Ok, so this is what I learned after making jewelry charms for my first jewelry charms swap. (I've made fabric charms, but not jewelry one's). For this swap, I used existing charms in which I inserted and glued copies of my "inchie" collages. I then added some glaze on top. Here's what I learned from my brief experience with charms~
1. You have to really, really pay attention to fine
detail. You have to use such things as exacto knives.
You have to risk, like, cutting your thumb. I need my
thumb. I can't have a bloody thumb because I cut
paper. I cut pretty paper all day. I need clean thumbs.
2. You have to have really good eyes. If you need
reading glasses, and consequently (don't have them,
erm), you will have to take them on, and then take
them off, and then work some more, and then look for
them, and then put them on to see if what you did look
right, etc. etc.
3. If you are OCD (which I am not, cough, cough), and
that little, itty bitty hairline imperfection bothers
you....well, it behoooves you to 'leave it alone'.
Either that or go try to fix it, fritter the
imperfection away to nothing and ruin the good part
and have to start all over. enough said.
4. epoxy smells. have a window open.
5. tools have to be *clean*. if your hoosband does not
clean his tools, do NOT go get them from the garage.
If you do, first clean them thoroughly with a scrub
brush, brillo pad and gunk scrapper tool.
6. Last but not least, I learned that if I count a set
of charms once, and then count it again, they won't
magically double in number. I will still have to make
more charms than I think.
7. I'm still not very good at math.
8. The good news is that I can use all those inchies I
made for charm making. I think I want to learn to
solder though. I wonder what my list will look like
then?
stay tuned.
xo Lia
