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What are Custom Italian Charms?Custom
Italian Charms fall into two categories:
1) Custom Laser Italian Charms.Laser Italian Charms, as you may have read
elsewhere
on this site, are plain steel charms on which a laser has
permanently etched a design or message. Regular laser Italian Charms are very
durable and should be much less expensive than an enamel Italian
Charm. The downside is they generally don't have any color and are
therefore a little bland. But sometimes that is the only way to get
a certain specialty Italian Charm which has never been made in enamel. Custom
Italian Charms are made
just for you with the names or dates you specify. Where a normal
laser Italian Charm might be $7, a custom one can run $20 or $30. They
are used to say things like "Lucy loves Ellis" - things you can't get
anywhere else. Because they have to be made one at a time, they are
more expensive.
JJ Kent has a good selection of these. In addition, they have some Italian Charms
which are half enamel and the lasering is done one the other half. For
instance, one has colorful handprints and you put your child's name on
it. This adds color to an otherwise single-color Italian Charm.
2) Custom Photo Charms. Sometimes
you want more than a message - you want a picture. I will say up front I do not have a good link
to send you some place for photo Italian Charms. I haven't seen enough different
ones to make a recommendation, and I do not want to just list a URL I have
not checked out.
Photos
are put
on Italian Charms one of two ways.
1)
A tiny photo is actually pasted onto the Italian Charm then sealed over.
The quality of these is very nice, or at least the ones I have seen. I do
not know how they hold up over time, though.
2)
Dye Sublimation - This is where the picture is transferred onto
the Italian Charm using a "dye sub" process very similar to how
images are put on T-shirts and coffee mugs. They are very durable,
but the colors can look a little sickly.
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