Today I restrung my Tahitian bracelet, again.

[StarryPearl]

A while back I decided to collect and accumulate some Tahitian pearls to make myself a bracelet. It didn't take long for me to get this far

​:

​
There were peacock, forest green, purple, blue, pink, bronze, etc., and a cute banded one. I was very happy

​ until I figured it was too tight for my wrist

​. Had to add one more pearl. Since my floating pendant didn't find its chain yet, I borrowed it and added it to the middle

​. So the bracelet was restrung to this:

​
I was happy for a week then I could not tolerate that the pendant pearl has two grommets and a large hole which means the 18k gold can glide over the knot and touch the neighbor pearls

​, despite they probably won't scratch them. Got to replace it. Then, for months I searched here and there but had no luck finding a T that was both suitable and affordable

​. Earlier this week, I met with this gorgeous GSS in Druzy's shop, and thought I could give it a shot. Received the pearl yesterday and just finished another restringing:

​

Is this what I wanted?

​ Hmm, no.
Does it look good? Hmm, I guess?

​


All the pearls in this bracelet came from Druzy. And thank you to Charlotta for recommending the clasp!

​

Thank you very much for looking! Happy weekend everyone!

​

 

[Charlotta]

It's so pretty. I love those clasps

 

[pearlescence]

I saw that clasp and had to double-name-check that it wasn't Charlotta!

 

[eolian pearls]

Such a beautiful bracelet StarryPearl! In all its variations! The luster on the pearls! The colors and the sight size graduation! Lovely! I love that one can choose individual pearls at Druzy and she has some really nice ones to choose from. Well done!!!

 

[CortezPearls]

Great clasp...beautiful bracelet and a great story to go alongside it all!
Well done StarryPearl

 

[SurfnSci]

StarryPearl Your bracelet is lovely! And I had totally been eyeing that GSS pearl at Druzy - I am so glad it went to a good home It's very lustrous and your reflection is so clear. The tahitians are also crazy lustrous!

 

[StarryPearl]

Thank you, eolian pearls. I love that of Druzy's shops as well! Speaking of size graduation, my original idea of this bracelet was to use only 10 10mm - 11mm pearls and one huge WSS keshi (also from Druzy!) as the focal in the middle, with 5 T's on each side. However, I was hesitant to get the keshi drilled, as I am still debating between using it on this bracelet or as a focal pendant. I was hoping for another several 10mm - 11mm T's but got no luck after a couple months' waiting, so I bought a 3-pearl set that included the two smallest pearls - those are 8.8mm. It seems they blend in well.

Thanks, Charlotta and Douglas!

Thank you, SurfnSci! Are you sure this is the one you were eyeing? They listed quite a few recently. I am sure you will get a great one, too!


Since everyone likes this clasp, I have to say it looks excellent but I will probably not buy them any more, at least not from that Etsy shop, as the quality is unsatisfactory. I bought 5 clasps of this pattern, 3 golden and 2 silver. Of the 3 golden, only this one is usable, and yesterday a rhinestone fell off. Fortunately my husband saw it and I glued it back. Of the other two: One got a rhinestone firmly stuck in a stringing hole. I tried awl and reamer and neither could poke it out. Another one I thought it was good until when I FINISHED stringing my Edison necklace I figured the hinge of one end piece was deformed and not functional at all. So I had to cut every pearl down and start over with a different clasp. Yes I can reassemble the good parts of these two into one functional clasp, but you got the idea of the quality. I haven't mentioned that most of the stringing holes have excess metal residue, making them tiny irregular sharp-edge holes, and I had to use awl and then reamer to get one big enough for stringing. Of the two silver ones: one is good, the other also has the metal residue problem. As much as I love the look of the clasp, I won't buy from that shop again. The seller is decent though. She saw the photo of the defects and quickly issued me a partial refund.

 

[Charlotta]

I am so sorry that I recommended a shop that gave you all those defect clasps. I have bought them for years without a problem, except for one stone falling off after a year of heavy use and that was on that rondelle thinghy so I could still use the clasp.. I think that the last clasps that I bought was in november last year. I usually buy a bunch. Maybe they changed supplier or something. I hope that I don't have to find new clasps...the bother....

 

[StarryPearl]

Oh Charlotta PLEASE don't feel that way . I said thank you and I meant it. It's a fantastic clasp anyways, and there was no way for you to predict this. I was suspecting the same thing actually, suppliers or something. I bought mine around February this year, so it could be a bad quality batch produced during the holiday season, too. They need better quality control.

 

[CortezPearls]

It does happen and to all of us...I recommended a plumber recently; he had been great fixing issues at my house. And then one of my neighbors told me he was not a very good plumber! It just happens...it's a part of Life.

 

[Charlotta]

Hopefully only a bad batch. I know that I got the last ones of the golden ones at least, since they message me and told me that they didn't have enough of the golden ones. I substituded those for silver ones so I didn't have to wait for the new stock to arrive. I try to have a clasps, needles, tread and gimp for at least 6 months since it can take up to two months for packages to arrive if I am unfortunate. One might think that I live on antarctic or maybe another planet. I have to stock up again after summer I think, but will surely check them with my loupe.

 

[StarryPearl]

Hopefully only a bad batch. I know that I got the last ones of the golden ones at least, since they message me and told me that they didn't have enough of the golden ones. I substituded those for silver ones so I didn't have to wait for the new stock to arrive. I try to have a clasps, needles, tread and gimp for at least 6 months since it can take up to two months for packages to arrive if I am unfortunate. One might think that I live on antarctic or maybe another planet. I have to stock up again after summer I think, but will surely check them with my loupe.

I hope so, too. When I told the seller about the defective pieces I got, she said she would contact the factory about it. Let's hope it was just that batch.