Floating charms..... story locket charms..... whichever you call them I really hope that the lockets they are designed for never go out of style. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, these lockets are (usually) a round see through locket which you can fill with itty bitty little charms the represent your interests, or family, or a holiday, or pretty much anything you want. The lockets themselves aren't huge so of course the little charms to go in them are extremely tiny.... most of them under a 1/4 inch tall... which makes them perfect for small accessories in a 1:48 scale miniature project, and I figured that while I'm waiting for a few of them to come in the mail to finish the toy shop I might as well share a little of how useful I have found them to be in my projects. I don't remember what first made me think to use them, I think somehow I came across them when I was looking for tiny (1/4 inch) mermaid figurines for my beach cottage project that I have been planning for a couple years now and will eventually actually get made. I had seen the lockets before, but in our area there's not a huge selection of the charms available and they never made an impression on me as something useful for my projects, until mermaid floating charms showed up as results for this search.
Since then I've used them for quite a few different items. After realizing that they could be useful I starting doing a little more looking into them and found out that they are readily available in tons of different designs, some of them pretty detailed. You can usually find shops on Etsy selling them individually for sometimes at low as $.50 up to a few dollars, or you can get packages of say 10 for a few dollars, either on Etsy (and I assume Ebay, although I have to say I've never actually looked for them on there), or from import sites like AliExpress. (Both on Etsy and through import sites they tend to often come from China, especially if you are buying lots rather than individual charms). When you compare the prices, even with shipping, to what you might pay for something specifically made for quarter scale miniatures, they are a really good deal. And that's assuming you'd even be able to find some of the items they represent sold for miniatures. (Keep in mind that if they are coming from overseas and you don't pay for some sort of expedited shipping it can take a while for them to get to you - hence me waiting for the last ones I ordered to come in so I can finish off the last couple things in the toy shop lol)
They really work great for small accessories/decorative items/ toys to display on shelves in a miniatures project. Keep in mind that they tend to be flat backed, so the detail/3d shaping will only be on one side. This is why I say they're great for shelves, but depending on how you position them they might work for other places as well. As I mentioned above, I got some mermaid floating charms to use as a little sculpture in Mermaid Cove Cottage (whenever I get to working on that...). They came as a lot of 10 though so I also used a few of them as mermaid dolls in the toy shop, and I plan on keeping at least one to use as an actual story locket charm (assuming I ever get around to getting the actual locket for it.....).
Also in the toy shop I have toy horses that are floating charms, and toy dinosaurs that are floating charms (I'm waiting for T-rex charms to go with the Brontos)
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| I did have to bend the mermaids into a sitting position for them to fit, but it was surprisingly easy to do with a pair of pliers and a hammer |
and I'm also waiting for some Russian doll charms as well a couple of which I'm planning on using in the toy store and one is for another project that will be part of someone's Christmas present. Willow: Florist and Garden Shop got a floating charm as well in the form of a tiny garden gnome sitting on one of the shelves in the store.
Also on a kind of related note, while I'm talking about the garden shop from last year, I also used a few regular charm bracelet type charms for that as well...... the two larger garden gnomes in the store and the swan planter in the front window were originally bracelet charms.
If you just cut or break the little ring they hang from off the top (you might also need to file it smooth where it was) and then paint them us however you want, and they make great larger items for quarter scale, or they would make great smaller items for larger scales..... and you can find a lot of them that are completely 3D (not flat backed) so they could be used in more visible places as well.
So, to re-cap, if you need a teeny tiny item for display somewhere consider seeing if you can find it in a floating charm (search for what you want + floating charm or story locket charm or you could even try floating story locket charm for example for the toys in the toy shop I searched for "horse floating charm".... I've found that floating charm tends to be the more common term used for them in listings, but sometimes it's good to try different wordings if you don't find something perfect the first go-around). There are just a few pros and cons though to keep in mind:
pros: -usually pretty detailed for their tiny size
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| look at the detail on these little horses |
- tend to be about 1/4 inch or less in height so they are 12 inches or less in height for 1:48 scale. (the measurements on listings tend to give the size in metric measurements, but my cell phone calculator has a converter, or you can just google it and it's easy to figure out what it is in inches if you need to)
- pricing tends to be really good, especially compared to other items you might buy that are sold specifically for miniatures
cons: - they tend to be flat backed so probably need to be somewhere where only the front will be visible in the finished project
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| let's look at this picture again because you can see the back of one of the charms compared to the front |
- if ordering from an overseas seller there could be a long shipping time (so don't be like me and decide last minute you want a few more lol)
- if you don't want them metal colored you'll have to paint them, which requires, a very fine point paintbrush (I've started using a rubber paintbrush that's shaped into a fine point, it's been working pretty well because I don't have to worry about the bristles separating and going where I don't want, but you do have to be a little careful because it's more likely to mess up paint that's already there since its a solid rubber tip), a steady had, either good eyesight or a magnifier (which I have really good eyesight, especially for tiny things and I used my husband's reading glasses when I was painting the gnome for the garden shop last year), and something sticky to hold it while you paint (I use a plastic putty knife with masking tape taped sticky side up to it).
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| the little garden gnome after I painted it.... I started with a coat of spray paint so that's why the putty knife and tape are all the same color, but you get the idea |
That is of course unless it's something that's going to be all one color in which case you just need a smallish brush or spray paint. lol (you should still put it on something sticky to hold it while you paint though)
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