for use in projects. Many of them were given to me along with other materials no longer required by their owners, and I have also dissassembled various bits of junk jewellery. I stored them all in a box and they were a total muddle. Some were sorted into baggies but the rest were loose, and the folded construction of the box allowed the small ones to escape underneath and fall out. Definitely time to do something about it.
The first step was to dump the whole lot into a large ziplock baggie, to prevent any further loss through the bottom of the box. I then had to decide what to do about them all and what would be the best way to store them. Some time ago I bought some embroidery thread storage boxes, thinking that they had removable compartments like some other boxes I have, but the divisions were fixed, making them much less useful for my purposes. At one time I did attempt to remove some of the partitions with my Dremel but the friction caused heat which melted the plastic and clocked up the Dremel bit, and the whole thing was a bit of a mess.
Anyway, today I decided one of these boxes would be ideal for charms storage.
Dumping out the charms.
What a huge mess. While I do enjoy the rummage style of storage for a lot of things (ribbon, lace and trims scraps, for instance), the charms are small, and when all muddled up it is impossible to see what you’ve got.
After sorting them into the box, this is how it looks.
While sorting through them, I found quite a few bits and pieces that didn’t belong with charms at all, but were odd beads, bits of junk jewellery and some jewellery findings. I’ve separated those out and they will find their way into their proper storage boxes in the studio. I also ended up with some nice spare baggies for other things. The largest baggie (second from the left) is a bag of Tim Holtz clear charms to which you can add photos etc. There obviously wasn’t room in the new storage box for those so they will have to be stored separately.
A closer view of the sorted box.
Not enough compartments for total separation into categories but at least I can find what I want now.
Rows from top left:
Row 1: Tassels, bells, hearts, keys, leaves, flowers.
Row 2: (Double-sized compartment) odd earrings, larger pieces, some metal and some polymer clay charms. Tools (scissors, sewing machines, thread spools, etc.), animals, gearwheels and medallions, miscellaneous dangly bits (small beads on wires etc.), shells.
Row 3: Miscellaneous (shapes, oddments, not able to be categorised), “Handmade with love” charms in gold, silver and copper, birds, butterflies, figures.
I shall now be able to find what I need a lot more quickly, and will be able to file away any newcomers too.
In the junk jewellery bag there are a couple of charm bracelets.
I have removed most of the charms from the cat-themed one for the cat page in my current junk journal project. I sorted the charms downstairs and didn’t bring down my jewellery pliers to remove the remaining ones. The other bracelet is a Pandora-style one and it’s impossible to get the charms off. I have decided to leave it exactly as it is, and it will probably end up as an album closure one day. I can attach it to the album with its jump ring at one end, and the other end has a reasonably large clasp which can be clipped onto whatever form of closure I am using. This sort of album closure is very useful for those dreaded “aligator mouth” books which are so full that they won’t close properly! I don’t make them as a rule but they do have a certain charm (sorry) in a chunky monkey sort of way.
So I’ve had a thoroughly charming evening, and ended up with a nice organised box of charms and a great sense of satisfaction. Now… where am I going to store this box? It’s too big to go where the old box went.
