Showing all the license plates and
brass shim for the backing of the charms

Well, for updates on my jewelry projects, I've been working on my idea for a charm bracelet. Each charm has a license plate from a different state, and once a person visits that state, the corresponding charm can be placed onto the bracelet. I used brass shim stock for the backing of the charms.

Each piece that I used was 1 inch by 1/2 inch. I used a pair of pliers to bend the edges over the paper for protection.

Showing how all sides were folded down

At first, I was able to bend all edges of brass shim over to create a barrier to be used later for a thin coat of resin, but due to different pieces being different sizes, I decided to just fold two sides over so that

License plates lined up and showing how
only two sides were folded over to hold down the paper

After I had all license plates held down by brass shim, I lined all of them up on a sheet of cardboard and took them outside and sprayed three different coats of flat clear spray paint on them to hold down the paper. I also did this to keep the ink from bleeding when I put the layer of resin on.

Close up of how the brass shim and paper license
plates look

My hope is that these will turn out the way that I want them to. I am thinking about making a second set of charms for a friend with the base being a thin layer polymer clay instead of brass shim. Depending on which set I like the most, I will make a third set of charms and a bracelet to go with for my mother.