Bracelet Showcase: Pandora Oxidised Bracelet

Earlier this week I shared some of my ideas for a Valentine’s Pandora design, with soft pinks and romantic motifs. Today, I’m sharing another one of my bracelets, which acts as the complete opposite – almost as a kind of anti-Valentine’s bracelet! This is my oxidised bracelet, with lots of darker colours, hints of gold and some harsher textures. It took me just over a year to complete this bracelet – it was a Christmas present from my OH in 2012, and I finished it this month with the Raindrops safety chain.

The bracelet

This bracelet suffers a little from a crisis of identity; initially it was going to be my ‘edgy’ oxidised bracelet, with a lot of dark textures & gold and purple faceted muranos. You can see my original design for it (from a loooong time ago!) here:

The more oxidised Feather charm, Queen of Hearts clip and Dinosaur date from that time. Then, as all my plans do, that went out of the window. I suffer a lot from spur of the moment purchases, and many of those made it on to here. ;)

I’ve opted for a more eclectic mix on this bracelet, which represent a variety of different influences over the year it was being built – it still has the pretty mix of gold and purple, but there are some more cutesy charms in there too, such as the Mittens and the Gingerbread Man.

A major reason for this is that, over Christmas, I decided that this would be the perfect candidate for a winter-themed bracelet, with its darker colours. I also thought it would be a little more unusual; instead of festive red or green, or wintery blue, a purple colour scheme would make my bracelet stand out a little more!

Consequently, you can see quite a few winter-themed charms on here, with the Mittens, Dashing Through the Snow, Reindeer, Let It Snow, Gingerbread Man and Drummer charms dotted amongst the rest.

Summary

I’m actually really happy with the way it turned out, even though it’s so different from my initial plans – I like a charm bracelet that feels like a charm bracelet. There are many very special charms on here, and it’s full of meaning for me. Most of the charms were gifts, but some of the most special charms include:

• The dinosaur, a present from my boyfriend – I use it to represent him, as he loved dinosaurs as a kid… and he often still reminds me of a kid now! ;)
• The 2013 Black Friday charm – my first ever.
• The Turtle Doves, an anniversary present from last year
• The Dog zodiac charm, also a present from the bf – this represents our future dog, christened Milo!

Do you have a winter-themed bracelet? Or an oxidised Pandora bracelet? Let me know!