June 29, 2024 • 29 mins
Episode 1
Welcome to the first episode of The Art of Pandora podcast! Join hosts Katie Charmingly Baroque and Lina Pandora Shark as they delve into their shared love for Pandora charm bracelets.
In this episode, Katie and Lina introduce themselves and share their journeys of becoming avid Pandora collectors. They discuss their favorite charms, the creative process of designing unique bracelets, and the joy of connecting with a community of fellow enthusiasts.
Discover the special stories behind their collections, the meticulous ways they store their charms, and their wishlist for future Pandora designs. Whether you're a seasoned collector or new to the world of Pandora, this episode is packed with insights and inspiration.
Tune in to hear more about their love for Disney-themed charms and get a sneak peek into their upcoming episode on summer bracelet designs. Don't miss out on this delightful conversation filled with charm and creativity!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Music.
(00:10):
Welcome to the Art of Pandora podcast. Lina and I will be chatting about all
things Pandora. We want to start out by introducing ourselves.
My name is Katie and my Instagram name is Charmingly Baroque.
And my name is Lina and my Instagram name is Pandora Shark.
So I just want to like chat obviously about Pandora. How long have you been
(00:32):
collecting Pandora charms?
So for me, I have been collecting Pandora charms since probably around
2010 2011 I had a few charms
I think I had like a pineapple and a few other
sort of little quirky charms but my main
kind of collecting hobbies would have started about 2019 I'd
say where I really started to ramp up my collection I had to wait until I obviously
(00:58):
was working and could afford that many charms and that's when I really got into
it as well when Pandora started to change their designs to be a bit more intricate and detailed,
that's when they really caught my attention.
And once the Disney collections sort of started to ramp up, that's when I really
got into Pandora collecting. What about you, Katie? When did you start?
(01:19):
Well, I've been collecting Pandora for 16 years.
My first Pandora drawing was given to me by my mom and sister-in-law when my nephew was born.
Two older brothers, they are 14 and 10 years older than me.
So I was in high school when my oldest nephew was born. That was kind of an aunt gift.
(01:41):
But I definitely got hooked and then just continued collecting from there.
And I guess it was nice, you know, easy gift for family and friends to give me.
And then yes, as soon as I started working, I just continued to grow that collection. option.
Yeah, I can totally understand that getting hooked. And I think that's beautiful
(02:05):
that a family member gave you your first charm. I think that's really sweet.
My first sort of memorable charm other than the pineapple was the, it was in 2016,
there was a Alice in Wonderland collection that came out and there was this
open work tea party charm, which had Alice and the Mad Hatter and the March
Hare all on the charm, having the tea party together.
(02:25):
So So for me, that's what I consider my first charm that would have hooked me, I think.
And then the Disney princesses started coming out and, yeah.
Definitely caused a snowball effect for me. Nice. I completely understand that.
My first charm was actually like an American football charm.
(02:45):
My brothers played football and I love football. And so that was one of the first ones I got.
But for sure, the addition of Disney was a real hook for me as well.
Yeah, that's awesome. Awesome. So what is it that you love about Pandora charm bracelets?
I really love how creative you can be with them.
(03:09):
I love the ability to create something that is entirely your own story.
Right. Whether that story is like just certain memories in your life that you're getting charms for.
Or if you have a large collection are able to create these themed bracelets is also just,
(03:32):
it's so wonderful because you have this bracelet and no one else is going to have that exact design.
And I really like that, you know, the creative ability to design the bracelet,
but also the uniqueness of what you end up creating.
What about you? you. Yeah, I completely agree. The storytelling aspect for me is really special.
(03:56):
The fact that that bracelet holds your unique story and you can share as much
or as little of that as you want with people.
Because what I found is, you know, I'll go into work with a Pandora bracelet
on and people will be like, wow, I love your bracelet.
And, you know, you can choose to engage and explain the story of it or you can,
you know, tell them about certain charms.
(04:17):
And then as you say, it's It's a great gift giving thing in that people know what to get you.
Or now they start getting gift vouchers because they're like,
you have everything. I don't know what to get you.
But I really like the storytelling aspect of it. And I love the prettiness.
I love the fact that it's something that's compact to collect as well.
That sounds really silly. But if I was collecting something bigger,
(04:40):
I just wouldn't have room for it in my house.
So yeah, I like the fact that you can store it and the versatility.
So you can make a bracelet then if
you want to you can totally change it over once a new collection
comes through or mix and match charms across different collections
so I think that's really special and my most special kind of bracelets are the
(05:00):
ones that do have something to do with as you have said before like family or
special life events or something like that so I like being able to like a photograph
kind of commemorate those moments in bracelet form I find that really fun.
Yeah, that's really nice. Do you keep a wish list of the charms that you want?
Yes, definitely. Do you? I do. And I feel like I have one on an app,
(05:25):
like a wish list app, so that I can share it with, you know, family and friends.
By the way, it's like, because you mentioned like having to just like get a
voucher because people don't know what you have. Right.
So I ended up making a wish list. And I'm like, here you go.
Go pick something off like this.
That's so good that's great I'm gonna have to get your your app later on,
(05:49):
that sounds really good yeah I do
have a wish list I sort of keep it to myself but maybe I should share it
that's a great idea yeah so do you keep does it need a bracelet designs all
the time or do you use free-flowing charms to design with so for me I have bracelets
that I'm not going to change so for example my wedding bracelet not going to
(06:13):
change that one that will Day.
That was my 30th birthday gift from my husband that I then turned into my wedding
bracelet by adding like something blue.
And then like that one is set in stone. I'm not going to move it.
I'm not going to change the charms around.
And I try not to wear it too much because I kind of want to preserve it forever.
But then there's other bracelets that I keep for a while. And then once new
(06:34):
collections come through, I kind of mix and match them.
