Design Your Own Charm Watch [With Craft Supplies] (Klutz) [Spiral-bound]

Inc. Klutz (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up | Series: Klutz

Ask any fashion maven: Charms and charm bracelets are hot. Celebrities flaunt them, publications like InStyle, Teen Vogue and The New York Times feature them - even new businesses called "charm bars" have opened to meet the demand. There's good reason for this resurgence: wearing personalized charms around your wrist is like wearing the tiny, tinkling story of your life. Design Your Own Charm Watch is a timely twist on the charm bracelet trend. It comes with an attractive analogue watch (hands on a dial, not digital) on a band of adjustable link chain, along with a good supply of charms, beads, bead wire and jump rings. Follow the illustrated step-by-step instructions to create a uniquely charming timepiece. Complete your watch using just the provided supplies or follow the book's direction to incorporate your own special found objects such as seashells, buttons, pretty stones, orphaned earrings, and so forth. For inspiration, specific how-to's are given for four fun theme watches (Beaded Blossom, Seaside, Fashion and The Kitchen Sink) but, really, the sky's the limit. Isn't it time you got creative? Comes With: 1 bracelet watch, 12 charms, iridescent glass beads, 20 jump rings and bead wire. Awards: Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Spiral-bound: 28 pages
• Publisher: Klutz (August 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570542120
• ISBN-13: 978-1570542121
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,251,600 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cute project, but..., October 30, 2007

By 

PyoChan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Design Your Own Charm Watch [With Craft Supplies] (Klutz) (Spiral-bound)

Being a fan of charm bracelets, I quickly picked up this book when I saw it. I had a great time using the jump rings to attach charms, beads, and my own doodads to the watch to make a fun, chunky accessory. The instructions are clear and easy to follow, as are the accompanying pictures.

The one complaint that I have is that the metallic parts of the watch itself, chain, jump rings, and charms are less durable than I would have liked. Within about two weeks after I completed my watch and started wearing it, most of the silver finish on the chain had worn off, revealing the copper base metal underneath, and that quickly tarnished, too. Whatever silver finish didn't wear away isn't real silver, so it turned dingy gray and wouldn't clean up with a silver polishing cloth. The same went for the charms and watch face. I don't know what the jump rings were made of, but they had tarnished pretty badly and were practically black after two weeks. Given the price of this project package, I didn't expect sterling silver or stainless steel, but I thought that the metal parts wore out a bit too quickly for my liking, especially since I don't have a watch "wardrobe" and pretty much wear the same watch day after day.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this project enough to buy another one of these books so that I can get another watch to play with (Klutz should make extra watches available the same way they make extra supplies available for some of their other projects), and this time, I have a can of clear varnish to use on the metal parts before I get started. Despite my gripes about the quality of the metal parts, I think that this is a great project for the budding jewelry designer.