Lets face it good quality brand name charm beads are not cheap, Collecting charm beads can be an expensive hobby, so if you are going to make an investment in a you want it to get as much wear from your charms as possible. With a little thought and care you can make your money go a long way and still have a charm collection to impress.
Lets start with the basics the bracelet or necklace to put your beads on. It’s easy to spend US$50 for a silver Pandora bracelet with a silver lock, even more if you decide you’d like your bracelet in gold. If you want a necklace to go with it you’re looking at another US$90 and that’s even before you’ve bought a bead.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I picked up a Thomas Sabo leather necklace for US$9.90. They come in a range of sizes and styles and the beads slip easily on over the one side of the lock.
Feeling like saving even more money, then visit your local craft store and for a few dollars a yard stock up on some leather cording, and simply wrap it around your neck or wrist as many loops as you like and tie it off firmly and you have a whole new look for your beads.
make sure
you get one that can take more than one brand of bead This will give you a lot
more choice in the looks you can create by mixing and matching beads. If you stick with a Trollbeads bracelet, the
new Lovelinks Universal design (make sure not to accidentally get one of their
older designs) or the Tedora and your bracelet will be able to fit any of the
major brand beads including Trollbeads with their smaller sized holes. If you are happy to limit the number of
Trollbeads you can wear then as long as you avoid the Lovelinks bangles and old
regular design bracelets you can wear pretty much any of the other major brands
beads on any of the chains they sell.
Want to get more wear from your beads? Don’t wear them all at once. If wearing a leather necklace I tend to just wear 3 or 5 of my beads at once, odd numbers always look better to my eye. I will even try to theme them, I have beads I have received from my Niece and Nephew over the years so I will just wear those 3 of those at a time, or all my pet related ones at once. It makes it fun in the morning deciding what combination to wear, and as people don’t see all my beads at once they tend to notice what I am wearing more.