You buy a piece of jewellery for how it looks, and you keep it — or not — for what it's made of. Here's what's in our necklaces, no glossing over.
The lampwork glass of the charms
The little creatures — crab, octopus, shrimp, cactus — are lampwork glass, worked at the torch and shaped by hand. Glass isn't bothered by water, salt or cosmetics: it's the most stable material in the necklace. What it doesn't like is a knock against a hard surface.
The acrylic of the charms
The necklaces in the Beach series carry acrylic charms, not glass. It's a lighter material that allows bright colours impossible to achieve at the flame, and it doesn't break if the necklace drops.
Its weak point is a different one: acrylic scratches more easily than glass, and the colours cope badly with prolonged exposure to direct sun. A necklace left for weeks on a windowsill will fade; worn and put away, it won't budge.
The resin of the beads
The beads are resin, not glass or stone. It's a choice about weight: a strand of beads this size in glass would be too heavy to wear all day. Resin isn't bothered by water, but it dulls with prolonged contact with perfume and sunscreens.
The stainless steel of the clasp
Lobster clasp and extension chain in gold-tone stainless steel. Steel doesn't blacken like silver or turn green like brass: that's what lets you keep the necklace on at the water's edge without a second thought. The gold finish, for its part, wears at the friction points over time.
What's vulnerable to what, in short
Glass only fears knocks. Acrylic fears scratches and prolonged sun. Resin and the gold finish fear cosmetics. None of them fears the odd swim rinsed off with clean water — it's repeated contact, not the water itself, that damages a summer piece.
