On many an occasion I used to show the designer jewels I bought off eBay. I tried to buy every piece as cheaply as I could, a – because they were already second hand, and b – the exorbitant prices were out of my budget. So it was as inexpensive as I could find it.

This piece, however, I bought for $76 with shipping, so definitely not on the cheap side. It was one of my favourite pieces, a gorgeous mint chip resin hinged bangle with a gold glued on ornament. There’s a matching black and strawberry sorbet versions as well. I rarely wear it, a – because I have so much jewellery I’m trying to wear everything I own so it will take a while to get back to it, and b – because it cost me $76. Not cheap, and so not worn much. Some things I think are so gorgeous I’d rather look at them than wear them.

And now that’s where this piece will be going back to. Being looked at and not worn.

With only two slim magnets attaching each side to each other all was fine until I got home. It’s a bit of a long story, so settle back and take a ride.

Mum and I had been shopping with my sister. She wanted to buy mum a bunch of flowers but wanted the butterfly bobble thing from another bunch, so what does she do? She takes it out of the bunch it’s in and shoves it into the one she wants to buy. I told her that was stealing but she laughed. 

When we got home I unloaded mum and the shopping and then started unpacking. When I got to the flowers I was quickly unwrapping them and had completely forgotten about the butterfly. Well, that little bastard decided to fly out of the paper and up to my face, and me, forgetting what it was, frantically flung my hand up to brush it away, only to then see my bangle, which I didn’t even feel come off my wrist, smash onto the ground. At which point it broke and the piece landed next to the bangle. 

Needless to say I was not happy but not overly emotional. A few days later I got out the trusty E6000 glue and spent 24 hours gluing and drying it. I will never wear it again, unless I forget in a few years, but the crack is still noticeable and I don’t want to risk wearing it just for it to break right off my wrist, so back to the cabinet it goes. Of course, this is not the first time this has happened with this particular jewellery designers pieces. I had a bangle a few years ago simply crack and fall in half on my dressing table. It was replaced but there was some shit that went down with that company that resulted in blog posts and their company doing shit that should not be spoken of, so no names have been mentioned.

Have you even bought an expensive, second hand or brand new, piece of jewellery and shit just happened to it and you never wore again?