What better way to reflect Bermuda’s charm, than with an actual charm?

Adrienne Cotterill thought it was a great idea and created a line of lockets she dubbed Bermuda Charm.

Each contains Bermuda beach sand and a tiny charm such as a crab, turtle or sea shell.

Her idea was that the jewellery would give people who might otherwise miss the Island the opportunity to take a bit of it with them wherever they go.

It stemmed from a visit to a gem show in Arizona about two years ago.

“There were all of these gems and semi-precious stones,” she said.

“I wanted to learn more about them.

“I took an online course about gemmology designed for people who want to become appraisers. I just wanted to learn more.”

She travelled to Montana to dig for sapphires in a mine the following year.

“I was thinking you would be going underground, but it is just a big pile of rubble that you dig and sift through,” she said. “I found these little rock sapphires that mine staff said we could keep.”

She put one of the raw sapphires, which was green, into a little locket shaped like a ship portal.

“My sister was really impressed and so were her friends,” said Mrs Cotterill, who retired from the insurance industry earlier this year.

The portal-shaped locket became the prototype for the jewellery she now sells. She outsources the lockets and charms, but collects the sand herself and fills and seals the lockets.

“The hardest part about it is probably sifting through the sand,” said Mrs Cotterill. “I have to take out any little bits of glass that might be in the sand. I also have to make sure each locket has its fair share of the pink bits in the sand. I do that with tweezers. It is a lot of work.”

Mrs Cotterill also created the Ovarian Cancer Charm, which comes with a tiny blue ribbon and a booklet about the disease. Part of the funds from the $150 charm are going to help ovarian cancer survivor Jenna Martin with expenses incurred during cancer treatment earlier this year.

Her regular charms retail for $95 and come with a silver chain. All the charms are available online through PayPal.

The designer’s work will also be available for sale at two upcoming crafts fairs — Home-Grown Alternatives takes place at St Paul’s Christian Education Centre in Paget on Saturday from 10am until 4pm; the Winter Wonderland Fair is scheduled for the Bermuda College on December 6 from 5pm until 10pm.

For more information visit www.bermudacharm or homegrownalternatives.com.