Lou McCulloch

Lou McCulloch tells a little about her charms:

I wanted to make charms to match the copper bracelet they would hang on, so I looked for copper or rust-colored embellishments. I found one inch rust-metal hearts, but had to put a tiny whole with a drill at the top of each one. I had the glass leaf and flower beads on some fringe I had purchased, but didn't trust the floss that was used to string them. Instead, I took them apart and restrung each one with brown 'Silamide' waxed nylon beadstring. Each flower, stem and leaf was strung through from top to bottom, then bottom to top. Triple knots with a dot of 'Diamond ' glaze on each knot completed the beads. I attached small matte photos with the same glaze, to each side, and then cut around the edges to fit. Fine sandpaper was also used on the edges. Finally, I used metal paints, in greens and cream, to highlight the photos, and coated each side with Diamond glaze. The double aged brass rings were attached to the heart and then the hanging flowers were tied and knots enforced with the same dot of glue.