CarolK,

The bracelet has wonderful dimension! And the clasp is amazing! So glad you "went for it!" Someday you can restring and finish it so it won't have a glued knot.

[CarolK]

Thanks, Ashby and Pattye!!!

Since joining the forum, learning how to restring my own pearls has become more and more tempting!

CarolK

[Cathybear]

Carol, it's beautiful, Im so glad you bought it.
I'm getting rather partial to bracelets, I always have pearls on my wrist now, and enjoy the feeling. I used to wear a rather ornate gold bracelet all the time till i caught it on the clothes dryer and bent the heart padlock. I;m finding my left wrist is much safer for bracelets than my right.

[CarolK]

Cathybear,

Thanks for the tip about wearing the bracelet on my left wrist. It is clearly antique--I've never owned anything this fragile before. I'm hoping it'll force me to be more ladylike.

Thank you for the compliment!

CarolK

[waimeamomi]

Now that is NOT a tita bracelet. Good job Carol on following your heart on this. I love opals and opal beads were my main lust object before I fell into this crowd. I'm going to do a combination piece one of these day. I'm glad you got it. You would have thought about it forever if you'd passed it by, and now you can look at it instead!!

[CarolK]

Originally Posted by waimeamomi

I'm going to do a combination piece one of these day.

That would really be great!!! I am now convinced that pearls and opals are a match made in heaven.

You are right, it's not a tita bracelet. My tita days all pau now.

Thanks for being a brassiere! (supportive )
CarolK

[borah]

That's gorgeous! It looks even better on than it did in the Ruby Lane photos.

[Andrew]

I just wanted to add my oohs and aahs. I was hoping you'd buy it and tell us all about it as you did but I was a little reluctant to encourage you to spend YOUR money to satisfy MY curiosity when I wasn"t really sure they were the real McCoy. I too would like to see pics of whatever waimeamomi makes with pearls and opals. Sounds like a delicious combo for a designer with flare and imagination!

[CarolK]

Thanks, borah and Andrew (Andrew, welcome to the forum!)!

Ohhh. I'm sad today, having just emailed the poor, patient Ruby Lane seller that I would like to return the bracelet.

The bracelet is quality in every way: if you can believe it, it looked better under 10x magnification than it did to the naked eye. The opal in the snake's head is fiery, mounted *open-back*. The diamonds were very bright, and the pearls truly were *natural* in every way.

Unfortunately, their color *exactly* matches my skin tone. It was hard to admit but, although beautiful, the bracelet "did *nothing* for me". It is meant for someone with either fairer and rosier, or darker and browner skin tone.

It's difficult to buy jewelry online. However, I am determined to buy something else from this wonderful, honest, hard-working Ruby Lane seller! (That is, if she hasn't had it with me altogether!) I feel so bad.

But, the bracelet is very old and very beautiful--a wonderful piece of Victorian jewelry from a time when people were smaller and led a more leisurely life. Frankly, I felt that it was only a matter of time before my spastic movements caught that delicate bracelet and sent the pearls spilling....

I will miss it.
CarolK

Like Andrew, I was enjoying your bracelet vicariously and will be sad to see it go. If it weren't so expensive, I would say you should keep it and replace the pearls with bigger, whiter or pinker pearls -- or baroques -- or baroques interspersed with opal beads.... You see the problem - we are all pearl dreamers!

Shopping for pearls again -- what a burden!

[Caitlin]

That lovely bracelet has a look that can be duplicated with tiny cultured freshwater seed pearls.The fw seed pearls are very tough and can be worn casually. It won't matter if you break a thread, cultured freshwater are quite inexpensive.

Maybe you could even find, or design, a clasp with opals.....That would be 99% of the value.

[CarolK]

GemGeek and Caitlin,

Your suggestions have set me to thinking about this.

My husband has grown fond of the little bracelet. I caught him examining it with the 10x magnifier this evening. He really thinks I should keep it--he's so blown away by the details. And we both think the little snake has so much personality!

Caitlin, where can I buy a bunch of those "tiny cultured freshwater seed pearls" you mentioned? It would be even neater if there were many more strands of whiter pearls--a fat fat bunch of them.

Also, could someone suggest a good source of whiter/pinker pearls, ~3mm? GemGeek, I like your idea of larger, brighter pearl replacements.

Once iridescence gets under your skin, you're a goner!
CarolK

CarolK,

Oh, I hope you do keep it! I was thinking you could stack different color pearl bracelets on the sides when you wore it, that would add some color contrast for now. Perhaps when you restring adding small gem quality opal roundels every 5-7 pearls or so would also add color contrast within the strands themselves. If you added enough, it would also extend the pearls you already have and fatten up the strands. I think Hubby is right on this one!

Think about strands of 4.5mm pearls, which are easier to get in whiter colors and would make a nice multi-strand bracelet. Here is a link to some photos. You can see that a lot of the truly tiny pearls are a creamy color. Those lavender ones are cool...

John Tu's Pearls

[waimeamomi]

These are great ideas. I guess it depends on whether you love the bracelet part, the clasp or both. You could use the clasp on pearls/pearl opal/other gems whatever combination that suited your coloring, wrist size and life style. The pearls could be any size or color or strand number. You could use the existing pearls in another way - maybe in a necklace, so you could wear them in a safe way. I've take apart so many pieces to use things in other ways. Just depends on where your heart is on the bracelet - plenty of us out here that will help out!