This is actually a set of four silver tags I made for my mother's Mother's Day present. Using a hammer and a 3mm set of letter punches, I punched the names of her four grandchildren into the blanks, then picked out a 4mm (I think) Swarovski bicone crystal to attach. The crystals are threaded onto a long headpin, and the end is wrapped both to secure the dang thing, and to give the crystal some roughness to better match the look of the punched letters.
Here is a slightly better photograph.
Again, you can see that the unevenness of the letters is the result of my relative inexperience with the punches. But I think that also gives the pieces a certain rustic charm.
I created the holes at the top of the tags by putting each tag on a stack of balsa wood shingles and just hammering a nail through them. Rustic, but effective!
So, now I have four tags, which would make for a nice charm bracelet, except that she doesn't really wear that kind of jewelry. Instead, I put them onto differing lengths of chain, then built a double eye shank from silver wire which I ran through a large glass bead I had on hand.
(Exhibit B in the need to improve my photography skillz.) At least, you can see the color of the bead, which is about 3" across. I took three lengths of jewelry cord (two turquoise, one navy) and threaded a silver cube bead on either side.
I tried a lobster clasp, but they kept breaking. Cheap material--I think I bought them for a Girl Scout activity three years ago, so I substituted a toggle and ring clasp.
So, the final test is whether the entire piece is chunky and nifty, or entirely too overblown. The good news is that if it's the latter, I can just reclaim the components and create something else.
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