So an example of that would be like my Valentine's Day bracelets.
Usually you can see that they evolve over time with some charms from last year
or the previous year's collection, but then I'll add new special charms and
eventually they turn into two bracelets.
So for example, my Christmas bracelets have spewed over multiple bracelets now
(06:56):
where they don't fit onto the one.
So I've sort of got different styles of Christmas bracelet now.
So I'll keep them, but then I'll add as charms come along.
And then I've got a whole range of free-flowing charms as
well that I like to design with or put on dangles or
put on earrings rings too so what about you do
you have set bracelet designs or do you go free flow
yeah I do a bit of both as well
(07:19):
I have I do have a lot of bracelets that
I've designed over the years and for the most part they they add this sometimes
I'll take them apart to like design a bracelet with but then usually those they
go back together as they as they were so I have a lot of you know A fairy tale bracelet,
(07:39):
travel, star bracelet.
I feel like with some of my more recent charm editions, they're a bit more free-flowing.
And once I come up with a new bracelet design, because I do normally wear one
full, complete bracelet on one hand.
And then on my other hand, I'm usually, that's where I'm a free-flow design.
(08:04):
Almost every night designing a couple of mini designs on bangles or on an open bangle.
And so I do like the option of you
know free-flowing charms to design something new with on a daily basis but I
love your mention of Christmas bracelets as well I remember there was a point
(08:26):
in time where I was like oh no I am not going to get any holiday charms
but then you know you get
one christmas charm and all of a sudden you
you have several bracelets of
christmas charms because they're just too cute and i love christmas too much
(08:47):
yeah i'm exactly the same i tried to limit myself in so many different ways
i was like i'm only going to get disney ones or you know i'm only going to get
this i'm not going to get these collections and then they come out with something
super adorable and I'm like,
I can't, I have to get it. So I understand.
Yes, and the Christmas ornaments as well. Do you have any of those?
(09:10):
So it's weird in Australia. Sometimes we get them and sometimes we don't.
I do definitely have the ones that they've released here. They had a phase of
releasing them quite often, and then I think we missed a few years of it.
But last year they re-released it. So yeah, I definitely try to get on board
if they actually release it here, for sure. What about you?
For sure. I basically, in the past, have had a little mini Christmas tree that
(09:34):
is entirely Pandora ornaments.
I began collecting them, I actually received some of the older ones from Mall
of America, Be Charming.
They had had a giveaway years and years ago, because I didn't have a lot of
the original older ornaments, and I guess they still had some left.
(09:55):
So when I won that, then it was like, oh, got to have them.
Don't want to get every year going forward.
I also think there was one year where the U.S. did not get an ornament,
but I had to get it from the U.K.
Yeah, it's great when you have people abroad that can help a sister out.
(10:17):
That's always really nice. I love saying that in the Pandora community where
someone will write in the comments, Oh, yes, I'm happy to send you,
you know, Disneyland charms or something like that. So I think that's really sweet.
Yeah, it is a great community meeting friends from all over and having those connections.
Yeah, for sure. For sure. So I know this is a tough question,
(10:40):
but do you have a favorite charm or maybe more broadly a favorite bracelet? Yeah.
So, for sure, favorite charm is very difficult.
I wouldn't say that I have a favorite one.
Currently, one of my favorite ones to, like, design my little mini designs with
(11:00):
is a charm that my boyfriend just got me.
It's the Happily Ever After charm.
It has Mickey and Minnie, and they're watching the firework show at Disney World.
So, it has the castle in the background. and it
has a really lovely like blending blue and
pink and purple so kind of just goes with everything so it's been one of my
(11:24):
favorite charms lately the design with and favorite bracelet probably some of
my older designs i have a what i call like a star antico bracelet
so it has it's primarily like blue and
like there's these stars but then it
(11:45):
also has like a blue mickey mouse cap and
then the fantasia a dangle has
the fantasia like mickey mouse sorcerer hat and it's one of my favorites because
i love like a kind of royal blue color and then i also have a fairy tale bracelet
that has a bunch of the like old classic two-tone Pandora charms which were some of my favorites.
(12:11):
And so I do always it always brings me great joy to be wearing one of those bracelets.
What about you? I love that you talked about the Fantasia. I love the classic Disney.
Characters and charms as well. I think my favorite charms are probably ones
I got after they were released.
So I eventually collected all of the Princess Miranos that were glow-in-the-dark.
(12:34):
And then I progressively went
with the dresses as well. I collected the dangles, the princess dresses.
So I do love those because I think because of the effort it took me to try and
collect them too, that was quite exciting.
It kind of reminds me of when Pandora I did that Pandora 2020 charm that was
released every month and just the excitement of collecting that. I really enjoyed that.
(12:57):
So those are probably some of my favorite charms.
And my favorite bracelet was my Valentine's Day bracelet, just because I love
the red, pink, gold kind of colors that you can mix and match with.
But that's since been superseded since my son has been born with my bracelet
that kind of is a tribute to him and his little journey so far.
(13:21):
He's only four months old. So it was really fun to make and a really nice distraction
from the trenches of newborn life to actually make a bracelet that represented him.
So I think at the moment that would be my absolute favourite bracelet because
it just reminds me of him.
And I've recently got, you know, the letters of his name and put those through the design as well.
(13:41):
And I really like the blue kind of and aqua colors
that that bracelet has too so that would be
my favorite at the moment but my favorites do
change I love your idea of wearing one full bracelet and then sort of having
free-flowing charms on the other hand I think that's really cool I'm going to
experiment with something like that too that's a that's a really creative way
(14:01):
of kind of showcasing your collection too because I find sometimes my full bracelets just
hang out in the jewellery box and that's a really nice way of wearing them out,
I think. I'm going to take that on board.
