I love the touch of elegance that charms bring to a craft project. Don’t get me wrong, I adore brads, eyelets and buttons, but there is something about charms that hold a special place is my heart. When I think about it, it is probably because of the fact that my Mum has a charm bracelet that I used to love to inspect when I was a child. I remember going into my parents bedroom and opening every drawer in her beautiful wooden jewellery box until I would find her charm bracelet. Very carefully, I would take it out, go and sit on the bed and inspect each charm. It was the details that mesmerised me. I remember one in particular which was my favourite. It was a little church and when you held it up to a light source and peered through a tiny peep hole on the side, you could see the Lord’s Prayer as clear as day. To me it was pure magic. Before long my Dad would tell me to put it away in case I broke it, but I would always look forward to the next time I could hold it again. So I guess this may be why I was so excited to see that craft company Meiflower, which specialises in exquisite charms, had a stand at the NEC this year.
I first saw this retailer at a craft fair in 2007 and I remember that I had to fight my way to the front of the stall as there were dozens of crafters flocked around, oooh-ing and aaah-ing at the many trays full of beautiful charms. Butterflies, dragonflies, hearts, strawberries, keys, angels, flowers, crowns, handbags, lips, shoes, fairies, fans…you name it Meiflower had it, the list is endless. With a variety of price ranges available, it is almost too tempting to dig through every tray and buy handfuls of each. Although I mostly went for the classic silver plated metal look, Meiflower offers a variety of styles to suit everyone, from cutesy to classic. Meiflower also offer a range of mobile phone charms, and also the loop attachments so you can make your own personalised charms for your mobile phone. Unfortunately it seems that the range of charms available at the Meiflower stall far outweighs the variety offered on the online shop, but its still worth a look, so check it out.
Here’s a quick look at how i’ve used charms on some of my projects.
