Today we went to the flea market on the tropical coast. I had a few items that I was hoping to find and one of them was some silver jewellery, preferably with some gemstone. Now I didn't really mind bumping into something for myself or my daughter as long as something would be found today because I saw so many cool necklaces and rings lately that I really hoped to bring one home with us today.
We were very lucky as there were many sellers with jewellery stands. This is usually the case but most of the times 9 out of 10 have modern handmade items and not the (preferably) older silver jewellery I'm trying to find. Although these handmade items are often very beautiful, I understand that craftsmanship doesn't come cheap and these sellers have their prices, often hard to bargain with. Which, by the way, I respect fully because time doesn't come cheap!
We checked out one stall after the other, many with some solid options, most still asking more than I was willing to pay. Don't get me wrong, if I would find a necklace or ring amazing and know I will wear it every day, I'm not going to bargain, it will go home with me for asking price (within boundaries of course), but if it's an item I'm mostly picking up for collecting rather than wearing, I will try to get it for a low price, if that doesn't work out, the sale is off the table and I won't feel regret afterwards either.
In the past weeks, I've been checking listings on the second hand market with silver jewellery and moonstones. I already decided that I want some jewellery with a moonstone for my daughter but also for myself. I'm not a moonstone expert though but I hope that I got it right with this one today when we found a necklace for my daughter which is perfectly imperfect and she's extremely happy with it, wearing it with pride all day! We didn't notice until afterwards that the stone has some cracks, which is not uncommon for moonstones, btw.
We almost bought it with the least pretty necklace which was a very old one but it was the one which the seller attached to this pendant. I understand why he did it because the moonstone hanger would sell the necklace. When he was going to get change, I discussed to ask him to change the necklace even though it would probably be a few euros more because of the weight. We agreed and he changed it for the one we requested.
When I checked later at a restaurant, it turned out the necklace is from OPLA and they have a huge website with jewellery. Every second hand necklace I found of them so far is much more expensive than what we paid for this one including the hanger. I couldn't find a brand on the hanger though, but now I wanted to find out if this is really a moonstone.
I will have to dig into this a little deeper another day to find out if this is a moonstone or not, I think it's one but I'll have to read more into that soon. The most important thing is that our daughter is very pleased with her gift and I will clean it either way and leave it in the moonlight with the next full moon as I've read that this is the way to cleanse your gemstones.
I found a silver ring with mother of pearl inlays and this was the first ring in 20 years which I really liked when I wore it. The price was 28 euros and I didn't know if that was worth the ring and knowing that I haven't worn a ring in 20 years, I didn't feel sure about buying it (even if I could haggle a bit) because I was afraid I'd throw it in the jewellery box and then regret it.
Now I can say, I regret not buying it, lol. Go figure, lesson learned, next time I should just take it anyway. Oh well, maybe if we return in some weeks, the ring is still there, or it was just not meant to be.
Anyway, a day with another silver item added to our family collection is still a good day!
All pictures are my own..