That's good. Well, that's wonderful. And congratulations on your son.
Oh, thank you. Four months, you must be busy.
(14:22):
Yes. Doing nothing but very busy is how it is.
Yeah. Several of my friends are currently pregnant or just gave birth to sweet babies.
So that's lovely to have them around.
So what made you decide to start a Pandora harm focused Instagram? Graham?
(14:43):
So I sort of fell into it by accident. I think I had sort of this gap of time,
I guess, during the pandemic because I started in 2020.
So I sort of had this gap of time and I kind of discovered it by accident.
I found the Art of Pandora blog online before I found the social media side of it.
(15:06):
And then I realized that there's this whole community taking photos of their
charms and people with different accounts.
And I thought, oh, wow, that's something I'd love to be part of.
And because it was the, you know, all those lockdowns and things like that,
I had the time, but I also really valued the fact that you could still connect
with people online that way.
And I just love the creativity of it. I love that it's something that's kind
(15:30):
and something that's fun and positive and something that you can share with
others with the same passion.
So that's what really made me excited about the Instagram side of things.
Plus, I really enjoy the photography aspect of it as well and getting to design
and, you know, thinking about placement of charms and what the background is
(15:51):
going to be and where I'm going to take the photos.
And yeah, so that's kind of my journey into Instagram with Pandora. What about you? Yeah.
I got on Instagram, I guess it was in college.
And, you know, and there was one Instagrammer that like focused on Pandora charms.
(16:12):
And so I really loved her account and, you know, started really wanting to collect
even more than I already had.
And then Pandora, what really got me into like taking my own photos was that
Pandora did a giveaway. way.
A limited edition 14 karat gold Eiffel Tower with a little diamond in it.
(16:33):
And I desperately wanted to win this charm. Spoiler alert, I did not.
But it got me into taking some photos of my Candora collection.
And I really, really enjoyed that. And it was a nice faded outlet for me,
(16:54):
as well as a stress reliever.
And so it's something that I continue to do as that creative outlet,
like through law school and while working.
And then obviously just enjoyed that community and just the chance to converse
with other Pandora lovers was fantastic.
(17:17):
Fantastic yeah I totally agree on in
that regard about the community and and the stress
relief too it is a really fun kind of pursuit there's that I was thinking about
while you were talking about the Eiffel Tower I saw on our Pandora the Art of
Pandora blog that there's the Olympic collection coming out and I'm pretty sure
that there's charms with diamonds and Eiffel Towers too so you might
(17:40):
get another chance to get something like that
if you feel like you missed out yes I saw
that and think it will be going on my wish list
for the future nice nice nice
so what's the meaning behind
your Instagram name so obviously
it charmingly goes to
(18:02):
the Pandora charms and charm own
collection baroque is actually an
kind of ode to beauty and the beast uh
there's a joke in the animated
version of beauty and the beast where codsworth asks you know he makes a joke
(18:24):
about if it's not baroque don't
fix it and so that's kind of my my little ode to beauty and the Beast,
which is one of my favorite Disney movies.
Yeah, I love that. And I love that joke. He's showing Belle around the castle, isn't he?
And do you want to act all like all knowledgeable and funny? Yeah.
(18:44):
I made that joke to my husband the other day because he's also...
He he knows a lot about music and i said oh you should you know you should make
that joke too when you're teaching
music and he he had no idea what i was talking about i'm like come on,
everyone knows that quote if it ain't baroque don't fix it
i love it i think that's really clever i'm glad that that's what
your instagram handle is about because that's what i've always thought when
(19:08):
i've seen it so i wasn't sure but i think that's really cute and i loved that
the beauty and the beast collection that came out not that long ago like a year
maybe two years ago I thought that was beautiful where it had almost like those
stained glass window type charms. I think so pretty.
Yes, that charm is really beautiful. It was an immediate must have for me when it was released.
(19:30):
Yeah, I'll bet. What about your Instagram name?
So my Instagram name doesn't have a very deep meaning.
I have a fluffy toy shark that I bought during a wonderful holiday on Hamilton Island,
which is in Queensland in Australia and it's this
beautiful like tropical paradise and I
bought a stuffed toy shark there and its
(19:52):
name was Slater and I really liked it so I
decided that I would
call my Instagram Pandora Shark because
I happened to have my Pandora collection out and I had
the shark near me at the same time and that's how
it happened I thought I was trying to find a name that nobody else had and
I like that sort of playfulness about it
(20:14):
I like the predator aspect about it it's also got a little
bit of an Australian vibe to it because we
are often known for our sharky waters and the shark is quite cute too so I yeah
I just went with a playful humorous kind of name and I am a bit of a Pandora
predator because I have a large collection so yeah that's That's my Instagram name. Nice. I love it.
(20:39):
And how do you, how do you normally, I guess, store your charms and bracelet? So, um.
I have multiple, I have a few stackers kind of jewelry boxes.
I have a few, I have many Pandora jewelry boxes as well.
One particularly big one and then lots of those smaller ones that kind of came
(20:59):
with promotions or in store, they would sometimes just be like,
here, I have a jewelry box.
I think because I was a regular customer. So I kind of store them in theme.
So I have one, for example, one of the smaller Pandora jewelry boxes has my
Marvel charms in there. And then I have a whole section of a stackers collection with my Disney charm.
(21:20):
And I try to keep them in those. It's not very glamorous, but I try to keep
them in those little snap lock bags that they come in just so that they don't tarnish as quickly.
And then my bracelets that I've
designed and like kind of keep as full bracelets, I do the same thing.
I put them in these little snap lock bags inside the jewelry boxes.
So there are a few jewelry boxes I have where the charms are kind of on display
(21:43):
and it looks But the majority of them are in little Ziploc bags stored so that
they don't tarnish as easily.
