European beads

I was in Holland this summer and my husband’s aunt had on a fun
bracelet that had a few nice larger-holed silver and glass beads on
it. All she knew about it was that someone had recently given it to
her as a gift and that her daughters had given her more beads so she
could add to it or swap out however she liked. I’ve since realized
that it was a Pandora bead bracelet after stumbling onto a few of
these while surfing the Internet.

Anybody know when these European (Pandora) beads came onto the scene
or how they got started? I can’t decide if I’ve seen something that
hasn’t hit the streets in the U.S. yet or if I was asleep at the
wheel and totally missed them here.

Thanks from a very curious stoneworker! Carol in New Orleans

Carol,

The Pandora beads/jewelry are a collection carried by a number of
jewelers here in the US. One of our local jewelers carries the line.

Brian

Hmmm, they are an interesting concept, although priced very high.
You can check out their history, etc on their website
http://www.pandorabeads.com. They give their history on their
homepage. It appears they haven’t been around in the US for very
long - only a few years.

BBR - Sandi Graves, Beadin’ Up A Storm
Stormcloud Trading Co
St Paul, Minnesota (USA)
651-645-0343

Here is another site on these beads. Nothing special. Big and
overpriced. http://www.belloparadiso.com

Just the latest larger version of the add a charm italian bracelet
craze of a few years ago: http://italianbraceletcharms.com. Prior to
that, there were the charm bracelets of the 50’s
http://www.charmnjewelry.com and before that, there were the
Victorian
slide bracelets: http://slidebracelet.com No doubt versions of this
have been around since Egyptian times.

No connection with any of these guys. just interesting examples of
what you are looking for.

Cheers,

Lisa, (Sitting here with our smallest cat, “Didda Widda Ting”. My son
named her, and I am always threatening to tell his friends) Topanga,
CA

Hi Carol,

I believe they are Italian and they started popping up on ebay
around 2 years ago. http://ladycharms.com may have more information
for you.

Alain