Congratulation for the find! The coppery purple is such a beautiful shade...
I am not sure how the mixing of pearls will work, but it should be easy to try it out - just undo both strands, mix the pearls and play around with them
The resulting strand could also be lengthened by stringing small (2-3mm) pearls between the large ones instead of knots. The 'strategy' makes the larger pearls stand out, I think. But again, it is something to try out.