Because if I took my collection in store to clean, they'd be cleaning for a long time.
So, yeah, I try to keep them as tarnish free as possible. What about you?
Do you have any creative way of storing it?
I'm pretty similar. I have a bunch of the smaller gifts with purchase jewelry
(22:08):
boxes. So the most part I use those as decoration so I'm not storing within them.
I do have quite a lot of the stackers collection.
It was actually fun a few years back, a group of us got to like help design
some of the new layers for being able to store charms and kind of come up with
(22:29):
brainstorm ideas for how best to store them.
So I have a collection of those. And then I also like searched for years for
there was like a big kind of like cream, white, large Pandora jewelry box.
And I had seen it on Instagram on someone else's Instagram.
(22:52):
And so I searched for it for years on eBay before I found it.
So I absolutely love that jewelry box and try to really take care of it.
Yeah, I think I know the one you mean, the holy grail of Pandora jewelry boxes.
I have a big one that's gray, and I'm the same about that one.
I'm very precious about that one. That one's the one that looks good.
(23:13):
That one's the aesthetic storage.
Yeah. Yeah, and the other ones are more functional storage.
I'm glad that you guys helped design the stackers' jewelry boxes because that's
why they're so good and so functional because only a Pandora collector would
know the kind of depth you need and the amount of spaces for rings and charms and,
yeah, the bracelet kind of loops. Yeah, that's great.
(23:36):
So which one would you like to see Pandora design?
I would love to see a few sidekicks in the Disney and Pixar movies.
So Pandora Shark would obviously love to see Bruce the Shark from Finding Nemo
be designed because I feel like that would be great for my account and its name.
And I also love Finding Nemo because it's set in Australia and I've snorkeled
(24:00):
on the Great Barrier Reef and all the characters I find really funny.
I'd also really love some of the seagulls from Finding Nemo,
just because they're so silly, as an actual charm.
Like I think I've seen them on a park dangle maybe, just as an enamel kind of
design, but I'd love them as a full chunky charm.
And I would love, love, love to see Rex from Toy Story, like the dinosaur,
(24:24):
be created into an actual charm.
I'm not sure whether it has, maybe it has, but yeah, because we don't have Disneyland
here, I'm not as knowledgeable about what has come out in all the Disney parks and things like that.
So would love a Rex charm for my Disney bracelets. What about you?
No, 100% you partially stole my answer. I would love to see a Rex charm design.
(24:50):
Pascal from Tangled is also one of my favorite characters. So I would love to see him in charm form.
And just in general, I think that sometimes Pandora misses out on the opportunity
to make new Disney character designs.
There's just so many Disney characters out there.
(25:12):
And so I would love to see more Pixar character designs and just in general,
more Disney characters created.
Them. Yeah, totally. I'd also love a daisy duck that's like a chunky charm rather
than just a little, like they've just recently released the daisy dangle and
(25:33):
I was all about it, but I really want like,
sort of like those princesses that were kind of a chunkier charm.
I'd love a daisy duck like that, or even like a Disney babies kind of daisy
or something like that, I think would be really cute.
That came out in the normal collections, not just in parks for those of us who
don't yet have a park yeah that i think would be cool and yes toy story rex
(25:55):
is iconic he has to come out as a charm surely surely.
I would really hope so. I love dinosaurs in general. So Rex is definitely a
favorite character in mine.
And yes, I desperately need him to be made.
Yeah that's so funny that you say that because
we're a big dinosaur family like as a joke i buy
(26:16):
my husband a lot of jurassic park stuff like i'm currently sitting with three
t-rex jurassic park things behind me and around me and we've bought the big
like stuffed toy rex for my son as well from toy story so yeah that's funny
we've got that in common it's such a niche thing to have in common as an adult.
(26:36):
Yeah, that's fantastic. I totally have a Rex plush as well that I like to hold
on just like sitting on the couch or something.
And we actually went to, there was a Jurassic Park in concert where there's
a symphony playing the music.
And we actually went to that last weekend and it was fantastic.
(26:58):
Oh, that's awesome. I'm all about more dinosaur charms as well,
I guess. Me too, me too. I'd have all sorts of dinosaur charms.
I'd have a husband-inspired dinosaur bracelet.
I agree. Yeah. Do you have any other hobbies or collections that you have other
than Jurassic, now that we've discovered that we're both Jurassic fans?
(27:21):
Yes, I just in general, definitely Disney collections.
I was for a while there collecting Disney pins.
I have tried to step back
a bit from my collections because like
as you said one of the advantages of Pandora
is that like you know it's smaller and it can be contained in a like smaller
(27:44):
section at your home and I feel like I'd I got a little too far with some of
the Disney collecting where I'm like I'm I've run out of wall space and and
places to put things but I'm always taking a look at the
Disney store online to check out the new Disney figurines and pins.
(28:05):
Nice, nice. I used to have a huge pin collection when the Olympic Games were
in Sydney in the year 2000, and it was really popular to collect pins.
So we have a huge collection from that time. But as you, I also stepped back from pin collecting.
When I was in high school at some point. And I'm just lucky, I think, in a sense.
(28:27):
Unlucky, but also lucky that there is no Disneyland near me because I would
be an annual pass member and there would be so many things in my house.
I'd almost need another house. So I'm very lucky that it's far away and hard to get for me.
So yeah, I've stuck to Pandora with my collections because otherwise,
yeah, as I said before, it's just going to be out of control.
(28:50):
But I love it. Pandora is a fun thing to collect and so is Disney.
I value that. Disney is a good time.
For sure. So we are going to do another episode on our summer bracelets and
talk about some of the summer charms that have come out and some of the summer
bracelets that we've designed.
So we'd love everyone to join, to listen and then share your summer collections with us too.
