Bee Necklaces OR The differences between Tiffany's and Etsy

Pic Cite

As you can tell from the title, this post is about two things.
I started contemplating birthday gifts, because mine is less than two months away and I need to give Tallman warning/ideas. Let me just say right here that I do not want all the things that I am about to mention.
I started my browsing on Tiffany & Co, because I've never owned something from there and I'd love to. Why? I don't know. Is it the box? The movie? The cache? The fact that it was founded the same year as my alma mater (1837)? Is it that I've never had anything from there and almost everyone I know has at one point or another had a necklace, a ring, a bracelet from there? Is this longing just formed from commercialism driven jealousy?
Possible.

Bee Charm

But I'd love to receive something in a little blue box and treasure it because of its cache, inflated pricing, and so I like to look through their website. I love looking at the more expensive pieces and wondering what I'd wear with them. (maybe I'll do a blog post on that some time) But today I had bees on the brain and so I searched for them, hoping to find a cute enamel bee... which I did... and its cute, though I can't really imagine wearing it, its just not very me, despite my love of bees.

Tiffany Garden Bee Pendant

Next I found this Garden Bee Pendant from Tiffany's. Oh my. Sure its $3,250. And its made out of diamonds. But dear lord How adorable is it?
I would wear this everywhere, everyday. Which would be a problem, and would likely lead to muggins, or me losing it or damaging it. (I have this problem where if I like something I want to use/wear it... I'm not sure its a problem actually.)

But despite how adorable this necklace is and how much I'd adore it. Its really too expensive and a little silly that its made out of diamonds like that. It could be just as lovely in sapphire or glass... right?

So that brought me over to etsy to see what they had in the way of bee necklaces. (Clearly I got side tracked from my original task which was finding things I want for my birthday.)

Tiny Gold Bee Necklace

On Etsy the best I found was this tiny gold bee pendant by Luxe Adornments. Its cute, simple, and clean. Its the closest thing to the Tiffany's stuff, even the enamel charms, which I thought were pretty simplistic.

This brings me to the second part of this post's title. Etsy is great. I love Etsy, I love that it provides an opportunity for the crafty to sell, and for those who are looking for something a bit different to buy. But there is a lot of crap on Etsy. Stuff that is bulky, lacking clean lines and simplicity that I really like in jewelry. This can hardly be surprising given the relatively low costs of many Etsy items, but sometimes the bulkiness seems unnecessary, like putting two pendants on a chain, or pendant and a stone- doesn't that just detract from both?

I hope you enjoyed this random post about a trip I took around the internet looking at bees. :p