Wednesday, October 20, 2010

How Charming

I am completely in love with charms and charm bracelets. For me, the best jewelry is very much about sentiment, emotion, and memory and I think that's what appeals so strongly to me about charm bracelets. They're literally a record of memories and moments and I really love that.

I started making my first charm bracelet on my 19th birthday. Here's a (blurry)look at it now:


Each charm on that bracelet represents something in my life, whether it's a place, a moment, a trip, an achievement, a person...etc. Needless to say more than one of them has something to do with Mr. Knitting! I've now started my second "life" bracelet.

Our family isn't really big on heirlooms which is sad for me, but my grandmother passed down her amazing charm bracelet to me, which of course I'm completely thrilled with.

Here's a look at what she collected over the years:



Some of my favourite charms from her bracelet include her mother's wedding ring (who had some SERIOUS man hands!) and a little gold heart with a pearl in the centre.

While my favourite type of charm bracelet is the type that is slowly put together one charm at a time, I also love "ready-made" charm bracelets. Check out these two beauties from the Met in NYC:

Winter themed!

Source

So pretty! I normally I'm not a fan of anything heart shaped (or made of yellow gold), but I love this bracelet.

Source

However, the current bracelet I’m working on is my wedding charm bracelet. Throughout my engagement I've been slowly collecting charms related to my wedding. Surprise, surprise, all of the charms are from the St. Lawrence Market Antique Market.

Here's how the bracelet looks at the moment:



Here's what each charm represents (from left to right):

The ring: Our engagement
Ball of yarn with knitting needles: Miss Knitting!
Snowflake: The fact that our wedding is in the winter
Scholarly Owl: Faculty Club (our venue)
Blurred Out One: This one actually has our wedding date on it, hence the blurriness
Bagpiper: The fact that our wedding will be strongly influenced by family. You can find a few examples of this here, here, here, and here.

I still plan to add a charm representing Toronto, one for our honeymoon, and a "Date to Remember" charm engraved with our wedding date.

I love this idea because I think it's such a cool and really personal way of commemorating our wedding. It's something I can wear forever, and then can hopefully pass it down to a child or grandchild.

How are you commemorating your wedding in a unique way?

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