(29:15):
I think that would be wonderful. It was really, really lovely to talk to you, Katie.
And And, you know, we found lots in common just in our conversation.
So I think that was really, really sweet.
And I really look forward to another conversation on our Art of Pandora podcast.
For sure. I really enjoyed chatting with you, Lena. Thank you all for listening.
(29:36):
Thanks, everyone. We'll see you in our next episode. Bye for now.
Music.
Music.
(00:10):
Welcome to the Art of Pandora podcast. Lina and I will be chatting about all
things Pandora. We want to start out by introducing ourselves.
My name is Katie and my Instagram name is Charmingly Baroque.
And my name is Lina and my Instagram name is Pandora Shark.
So I just want to like chat obviously about Pandora. How long have you been
(00:32):
collecting Pandora charms?
So for me, I have been collecting Pandora charms since probably around
2010 2011 I had a few charms
I think I had like a pineapple and a few other
sort of little quirky charms but my main
kind of collecting hobbies would have started about 2019 I'd
say where I really started to ramp up my collection I had to wait until I obviously
(00:58):
was working and could afford that many charms and that's when I really got into
it as well when Pandora started to change their designs to be a bit more intricate and detailed,
that's when they really caught my attention.
And once the Disney collections sort of started to ramp up, that's when I really
got into Pandora collecting. What about you, Katie? When did you start?
(01:19):
Well, I've been collecting Pandora for 16 years.
My first Pandora drawing was given to me by my mom and sister-in-law when my nephew was born.
Two older brothers, they are 14 and 10 years older than me.
So I was in high school when my oldest nephew was born. That was kind of an aunt gift.
(01:41):
But I definitely got hooked and then just continued collecting from there.
And I guess it was nice, you know, easy gift for family and friends to give me.
And then yes, as soon as I started working, I just continued to grow that collection. option.
Yeah, I can totally understand that getting hooked. And I think that's beautiful
(02:05):
that a family member gave you your first charm. I think that's really sweet.
My first sort of memorable charm other than the pineapple was the, it was in 2016,
there was a Alice in Wonderland collection that came out and there was this
open work tea party charm, which had Alice and the Mad Hatter and the March
Hare all on the charm, having the tea party together.
(02:25):
So So for me, that's what I consider my first charm that would have hooked me, I think.
And then the Disney princesses started coming out and, yeah.
Definitely caused a snowball effect for me. Nice. I completely understand that.
My first charm was actually like an American football charm.
(02:45):
My brothers played football and I love football. And so that was one of the first ones I got.
But for sure, the addition of Disney was a real hook for me as well.
Yeah, that's awesome. Awesome. So what is it that you love about Pandora charm bracelets?
I really love how creative you can be with them.
(03:09):
I love the ability to create something that is entirely your own story.
Right. Whether that story is like just certain memories in your life that you're getting charms for.
Or if you have a large collection are able to create these themed bracelets is also just,
(03:32):
it's so wonderful because you have this bracelet and no one else is going to have that exact design.
And I really like that, you know, the creative ability to design the bracelet,
but also the uniqueness of what you end up creating.
What about you? you. Yeah, I completely agree. The storytelling aspect for me is really special.
(03:56):
The fact that that bracelet holds your unique story and you can share as much
or as little of that as you want with people.
Because what I found is, you know, I'll go into work with a Pandora bracelet
on and people will be like, wow, I love your bracelet.
And, you know, you can choose to engage and explain the story of it or you can,
you know, tell them about certain charms.
(04:17):
And then as you say, it's It's a great gift giving thing in that people know what to get you.
Or now they start getting gift vouchers because they're like,
you have everything. I don't know what to get you.
But I really like the storytelling aspect of it. And I love the prettiness.
I love the fact that it's something that's compact to collect as well.
That sounds really silly. But if I was collecting something bigger,
(04:40):
I just wouldn't have room for it in my house.
So yeah, I like the fact that you can store it and the versatility.
So you can make a bracelet then if
you want to you can totally change it over once a new collection
comes through or mix and match charms across different collections
so I think that's really special and my most special kind of bracelets are the
(05:00):
ones that do have something to do with as you have said before like family or
special life events or something like that so I like being able to like a photograph
kind of commemorate those moments in bracelet form I find that really fun.
Yeah, that's really nice. Do you keep a wish list of the charms that you want?
Yes, definitely. Do you? I do. And I feel like I have one on an app,
(05:25):
like a wish list app, so that I can share it with, you know, family and friends.
By the way, it's like, because you mentioned like having to just like get a
voucher because people don't know what you have. Right.
So I ended up making a wish list. And I'm like, here you go.
Go pick something off like this.
That's so good that's great I'm gonna have to get your your app later on,
(05:49):
that sounds really good yeah I do
have a wish list I sort of keep it to myself but maybe I should share it
that's a great idea yeah so do you keep does it need a bracelet designs all
the time or do you use free-flowing charms to design with so for me I have bracelets
that I'm not going to change so for example my wedding bracelet not going to
(06:13):
change that one that will Day.
That was my 30th birthday gift from my husband that I then turned into my wedding
bracelet by adding like something blue.
And then like that one is set in stone. I'm not going to move it.
I'm not going to change the charms around.
And I try not to wear it too much because I kind of want to preserve it forever.
But then there's other bracelets that I keep for a while. And then once new
(06:34):
collections come through, I kind of mix and match them.
So an example of that would be like my Valentine's Day bracelets.
Usually you can see that they evolve over time with some charms from last year
or the previous year's collection, but then I'll add new special charms and
eventually they turn into two bracelets.
So for example, my Christmas bracelets have spewed over multiple bracelets now
(06:56):
where they don't fit onto the one.
So I've sort of got different styles of Christmas bracelet now.
