subject: Beautiful Sterling Silver Charms - A Fascinating New Look [print this page] Beautiful Sterling Silver Charms - A Fascinating New Look
You may be a lover of charms without ever having known of the many benefits of sterling silver. Or you may be someone who has never understood what all the fuss is about. Either way, the attraction many people have to these baubles may go deeper than you think.
Charms have long been used as protective talismans, and for good luck, as well as for identification. They might signal the family, profession, religious or political affiliation of the wearer, and were even thought to identify the wearer in the afterlife! Not so much has changed from then to now. While superstitions may be a little less rampant, sterling silver charm bracelets still jingle with items of personal significance to the owner, and every one is likely to be as different from another as two individual people. They are still chosen to represent identity or items considered lucky to the owner.
Crafting such good luck or protective charms from sterling silver (the purest form that can be cast to form charms) is an obvious choice, once you know about some of the amazing properties of this precious metal.
Sterling silver has had a lot of significance to people throughout the ages, and with good reason. Traditionally, it was known for its healing and protective properties, used to ward of sickness. As so often is true in outdated medicinal theory, sickness was often linked to the supernatural, and silver too is tied to popular monster mythology. It has long been reputed to repel vampires and kill werewolves. So in addition to healing, it had the added benefit of protecting its wearer from harm.
Whether or not your silver can really keep the monsters at bay, we do know that it has certain medicinal properties in that it inhibits bacterial growth and can help to prevent infection. It claims this remarkable property by virtue of containing an ion which is eager to bond with certain elements that bacteria require to live. Once bonded, those elements are no longer available to the bacteria which effectively die.
Silver was even used in World War I to prevent infection in soldiers. And its germicidal effects explain why it has been so widely used as tableware. In fact, ancient cultures have used silver for food storage to prolong the freshness of foods!
So the old wives may have been on to something. By keeping your silver charms close, and making sure to buy only sterling, which is virtually undiluted, you may be making sound, rational, medical decisions. And you can tell your husband so!
But don't forget the other possible perks: if the old wives were right about its healing properties, who's to say they were wrong about the vampires?
Select your sterling silver charms with care, and collect them with pride, knowing that their worth goes well beyond any monetary value.
Laurel Newmaker is a self-proclaimed "Jewelry freak". Among her favorites are interesting charms for dog lovers, cat lovers and lovers of just about any other pet under the sun. But charms depicting dogs may rank in her top ten
