On charms, meaning, and the freedom of just liking the look of a small bee.

The meaning problem

Charm jewelry has spent a long time being sold as a memory system. A charm for the trip, a charm for the birth, a charm for the year everything changed. That is lovely and it is also a lot of pressure to put on a small piece of enamel.

The alternative

Our charms come with no story attached. Pick the mushroom because you like mushrooms. Pick the bow because it is a good bow. Put six on a bracelet that have nothing to do with each other and let that be the whole point.

At $12 you can afford to choose badly, which is exactly the freedom that a meaningful charm never gives you.

It doubles the work and it is the single reason our necklaces survive being dropped.

The problem with stringing

On a plain strung necklace, every bead sits against its neighbour on one continuous thread. It looks fine and it is fast to make. The trouble comes the first time it catches on something. One break and the entire strand goes on the floor, usually somewhere with a drain.

What knotting does

A knot between each bead means a break costs you one bead, not forty. It also stops the beads grinding against each other, which is what dulls glass over time, and it gives the whole piece a softer drape that follows the neck instead of sitting on it.

It is slower. A knotted necklace takes about three times as long as a strung one. We think that is the right trade.

The fruit could be resin. It would be cheaper, lighter and easier. Here is what you would lose.

Weight is information

Glass has heft. When you put on a glass cherry necklace you feel it settle, and that weight is most of what makes a piece feel real rather than novelty. Resin fruit sits on you like a sticker.

Colour that does not go

Glass colour is in the material. Resin and painted plastic sit on the surface, and surfaces rub, especially anything that lives against skin or in a bag. Two summers in, painted fruit looks tired. Glass looks the same as the day it was made.

The catch is that glass breaks if you are careless with it. We would still rather sell you something that can break than something that slowly goes ugly.