So I'll keep them, but then I'll add as charms come along.
And then I've got a whole range of free-flowing charms as
well that I like to design with or put on dangles or
put on earrings rings too so what about you do
you have set bracelet designs or do you go free flow
yeah I do a bit of both as well
(07:19):
I have I do have a lot of bracelets that
I've designed over the years and for the most part they they add this sometimes
I'll take them apart to like design a bracelet with but then usually those they
go back together as they as they were so I have a lot of you know A fairy tale bracelet,
(07:39):
travel, star bracelet.
I feel like with some of my more recent charm editions, they're a bit more free-flowing.
And once I come up with a new bracelet design, because I do normally wear one
full, complete bracelet on one hand.
And then on my other hand, I'm usually, that's where I'm a free-flow design.
(08:04):
Almost every night designing a couple of mini designs on bangles or on an open bangle.
And so I do like the option of you
know free-flowing charms to design something new with on a daily basis but I
love your mention of Christmas bracelets as well I remember there was a point
(08:26):
in time where I was like oh no I am not going to get any holiday charms
but then you know you get
one christmas charm and all of a sudden you
you have several bracelets of
christmas charms because they're just too cute and i love christmas too much
(08:47):
yeah i'm exactly the same i tried to limit myself in so many different ways
i was like i'm only going to get disney ones or you know i'm only going to get
this i'm not going to get these collections and then they come out with something
super adorable and I'm like,
I can't, I have to get it. So I understand.
Yes, and the Christmas ornaments as well. Do you have any of those?
(09:10):
So it's weird in Australia. Sometimes we get them and sometimes we don't.
I do definitely have the ones that they've released here. They had a phase of
releasing them quite often, and then I think we missed a few years of it.
But last year they re-released it. So yeah, I definitely try to get on board
if they actually release it here, for sure. What about you?
For sure. I basically, in the past, have had a little mini Christmas tree that
(09:34):
is entirely Pandora ornaments.
I began collecting them, I actually received some of the older ones from Mall
of America, Be Charming.
They had had a giveaway years and years ago, because I didn't have a lot of
the original older ornaments, and I guess they still had some left.
(09:55):
So when I won that, then it was like, oh, got to have them.
Don't want to get every year going forward.
I also think there was one year where the U.S. did not get an ornament,
but I had to get it from the U.K.
Yeah, it's great when you have people abroad that can help a sister out.
(10:17):
That's always really nice. I love saying that in the Pandora community where
someone will write in the comments, Oh, yes, I'm happy to send you,
you know, Disneyland charms or something like that. So I think that's really sweet.
Yeah, it is a great community meeting friends from all over and having those connections.
Yeah, for sure. For sure. So I know this is a tough question,
(10:40):
but do you have a favorite charm or maybe more broadly a favorite bracelet? Yeah.
So, for sure, favorite charm is very difficult.
I wouldn't say that I have a favorite one.
Currently, one of my favorite ones to, like, design my little mini designs with
(11:00):
is a charm that my boyfriend just got me.
It's the Happily Ever After charm.
It has Mickey and Minnie, and they're watching the firework show at Disney World.
So, it has the castle in the background. and it
has a really lovely like blending blue and
pink and purple so kind of just goes with everything so it's been one of my
(11:24):
favorite charms lately the design with and favorite bracelet probably some of
my older designs i have a what i call like a star antico bracelet
so it has it's primarily like blue and
like there's these stars but then it
(11:45):
also has like a blue mickey mouse cap and
then the fantasia a dangle has
the fantasia like mickey mouse sorcerer hat and it's one of my favorites because
i love like a kind of royal blue color and then i also have a fairy tale bracelet
that has a bunch of the like old classic two-tone Pandora charms which were some of my favorites.
(12:11):
And so I do always it always brings me great joy to be wearing one of those bracelets.
What about you? I love that you talked about the Fantasia. I love the classic Disney.
Characters and charms as well. I think my favorite charms are probably ones
I got after they were released.
So I eventually collected all of the Princess Miranos that were glow-in-the-dark.
(12:34):
And then I progressively went
with the dresses as well. I collected the dangles, the princess dresses.
So I do love those because I think because of the effort it took me to try and
collect them too, that was quite exciting.
It kind of reminds me of when Pandora I did that Pandora 2020 charm that was
released every month and just the excitement of collecting that. I really enjoyed that.
(12:57):
So those are probably some of my favorite charms.
And my favorite bracelet was my Valentine's Day bracelet, just because I love
the red, pink, gold kind of colors that you can mix and match with.
But that's since been superseded since my son has been born with my bracelet
that kind of is a tribute to him and his little journey so far.
(13:21):
He's only four months old. So it was really fun to make and a really nice distraction
from the trenches of newborn life to actually make a bracelet that represented him.
So I think at the moment that would be my absolute favourite bracelet because
it just reminds me of him.
And I've recently got, you know, the letters of his name and put those through the design as well.
(13:41):
And I really like the blue kind of and aqua colors
that that bracelet has too so that would be
my favorite at the moment but my favorites do
change I love your idea of wearing one full bracelet and then sort of having
free-flowing charms on the other hand I think that's really cool I'm going to
experiment with something like that too that's a that's a really creative way
(14:01):
of kind of showcasing your collection too because I find sometimes my full bracelets just
hang out in the jewellery box and that's a really nice way of wearing them out,
I think. I'm going to take that on board.
That's good. Well, that's wonderful. And congratulations on your son.
Oh, thank you. Four months, you must be busy.
(14:22):
Yes. Doing nothing but very busy is how it is.
Yeah. Several of my friends are currently pregnant or just gave birth to sweet babies.
So that's lovely to have them around.
So what made you decide to start a Pandora harm focused Instagram? Graham?
