My very first necklace + what to do with loose pearls?

[Hannah Damma]

So after wanting a pearl necklace for a very long time, I finally pulled the trigger on these 8.5-9mm Hanadama Akoyas. My wallet is crying tears of sadness, but I am ignoring that for now because GUYS. This thing is SOOO shiny. The pics don't do it justice. I don't even wanna know what a tennyo strand looks like because this one kept messing up my pictures because of how reflective it is. (I'm also just a terrible photographer using my phone, but -- I was wearing a pink-purple shirt while taking the pics and the pearls kept turning out looking like they've been pinked. Which they haven't; they're kind of a silvery-white-ivory color IRL.)

Anyway, I know I "should've" gone for something like a smaller freshwater strand for my first set, but I couldn't help it. These pearls were calling my name, so I had to lol.

One question I had is: originally the necklace was an 18". I had it shortened to 16" and now I have 5 pearls left over. I don't want a bracelet because I like leaving my hands free / I'd be perpetually afraid of banging my arm against something and damaging the pearls. Maybe a pendant, brooch, hairpiece, or something else? Anyone have design suggestions/places to go for design suggestions?

 

[Hannah Damma]

Oh, and these came from Yokota Pearls on eBay. I looked on a bunch of secondhand auction sites like Catawiki and others for awhile, but the quality on those sites just seemed less trustworthy + what little customer service they had lacked the details and info I wanted, so I decided to buy from a more official storefront. I ended up paying ~$4200 total ($3700 for the necklace and pearl set, and the rest in taxes and import duties). Not sure if I overpaid but it was still less than Pearl Paradise and Pearls of Joy even after their Black Friday sales + coupon codes. Also not sure if this is a case of "you get what you pay for", and PP or PoJ are actually better, but these seem amazingly good to me already (compared to other people's pearls I've seen IRL) and I love them to bits.