My first spotlight feature happens to be someone whom I met through a charm exchange a couple of years ago.
This is a spotlight on Mandy, she recently joined in another charm swap that I hosted last month. The theme, Birds. I absolutely adored her charm presentation... Please enjoy!
Tell us a bit about yourself and your history with charm design.
I started making jewelry and charms back in 2001 and have been taking classes, reading books, and learning by trial and error ever since. I love to be creative & I've played around with a lot of different types of mediums. Working with wire, metal & glass tend to be my favorites. I grew up in a small town in Wyoming, close to a lot of family, my mother, aunts & grandmothers had a great influence on my love of being creative.
What is it that you like about making charms.
I like figuring out how to make common objects on a tiny scale.
Do you have a favorite piece of charm jewelry in your collection? If so, please tell us about it.
My favorite charm is not one that I made nor was made by anyone I know. It is a small sterling starfish charm my sister gave to me as a Maid of Honor gift at her wedding. I'm a pretty sentimental person, I put the charm on my key chain so that I have it with me every day. Every time I start my car I think of my little sister.
You participated in a bird theme swap, can you tell us how you came up with your design?
We just moved into a new house and a bird built her nest on our front porch. Every day I would go out and check on her and there she'd be there just sitting in her nest. About two weeks after we moved in her babies hatched. I didn't think about it until you asked me this question, but I think subconsciously that little Mama bird sitting on her eggs in her nest is what inspired this design.
Bird Swap Photos
Birds are made out of paper clay, acrylic paint and sealed with varnish. For the package I made a paper mache "Egg" from newspaper, glue, & acrylic paint.
Flower Swap
I made tiny boxes out of cardboard to be able to keep them small; they are only about 5/8" square. I used vintage Forget-Me-Not flowers & surrounded them by German Glass Glitter on one side and on the other side words saying Forget-Me-Not cut out of vintage books.
LasVegas Swap
I found vintage Bingo chips with everyone's lucky number and cut out their lucky number out of vintage bingo cards then soldered around the edges and backs. For the package I scanned the Bingo cards and made them about the same size as a playing card to hold their new "Lucky Charms".
Romantic Swap
I took miniature dried roses and covered them with resin. The resin makes them hard as rocks, I drilled a hole in the stem and then wrapped them with wire to make them into the charms. I made vintage inspired Valentines Day cards for the packaging.
I took miniature dried roses and covered them with resin. The resin makes them hard as rocks, I drilled a hole in the stem and then wrapped them with wire to make them into the charms. I made vintage inspired Valentines Day cards for the packaging.
Wizard Of Oz Swap
I made a broom out of copper tubing, silver & copper wire. I cut disks and then used metal stamps to punch the saying onto them. The packaging is just fabric & ric rac glued onto card stock.
Mandy started a new blog recently, keep an eye out for more of her charm art posts!
