Smiley Charms

Paly Voice: Sushi rolls, strawberries, lemon chiffon cake, apples, Zodiac creatures, letters of the alphabet and Nintendo mushrooms. Junior Alyssa Burton is the creator of these miniature charms which she molds, hand paints and fastens to jewelry and cell phone key-chains.
What began as a cure for boredom has morphed into gifts for friends and a small business complete with a Facebook group and a Website of its own (www.freewebs.com/smileycharms).
“I was bored at home and I wanted something to do,” Burton said. “I like to doodle, so I took my designs and turned them into tiny charms with clay that I found in the house.”
Customizing charms is one of Burton’s specialties. Lamb and Marks believe it is this quality that makes every charm unique and will lead to her success. Burton welcomes students to approach her with requests for custom orders or to look at her growing selection of charms on her Web site. Charms sell for $2 each and sometimes run a little higher depending on a specialized order.
Student turns boredom into business [Paly Voice]