Featured Two Bracelets: Aquamarine & Operculum

The three penny bracelet shown off by @Ownedbybear put me in mind of a bracelet I have. Since it lives next to the other one, decided to show & get opinions on both. (Apologies for the quality of some of the pictures.)



Top one is silver (unmarked, untested) & chunks of raw aquamarine. The silver is worked in a leaf & tendril design. The clasp is a simple hook & eye. Would this be considered Arts & Crafts? Or just craft show?



The stones are not as dark or as green as the photos make them; they're a pale aqua blue.

The bracelet I thought of when I saw OBB's is this one. Each section is an operculum, sort of the front door of snail type molluscs, in this case turban shells. They are backed by & held by bezels made of British coins, most George VI, 1944 or so. Think most of them were used in India. I imagine some ship's machinist stationed in the Indian Ocean cobbling this together for his sweetheart. The clasp is a working buckle.



The floor is open.

 

Just curious if your bracelet is anything like this:


It looks like that ring on the lower left is stamped?

 

My bracelet is exactly like that, apart from variations necessary to accommodate the natural stones. Where is the one you show?

I just checked. No kind of stamp on the ring. The irregularity is a little dab of solder.

 

It's yours. I just colored it.

 

I'm so relieved. Thought there for a moment they were all over the place. Had to back the saturation down on this to get it to the way it looks to the eye.

 

I'd think the aquamarine bracelet is somewhere between factory and hobby - some sort of quality artisan work. The one with the British coins could have been some local smith getting creative with available materials. It probably was sold to a British soldier/sailor as a gift for a sweetheart or Mum.

 

I love the leaves on the aquamarine bracelet. So pretty and elegant. The operculum one looks to have an interesting clasp - can we see a close up please?

 

I think the coin one was commercially made, the links are absolutely typical of ones I've seen here. But, it didn't start life with the operculum, that's been added.

The other is lovely. I suspect Scandinavian.

 

Thank you. It does rather have that look, doesn't it? It reminds me of glaciers.

The clasp is only the right way up with the operculum side outward. And I just don't see how the coins could have been linked together first, then refashioned into bezels after, & have the connections come out looking like this, with the links running through the bezel:



I have seen another that was the same idea except the coins used were US coins from the Philippines & in between the operculums (operculi?) there was the US Navy insignia.


Here's yet another one:

https://www.etsy.com/sg-en/listing/714135278/australia-coin-bracelet-operculum-shell



Makes me think this was an idea for a leisure project that was circulating among the armed forces, maybe specifically the Pacific navies, just after WWII. Imagine there's a lot of down time when you're the occupying force.

 

That’s a fun clasp. I like it

 

https://chatsworthlady.com/2016/05/03/unusual-operculum-jewelry/



"This bracelet is definitely from the 1940s and is quite possibly an example of WWII “trench art.” It can be dated because the opercula alternate with 1943 George V silver threepence coins. This bracelet may well have originated in the South Pacific war theatre."

 

You need your sweetheart to put it on you. Could swear I've done it by myself in the past, but darned if I could yesterday. The aquamarine bracelet is pretty easy to do on, not so easy to doff as there is not a lot of slack to work with.