Buy a sterling silver clip on charm online

I've always liked charm bracelets. I love the idea of buying a charm to mark each significant occasion in my life (or having people give a charm to me as a gift), and then attaching it to a bracelet, thus building life story out of silver or gold.

Then comes the decision: once you've got a new charm, how do you attach it to your bracelet? Most new charms come with a simple bale/jump ring but in order to attach it to the bracelet, you have to bend the jump ring out of shape and then pull it back to its former position once you've threaded it through a link on the bracelet. If the bale is made of thin-gauge silver, then it's an easy job. But then again, it's very easy for the bale to get bent back out of shape - meaning that you can lose your charm!

You can take the bracelet down to your local jeweller and have the charm soldered but this means that you can't later on move the charm to a different place on the bracelet without cutting the bale and starting over again.  Not to mention the fact that it can cost a lot of money to have a soldering job done by a jeweller!   Heavier gauge silver jump rings are more secure and don't need soldering, but obviously they're more difficult to manoeuvre - you need a pair of pliers (maybe two pairs of pliers), and a LOT of patience!

Thankfully, there is an alternative: the clip on charm. The great thing about clip on charms is that once in place, they stay in place - but you can also move them around easily!  Plus there is no additional expense, and no need for fiddly sessions with the pliers. Thomas Sabo does some great clip on charms, but unfortunately they don't come cheap! However, there are alternatives available to buy online - have a look at the capsules I've featured, and see if any of the ideas grab your fancy. All the charms I've featured here are available on the US Amazon site and even when you factor in the cost of shipping, they're extremely reasonable and would make a great gift.

For example, West Coast Jewelry has sterling silver star-shaped birthstone clip on charms; the ones shown are for April, January and June but they do sell charms for the other months as well! (All stones are coloured CZ, i.e. cubic zirconia.) If you want something more three dimensional or with a bit more colour, then try Amazon.com Collection's butterfly or red dress charms, both of which feature epoxy enamel.

For something with a bit of glitz (in the form of real diamonds!), there is a range of clip on charms by Gordon's Jewelers. As you'd expect given the diamonds, prices are a bit higher than for the other charms I've featured but these look really gorgeous. Just imagine several of them in a row on your favourite bracelet.

Two things to ask yourself when buying silver charms online

1. How big do I want my charms to be? It's no good just looking at the pictures, because these will always make you think the charm is larger than it actually is. (Been there, done that.) Take the time to read any measurements given and check them with a ruler or tape measure. You should find that most charms you can buy are 1.5 - 2.5 mm long.

2. Rhodium plated or not rhodium plated? Rhodium plated silver has more of a white gold/platinum look and doesn't tarnish, so is an ideal buy if you don't want to be bothered with silver cleaning paraphernalia. But some people prefer the more "antiquey" look of unplated sterling silver.

Finally, if you've only just caught the charm bug and have yet to even buy a bracelet, I've also featured a couple of starter bracelets available to buy on amazon.com - see below. And featured on this hub are some jump rings too, just in case you need some!