Klutz - Make Clay Charms product reviews

Miss Six and Miss Five were really looking forward to making these Clay Charm Bracelets so we sat down one Saturday afternoon to start the process. Having read the book I realised that we were going to need to do this in several stages as firstly you have to make your charms then you bake them then you glaze them and then you put them on the bracelet.

So firstly the book is brilliant with lots of ideas and instructions as to how to make a heap of different charms. So many cool things to make! Miss Six then opened up the box and we were immediately disappointed that there was only one bracelet. Even greater disappointment when we went to put it on Miss Six and the clasp latch broke off. I have assured Miss Six I should be able to find another one at a craft shop but several weeks later I still haven't got around to hunting the right size down so we still don't have a bracelet to clip the charms too.

The dough to make the charms from is a bit like plasticine and was really easy to work into the correct shapes. Miss Six and Miss Five had agreed that we would make our charms and they could put them on cord that I had for necklaces so I didn't need to worry that our charms were a little bigger than would have been desirable for the bracelet. We all really enjoyed making our charms and I think probably we will randomly sit down with the aim of making charms for a necklace as it is a fun activity.

I decided to wait till I was using the oven as the charms need to be baked for 20 minutes at 120 degrees so a week or so later I baked them then hung them on the cardboard hanging thing to glaze them. The cardboard thing kept falling down and an ear broke off my cat which I couldn't stick back on. I was also annoyed that you have to use paper clips to hang but the kit doesn't contain any so I spent ages trying to find paper clips...

Anyway the charms got glazed and hung and they dried. By this time however it felt like it had been a lot of hassle and I am a bit over it all. The book itself is brilliant and I would definitely use the book again to provide instruction for making the various shapes etc contained. I would next time make a heap of charms at once and then make an effort to bake so my oven was in use to bake these. I would weight down and find a way to hold up the hanging thing so my charms could dry without falling over and breaking.

I imagine we had a faulty bracelet so I would hope that others don't break but I still think for the price it would be nice to have two bracelets and some paper clips. I think that this project is definitely suited for the recommended ages 8 and over and would provide hours of fun for older children and a slightly less hassled mother!

We love these cool kits from Klutz and have tried a few different ones now. As with the other kits it has everything you need to complete your projects so you don't have to go out and buy anything else so you know with the kit you are all set. The only thing my daughter would of liked was for there to be two of the actual bracelets because she wanted to make one for her and one for her friend. With the contents of the kit you can make a whole lot more charms than you would need for one bracelet.

The clay charms are actual harder to make than they look. I'm glad my daughter is now at the age where she can do these sorts of things by herself as my artistic ability is not the best and mine didn't look good at all because I found it hard to make them look like the pictures. The book gives really clear instructions on how to make the charms. It tells you what colours etc you will need and there is a bit at the top of each page that acts as a guide as to the size of the balls you will need for each colour. I managed to do a simple rainbow which turned out really well, where my daughter did some more complicated things like hamburgers and donuts.

It is good too that you only need to bake them for 20 minutes for them to be ready to go. Once they are cooled down which in this weather only took about 10 minutes you simply glaze them and they are ready to put on your bracelet. That is the bit that I found to be the most fiddly with my chubby fingers as you have to thread the loops through the end of both the charm and the bracelet and then squeeze the ends of the loops together again. All in all a great kit for a young girl I would recommended from about 8 as it is quite fiddly.