Custom jewelry mulitple options? Best way?

I sell custom jewelry as a fundraiser for kids sports. For example, we have bracelets that we can add slider charms to including letters, numbers and sports charms. What would be the best way to do this? Can one item have a lot of "choices"? Is there a limit to them? Also, I need to know the order the charms are chosen to put them on the bracelet correctly.
I'm open to any and all suggestions
Thanks!

http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?99-how-do-i-add-attributes-to-my-products

With that allow me to post a pic with each option? And set a seperate price for each?

With that allow me to post a pic with each option?
Yes through the attribute controller and the selection of "Attributes Image Swatch:"

I'm working on something similar to what you wish to do. The one that worked for me, well kind of, since I'm still testing, is to put the options as option names. Here is what I did under admin:

1. Create the option name, with text box option (in case they wish to have more than one of the same attribute for one bracelet)
2. After I create the option name, I go and edit the text box size to accept 2 characters only, this will make the text box smaller.
3. Next, I go to attribute control and add the option name to my main product and add the image at the same time.

I have tested this, when I add to cart, it will show the number the customer have inputted in the text box and the option name but have to work on the layout of the option name on the product details page.

The method that Stevesh suggested also works great but it is limited to one selection per attribute. Like for example, if I wish to have two letter "A" added to my bracelet, that won't work... at least I haven't found a way for that to work. The first method I tried was adding option name and than adding option value after it but since the choices are: check box, radio button... etc. it limits it to one selection per attribute.

I hope this helps.

Sorry my site is a mess right now so I can't show it here. :)

Good luck!

I am still open to suggestions on this. I am concerned that my problem, with the suggested offered so far, will be the fact that we have over 50 charms that can be added to multiple products. I want it to be the easiest way possible for my customers.. I don't mind if its time consuming to set it up on my part... just easy for them to order and have their order be self explanatory when we receive it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

I just found a thread that showed this site ... http://www.cocoabella.com/build-box
that is a good idea of what I need but I noticed that it places the pieces added to the box in alphabetical order, which I would need them to stay in the order they were selected in.
Anybody??

Have you looked at attributes??

Yes, that was my original idea, but can a item have over 100 attributes and still work properly and efficiently for the customer?

but can a item have over 100 attributes
Yes, but you stated that you have 50 charms

Yes but upon counting them there will be over 100.... And as mentioned above the customer can only choose a qty of 1 with any attribute ... That won't work with these someone might need 2 or 3 of the same thing

I wish there was a mod that would allow a person to see the bracelet, for example, and see the charms over it to see what it would look like... But then again I wish I could win the lottery lol

Something like this would be amazing... http://www.bluenile.com/jewelry/charms/classic-build-your-own-charm-bracelet

our items aren't chains tho...but still.

That's some very slick custom javascript (in a completely custom-built site)... I think you need to be prepared to lay out some serious cash to get something like that written. I expect it could be done for Zen Cart by a skilled javascript coder.

Yeah that's what I figured ... Don't need anything that fancy now... But I do need to be able to do something along those lines as far as customizing their product. I can add every charm as a attribute with its own price to be added to final cost but again what if they want more than one of the same item?

If the charms have different prices, you could make them all dropdowns with choices of 0 (default), 1, 2, etc. Each quantity would have its price like
[0 _ _ _ ]
[1 ($5.00)]
[2 ($10.00)]
[3 ($15.00)]

This doesn't account for sequence. Short of custom javascript of some kind, I would suggest adding a text input box where they could show the sequence they want. (I might give each charm a two-letter code for this purpose.) It wouldn't be able to double-check the quantities; they and you would have to take care of that. How many charms does a typical order have? What is the largest number you have seen ordered on one bracelet?

For the bracelets only about 7 at most... Rings only 2 .... But Keychains are made as long as they want them.

So bracelets and rings should be easy enough for the customer to keep track of when entering the sequence after selecting quantities. How many charms are usually on a keychain?

Oh and price wise we only really have 2 different prices charms with most being $2 ea and few $3 ea.
What if I added everything on there individually so they would buy all that they want to ...let's say... Make 3 bracelets ... Is there an easier text way /page to detail how they want them ? A page that would have a Item 1 ... Then a text box .... Item 2 ... And a text box... And so on?

The keychains are harder because its one long strap that we cut to size depending on what they want on it... I could probably place a limit though.