(14:43):
So I sort of fell into it by accident. I think I had sort of this gap of time,
I guess, during the pandemic because I started in 2020.
So I sort of had this gap of time and I kind of discovered it by accident.
I found the Art of Pandora blog online before I found the social media side of it.
(15:06):
And then I realized that there's this whole community taking photos of their
charms and people with different accounts.
And I thought, oh, wow, that's something I'd love to be part of.
And because it was the, you know, all those lockdowns and things like that,
I had the time, but I also really valued the fact that you could still connect
with people online that way.
And I just love the creativity of it. I love that it's something that's kind
(15:30):
and something that's fun and positive and something that you can share with
others with the same passion.
So that's what really made me excited about the Instagram side of things.
Plus, I really enjoy the photography aspect of it as well and getting to design
and, you know, thinking about placement of charms and what the background is
(15:51):
going to be and where I'm going to take the photos.
And yeah, so that's kind of my journey into Instagram with Pandora. What about you? Yeah.
I got on Instagram, I guess it was in college.
And, you know, and there was one Instagrammer that like focused on Pandora charms.
(16:12):
And so I really loved her account and, you know, started really wanting to collect
even more than I already had.
And then Pandora, what really got me into like taking my own photos was that
Pandora did a giveaway. way.
A limited edition 14 karat gold Eiffel Tower with a little diamond in it.
(16:33):
And I desperately wanted to win this charm. Spoiler alert, I did not.
But it got me into taking some photos of my Candora collection.
And I really, really enjoyed that. And it was a nice faded outlet for me,
(16:54):
as well as a stress reliever.
And so it's something that I continue to do as that creative outlet,
like through law school and while working.
And then obviously just enjoyed that community and just the chance to converse
with other Pandora lovers was fantastic.
(17:17):
Fantastic yeah I totally agree on in
that regard about the community and and the stress
relief too it is a really fun kind of pursuit there's that I was thinking about
while you were talking about the Eiffel Tower I saw on our Pandora the Art of
Pandora blog that there's the Olympic collection coming out and I'm pretty sure
that there's charms with diamonds and Eiffel Towers too so you might
(17:40):
get another chance to get something like that
if you feel like you missed out yes I saw
that and think it will be going on my wish list
for the future nice nice nice
so what's the meaning behind
your Instagram name so obviously
it charmingly goes to
(18:02):
the Pandora charms and charm own
collection baroque is actually an
kind of ode to beauty and the beast uh
there's a joke in the animated
version of beauty and the beast where codsworth asks you know he makes a joke
(18:24):
about if it's not baroque don't
fix it and so that's kind of my my little ode to beauty and the Beast,
which is one of my favorite Disney movies.
Yeah, I love that. And I love that joke. He's showing Belle around the castle, isn't he?
And do you want to act all like all knowledgeable and funny? Yeah.
(18:44):
I made that joke to my husband the other day because he's also...
He he knows a lot about music and i said oh you should you know you should make
that joke too when you're teaching
music and he he had no idea what i was talking about i'm like come on,
everyone knows that quote if it ain't baroque don't fix it
i love it i think that's really clever i'm glad that that's what
your instagram handle is about because that's what i've always thought when
(19:08):
i've seen it so i wasn't sure but i think that's really cute and i loved that
the beauty and the beast collection that came out not that long ago like a year
maybe two years ago I thought that was beautiful where it had almost like those
stained glass window type charms. I think so pretty.
Yes, that charm is really beautiful. It was an immediate must have for me when it was released.
(19:30):
Yeah, I'll bet. What about your Instagram name?
So my Instagram name doesn't have a very deep meaning.
I have a fluffy toy shark that I bought during a wonderful holiday on Hamilton Island,
which is in Queensland in Australia and it's this
beautiful like tropical paradise and I
bought a stuffed toy shark there and its
(19:52):
name was Slater and I really liked it so I
decided that I would
call my Instagram Pandora Shark because
I happened to have my Pandora collection out and I had
the shark near me at the same time and that's how
it happened I thought I was trying to find a name that nobody else had and
I like that sort of playfulness about it
(20:14):
I like the predator aspect about it it's also got a little
bit of an Australian vibe to it because we
are often known for our sharky waters and the shark is quite cute too so I yeah
I just went with a playful humorous kind of name and I am a bit of a Pandora
predator because I have a large collection so yeah that's That's my Instagram name. Nice. I love it.
(20:39):
And how do you, how do you normally, I guess, store your charms and bracelet? So, um.
I have multiple, I have a few stackers kind of jewelry boxes.
I have a few, I have many Pandora jewelry boxes as well.
One particularly big one and then lots of those smaller ones that kind of came
(20:59):
with promotions or in store, they would sometimes just be like,
here, I have a jewelry box.
I think because I was a regular customer. So I kind of store them in theme.
So I have one, for example, one of the smaller Pandora jewelry boxes has my
Marvel charms in there. And then I have a whole section of a stackers collection with my Disney charm.
(21:20):
And I try to keep them in those. It's not very glamorous, but I try to keep
them in those little snap lock bags that they come in just so that they don't tarnish as quickly.
And then my bracelets that I've
designed and like kind of keep as full bracelets, I do the same thing.
I put them in these little snap lock bags inside the jewelry boxes.
So there are a few jewelry boxes I have where the charms are kind of on display
(21:43):
and it looks But the majority of them are in little Ziploc bags stored so that
they don't tarnish as easily.
Because if I took my collection in store to clean, they'd be cleaning for a long time.
So, yeah, I try to keep them as tarnish free as possible. What about you?
Do you have any creative way of storing it?
I'm pretty similar. I have a bunch of the smaller gifts with purchase jewelry
(22:08):
boxes. So the most part I use those as decoration so I'm not storing within them.
I do have quite a lot of the stackers collection.
