Repairing My Vintage Charm Bracelet

This post was actually started in 2016, after I took an online jewelry making class on Jeanne Oliver's site. I actually wanted to learn how to make beaded bookmarks, journal jewelry, etc. more than actual jewelry to wear, although I did make some earrings, just to see if I could! Also, I wanted to repair my old charm bracelet!

This is the charm bracelet that I wore as a teenager in the sixties and loved very much. The sterling silver charms cost a dollar each, and I spent hours in the local 5 and 10 store (Skinners) picking out just the right ones. The bracelet cost maybe two or three dollars. It was the early sixties. I was maybe twelve and got a small weekly allowance. One of my favorite cousins gave me the baby shoe for Christmas one year, the 67 is for the year I graduated high school, the heart because who doesn't love hearts?, Kennedy was president when I was a freshman in high school, Tennessee is where I've lived my whole life, the horse because my best friend and I loved horses and planned to have a horse ranch when we got out of school (didn't happen), the little double hearts were first love, the jukebox, because I've always loved music, the clam shell for the beach that I got to visit with my cousin and her family the summer between my junior and senior years of high school, and the seahorse, just because I love them.

As I got older, life happened and I gained weight until it no longer fit my arm, plus I broke the little rings that it fastens with, so it lay in my jewelry box all these years until I got nostalgic and wanted to wear it again, thus prompting me to take this class.

I ordered a chain extension and a new fastener online and bought a jewelry making tool set at Walmart and set to work. It was tedious, as I have large hands and fingers, but I did it! So proud of myself for making it wearable again!

Now it is a little large, but not enough to be a problem! I still love it!

The reason I hadn't finished this draft before is because I saw online where people were finding vintage charm bracelets and adding charms, medals, pictures, etc. to them, making them kind of chunky and updated. I found many addable "charms" in mine, and my mom's (which I inherited) things, and have added a couple to the bracelet. I don't have a picture yet, because I got distracted, as I am prone to do, and it's still a work in progress. I will post pictures when it's done, which may, or may not, be soon!

Anyway, it's wearable again, which makes me very happy! 😊