Charm bracelets have long been a popular gift choice among parents, as they give you a reliable fallback for future birthday and Christmas presents, while helping to mark the passing of the years as your child grows older.
However, plenty of adults also enjoy collecting charms, and specialist websites like Fabulous Collections are filled with new designs and old favourites to help you to expand your collection. The more well known charm designers such as Nomination charms from Italy, Pandora and the beautiful range fromThomas Sabo often come attached with a designer price-tag.
So, what are the basics of building the ultimate charm collection? Here’s just a couple of things you might want to think about…
No such thing as ‘perfect’
The whole point of collecting charms is that you can add new pieces whenever you feel like it – so your collection will never really be ‘complete’.
However, if you’re desperate for a sense of closure in at least one area of your collection, there may be sets of matching or complementary designs available to buy, which can also make it easier to decide which charms to put on your necklace or bracelet for any particular occasion.
Don’t forget the essentials
While some people simply collect charms as curios or objets d’art, most of the time you’ll want to make sure you have some way to wear them.
Luckily, the options are almost as flexible as the charms themselves – and although a bracelet is the obvious place to start, there are alternatives.
Charm necklaces give you somewhere to hang several of your favourite pieces, or something to mark the occasion – a champagne-bottle charm for a wedding, or a pair of tiny shoes for a christening.
And if you’ve already got a favourite necklace you want to embellish, you can just buy charm carriers to thread on to it, without causing any damage to the chain.
A matter of metal
Like any jewellery, charms aren’t just about the design – so if you’re buying one as a gift, make sure you know what metal the intended recipient prefers.
Gold or silver, or a combination of the two, are the likeliest options, but you can also find glass and crystal charms too, which can add much-needed variety to an otherwise all-metal collection.
Colour comes in the form of precious stones, and sites like Fabulous Collections let you search by colour, too, so if you’re buying for a pink-obsessed young lady but the specific type of stone isn’t a concern, it’s still easy enough to find something that suits her tastes.
The personal touch
Charms aren’t just for girls – you can find plenty of rugby and football-themed designs, for instance, and of course there’s no reason why you should stick to the gender stereotypes when you’re buying for yourself or for a loved one.
The important thing is to express your own personality, even if you’re the one giving the charm as a gift, as the vast number of different designs means you can really show the amount of thought you put into your choice – and everybody knows that it’s the thought that counts, right?