It was actually fun a few years back, a group of us got to like help design
some of the new layers for being able to store charms and kind of come up with
(22:29):
brainstorm ideas for how best to store them.
So I have a collection of those. And then I also like searched for years for
there was like a big kind of like cream, white, large Pandora jewelry box.
And I had seen it on Instagram on someone else's Instagram.
(22:52):
And so I searched for it for years on eBay before I found it.
So I absolutely love that jewelry box and try to really take care of it.
Yeah, I think I know the one you mean, the holy grail of Pandora jewelry boxes.
I have a big one that's gray, and I'm the same about that one.
I'm very precious about that one. That one's the one that looks good.
(23:13):
That one's the aesthetic storage.
Yeah. Yeah, and the other ones are more functional storage.
I'm glad that you guys helped design the stackers' jewelry boxes because that's
why they're so good and so functional because only a Pandora collector would
know the kind of depth you need and the amount of spaces for rings and charms and,
yeah, the bracelet kind of loops. Yeah, that's great.
(23:36):
So which one would you like to see Pandora design?
I would love to see a few sidekicks in the Disney and Pixar movies.
So Pandora Shark would obviously love to see Bruce the Shark from Finding Nemo
be designed because I feel like that would be great for my account and its name.
And I also love Finding Nemo because it's set in Australia and I've snorkeled
(24:00):
on the Great Barrier Reef and all the characters I find really funny.
I'd also really love some of the seagulls from Finding Nemo,
just because they're so silly, as an actual charm.
Like I think I've seen them on a park dangle maybe, just as an enamel kind of
design, but I'd love them as a full chunky charm.
And I would love, love, love to see Rex from Toy Story, like the dinosaur,
(24:24):
be created into an actual charm.
I'm not sure whether it has, maybe it has, but yeah, because we don't have Disneyland
here, I'm not as knowledgeable about what has come out in all the Disney parks and things like that.
So would love a Rex charm for my Disney bracelets. What about you?
No, 100% you partially stole my answer. I would love to see a Rex charm design.
(24:50):
Pascal from Tangled is also one of my favorite characters. So I would love to see him in charm form.
And just in general, I think that sometimes Pandora misses out on the opportunity
to make new Disney character designs.
There's just so many Disney characters out there.
(25:12):
And so I would love to see more Pixar character designs and just in general,
more Disney characters created.
Them. Yeah, totally. I'd also love a daisy duck that's like a chunky charm rather
than just a little, like they've just recently released the daisy dangle and
(25:33):
I was all about it, but I really want like,
sort of like those princesses that were kind of a chunkier charm.
I'd love a daisy duck like that, or even like a Disney babies kind of daisy
or something like that, I think would be really cute.
That came out in the normal collections, not just in parks for those of us who
don't yet have a park yeah that i think would be cool and yes toy story rex
(25:55):
is iconic he has to come out as a charm surely surely.
I would really hope so. I love dinosaurs in general. So Rex is definitely a
favorite character in mine.
And yes, I desperately need him to be made.
Yeah that's so funny that you say that because
we're a big dinosaur family like as a joke i buy
(26:16):
my husband a lot of jurassic park stuff like i'm currently sitting with three
t-rex jurassic park things behind me and around me and we've bought the big
like stuffed toy rex for my son as well from toy story so yeah that's funny
we've got that in common it's such a niche thing to have in common as an adult.
(26:36):
Yeah, that's fantastic. I totally have a Rex plush as well that I like to hold
on just like sitting on the couch or something.
And we actually went to, there was a Jurassic Park in concert where there's
a symphony playing the music.
And we actually went to that last weekend and it was fantastic.
(26:58):
Oh, that's awesome. I'm all about more dinosaur charms as well,
I guess. Me too, me too. I'd have all sorts of dinosaur charms.
I'd have a husband-inspired dinosaur bracelet.
I agree. Yeah. Do you have any other hobbies or collections that you have other
than Jurassic, now that we've discovered that we're both Jurassic fans?
(27:21):
Yes, I just in general, definitely Disney collections.
I was for a while there collecting Disney pins.
I have tried to step back
a bit from my collections because like
as you said one of the advantages of Pandora
is that like you know it's smaller and it can be contained in a like smaller
(27:44):
section at your home and I feel like I'd I got a little too far with some of
the Disney collecting where I'm like I'm I've run out of wall space and and
places to put things but I'm always taking a look at the
Disney store online to check out the new Disney figurines and pins.
(28:05):
Nice, nice. I used to have a huge pin collection when the Olympic Games were
in Sydney in the year 2000, and it was really popular to collect pins.
So we have a huge collection from that time. But as you, I also stepped back from pin collecting.
When I was in high school at some point. And I'm just lucky, I think, in a sense.
(28:27):
Unlucky, but also lucky that there is no Disneyland near me because I would
be an annual pass member and there would be so many things in my house.
I'd almost need another house. So I'm very lucky that it's far away and hard to get for me.
So yeah, I've stuck to Pandora with my collections because otherwise,
yeah, as I said before, it's just going to be out of control.
(28:50):
But I love it. Pandora is a fun thing to collect and so is Disney.
I value that. Disney is a good time.
For sure. So we are going to do another episode on our summer bracelets and
talk about some of the summer charms that have come out and some of the summer
bracelets that we've designed.
So we'd love everyone to join, to listen and then share your summer collections with us too.
(29:15):
I think that would be wonderful. It was really, really lovely to talk to you, Katie.
And And, you know, we found lots in common just in our conversation.
So I think that was really, really sweet.
And I really look forward to another conversation on our Art of Pandora podcast.
For sure. I really enjoyed chatting with you, Lena. Thank you all for listening.
(29:36):
Thanks, everyone. We'll see you in our next episode. Bye for now.
Music.
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