Some time back, last year I think, I ordered some silver Om charms on Etsy. I wanted to make a japa mala and I wanted to have an Om hanging from the center. I couldn’t order just one, so as you can see in the photo, I have spares. I’ve made a couple more japa malas, but I still have leftover charms. Most of the other charms in that photo were sent to me by the Etsy seller I got the Oms from. She sent me a little sample packet of her other charms. It was totally unexpected, but very cool.

In the sample packet was a Hamsa (Hand of Fatima), a tree of life, a bronze Om, a bat, a tiny Buddha and a skull. I intend to work with all of them and turn them into jewelry. The rest of the charms are things that I gathered somehow or other. The snowflakes are actually from this really lame kid’s crafting kit that I got in the mail ages ago. I bet they’ll look really pretty when I finish with them though. I have some smoked glass beads that I think would create a really nice frost/ice effect with those.

I’ve actually used one of these already. The tree of life became a jewelry set today. I’ll be blogging about that next. I love how it all came together. I’m sure I’ll be able to turn the rest of these into something nice too. It can be really hard for me to figure out what to do next, but having a goal of some sort helps. Like a couple of weeks ago when I focused on beads that all came from a kit that someone gave me. I managed to make eight necklaces out of that kit, and there are still more beads to be used. When I was tired of that I decided to work with some reclaimed materials. Now my inspiration is to use all of these pendants, or at least as many as I can. The crucifix and Pegasus pendants already got used, and the rest will be turned into wonderful things very soon.

Briana Blair

Briana Blair is an author and artisan. She has published more then 30 books and thousands of articles across multiple sites. After practicing Paganism and witchcraft for 25 years, she's now on a journey as an atheist and skeptic. She's eclectic, unpredictable, and always evolving. Facebook - Twitter