For most of the time that I’ve collected beads, I didn’t own any faceted beads. There was just something about them that didn’t quite sit right with me, so I wrote them off entirely. I honestly can’t really explain what it was, but as soon as I saw that a bead was faceted, any initial interest that I had in it faded. I admit that my resolve was tested over the years by a few of Trollbeads’ faceted glass and stones, but I was always able to cross them off my list for a reason other than just the facets, so it was never too much of a dilemma.
Then Pandora released their Essence collection in late 2013 and it started to become a dilemma. I loved the line, but initially resisted buying any because most of their stones only come in faceted versions and I figured that there weren’t enough silvers to justify starting a bracelet. Last March, after three and a half years, the beauty of the stones finally won me over and I didn’t really have a choice but to accept the facets. The facets are really quite small on them, so you don’t really notice that they are faceted (or so I told myself). But it marked the beginning of the end of my fight against facets.
In October of last year, I popped into my local dealer looking for a bead for a secret Santa swap and unexpectedly came out with my first full-sized faceted bead. You can’t ignore the facets on these beauties!
Originally part of the limited edition Stories of You set, the Faceted Aurora beads had piqued my interest when they were released in 2013. Some of the promotional images showed variations that were extremely pale, almost tending to green, that made me reconsider my stance on facets. But, I never saw those variations for sale and, combined with the fact that I didn’t really want the lock and chain that they were bundled with, I passed on the beads at the time.
The ones that I found in October aren’t really that far off of the standard variations that I saw and dismissed when the set was first released, but this time I was more intrigued by them (perhaps my experience with Essence has softened me up? :D) And, since the dealer had split the sets so I didn’t have to buy the locks, the final barrier was removed. They came home with me that day and have been in fairly regular rotation since then.
Although the number of faceted beads in my collection has grown considerably since this time last year, the number of unfaceted beads in my collection still far outnumbers them. Still, now that one barrier has been lifted, I wonder how many other faceted beads might find their way into my collection in the future?
Have you held any opinions that you thought you would never waiver from, but then you did?