A tale of six bracelets

Actually, bracelets and bangles. It's my understanding that a bracelet with a gap in it, through which you slide your wrist, is a bangle. But never mind fine distinctions. I'm going to refer to all of them as bracelets. It makes for a snappier post title anyway.

My local friends - we are something of a girly gang - lunching ladies anyway - will all tell you that my career in bracelets has been a chequered one. So far six bought in the last fifteen years, all silver, all expensive, and in different ways very attractive. But four of them have not stood the test of time, and eventually I have passed them on as gifts to the aforementioned local friends. Much appreciated, too. And in one or two cases long lusted after. But my friends now all think that I should resist all temptations to buy further bracelets, because clearly I keep on making mistakes and I'm wasting a lot of money. To be sure, my track record is poor, I can't deny. However, it's not entirely a tale of impulsive buys subsequently regretted. I still have the first bracelet I'm going to mention in this post. And I am confident that the latest - for my upcoming 71st birthday - will be a keeper.  

Let's go through them one by one.

This was the first bracelet I'm going to write about, purchased from a silverware shop in Dorchester in September 2009. I call it my Ripple Bracelet for obvious reasons. 

This is me, wearing it in January 2012:

And here I am, trying it on the other day:

I still like it, and I'll never part with it. What's wrong then? Only that it's a hinged bracelet, kept shut by a spring in that hinge, and within a few years of buying it the spring weakened so that the bracelet wouldn't stay closed. It was no longer secure on my wrist. That was in 2014. Four years later, in February 2018, I enquired about a repair. It needed a hinge rebuild, which was no simple matter, and the work necessary would affect how the thing looked. It would also be expensive to do. So I put the Ripple Bracelet away, and decided that I would replace it with something else.

That decision has led to repeated purchases of further bracelets, in a quest to find the right one. I'm hoping that the latest will finally prove to be the Worthy Successor.   

I didn't immediately rush out to buy something else. But the hankering grew, and when I saw the next bracelet in a jeweller's window in Heathfield in February 2016, I was smitten at once - especially because it seemed the perfect match for my Slow Worm necklace. Here are the two of them together:

And here I am, wearing the new bracelet:

It was a very nice item of wristwear, but there were two problems. First, I did not get used to its weight. Second, it was very difficult to undo the clasp and take it off, and even harder to fasten it on again. At least, if I attempted this on my own, one-handed. Back in 2016 I was still wedded to the notion that - certain rings apart - jewellery needed to be taken off daily. Nowadays I'd wear something like this all the time, and never remove it. But it felt too heavy, and I didn't like not being able to take it off. So it found a new home, first with Jo, then with Valerie.

On to bracelet number three. This was an elegant hallmarked affair with a double twist. It had a hinge that was held shut by a catch. I saw it in March 2017 at my go-to jewellers, Pruden & Smith in Ditchling.

Its Achilles' Heel? The button that released the catch:

I found it was all too easy to press that by accident, and if that happened the bracelet simply fell off. I quickly grew wary of wearing it anywhere, and it wasn't long before I passed it on to Jackie, who had admired it greatly. She added a safety chain, a solution that hadn't appealed to me.

On to December 2017, and yet another bracelet (or rather, bangle!) that I spotted at a posh jeweller called Justin Richardson, near Canterbury Cathedral. (Justin handled gold, silver and jewellery work for the Cathedral, and he handled the remodelling of gold bracelets my cousin Rosemary was going to wear at her son's spectacular wedding in 2018. She and I had a few words with him outside the shop last April) Number four was a one-off hallmarked piece, in the form of a coiled serpent. I couldn't resist. How could I?

It was a distinctive, elegant piece that my friend Jo yearned to have when she saw it. But for quite a while I persevered with it. In the end, though, I admitted defeat. It was a weighty bracelet, and the ends of the metal at the gap, though smooth, nevertheless tended to dig into my wrist and dent the skin. Those dents could turn into actual bruise marks.

So one day, in January this year, I delighted Jo with a presentation. 

Before then, though, I'd bought - and given away - bracelet number five. This was a hammered cuff, another purchase from Pruden & Smith in Ditchling, this time in February 2018. It was a bright, eye-catching thing:

It was much lighter than the serpent bangle, but it still proved uncomfortable. I gave it to Valerie, who later did a swap with Jo, who now has it.  

After this, I resolutely fought against any more bracelet purchases. It seemed I was fated never to find one that I could wear a lot without some sort of grief. My girl friends were very pleased to accept them from me as gifts, but grew worried about my spending so much money in vain. So bracelets were banned. Not rings; nor pendants or necklaces; and everyone wished that I would replace my titanium ear studs with a range of earrings. But any impulse on my part to consider yet another bracelet met with discouragement, and I couldn't say their concern was misplaced. 

Even so, that desire to finally have the 'right' bracelet, the one that I could wear all the time with no problems, did not go away. And that desire had by May this year become very strong. Perhaps to my credit, I managed to walk away from a bracelet I saw at a jeweller in Cirencester. Here it was:

It was hinged, so easy to put on and take off - but I remembered the potential problems I might have if the catch opened unexpectedly. Apart from that, it was perhaps too plain, too ordinary. There was nothing extra-special about it. It wasn't too hard to walk away. 

Afterwards, I pondered why only the first bracelet - the one with ripples bought in 2009 that was now beyond economical repair - meant enough to me to retain. I realised that its associations had a lot to do with it. I'd bought it when my life was in turmoil, but I was winning through. So it commemorated a positive new stage in my life. 

It seemed to me that all the subsequent bracelet purchases lacked that kind of significance. I'd simply fancied them at the time, and had bought them as spur-of-the-moment acquisitions, with no strong association with a person, a place, or an event. None had, for instance, been a birthday present, marking at the very least the good wishes of my friends, whatever extra associations followed. 

So the next bracelet - assuming it looked great and I found it easy to wear - must have that essential missing association. Coming up was my 71st birthday. Perfect. The sapphire ring I'd had made for my 70th birthday had remained special because it was a birthday present, and not only marked an Important Birthday, but (at least in part) was a gift from my friends. That link with them made all the difference.

So now my wrist will be adorned with a sixth bracelet (or seventh, if you count the one in Cirencester that I didn't actually buy). It's from Pruden & Smith again, and already has my friends' approval. They were there. It had to be slightly lengthened. I tried it on for size three days ago, and it looked resplendent, and perfectly comfortable. I have pictures, but I'm keeping them back until after the presentation over lunch at the end of this week. All I will mention is that it's a bracelet I'll want to wear all the time. It's silver, flexible, secured by a clasp and not hinged, has no edges that might dig into my wrist, and is not too heavy. Despite meeting those requirements, it's eye-catching - a different design from any of the previous bracelets. It'll be the subject of another post!