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Diamond Hoops with Ten Detachable Colored Drop Pairs

J

Jambalaya

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Oct 2, 2014
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I created a thread a while ago on my detachable earring drops, and since then I've acquired seven more pairs and another pair of hoops in a different metal. The other thread was getting very long and unwieldy with lots of discussion about the finer points of the hoops, so I've decided to consolidate in one thread the eight additions with first three pairs. So the collection of drops is shown together in a cleaner thread.

Long story short, I adored Kate Middleton's Kiki McDonough hoops and drops, but at almost 2k for one pair, and 1.3k for every subsequent pair of drops, they were out of my price range. I also objected to the prices for what are, after all, only semi-precious stones, and for hoops which only have 0.14 ctw. Sometimes I don't mind paying designer prices, as I have four Kiki items, but not for these earrings.

I found a company who makes the drops for a fraction of the price, and they are also 1mm bigger. They are the same sparkly checkerboard cut as Kiki's, and the gemstones are all real semi-precious just like the Kiki ones. (I also have two additional colors that Kiki doesn't do which are glass.)

The drops in white metal are set in 925 sterling silver. The drops set in gold are 18k plate over 925 sterling silver.

The hoops are from A. Link and are solid 14k white gold and solid 14k yellow gold, each with 0.12 ctw diamonds.

Here are the Kiki drops in green amethyst and gold.

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Here is my full collection, with and without flash.

Top row, left to right:
Hot-pink glass in gold; indigo-blue glass in gold; blue topaz in silver; green amethyst in gold; pink amethyst in gold.

Bottom row:
Indigo-blue glass in silver; rock crystal in silver; green amethyst in silver; citrine in silver; pink amethyst in silver.


I decided to get my favorite colors in both gold and silver because the settings are quite thick and so you do see the color of the metal. I find that the same color looks quite different in the white gold hoops and the yellow gold hoops.

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Ear shots.

The first two are the rock crystal, followed by pink amethyst and green amethyst, all in sterling silver and white gold hoops.

rock_crystal_and_white_metal.jpg

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Next up is the citrine and the blue topaz, in sterling silver with the white gold hoops.

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blue_topaz_and_white_gold_hoops.jpg
 
Now for the gold drops. Here are the green amethyst and the pink amethyst in 18k gold plate over sterling silver, and solid 14k yellow gold diamond hoops:

green_amethyst_and_gold.jpg

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And the hot-pink and indigo-blue glass drops, set in the 18k gold plate as before with solid 14k diamond hoops. The only color I haven't photographed is the indigo-blue set in silver, but I think you get the idea from the gold ones shown here.

pink_quartz_glass.jpg

blue_quartz_glass_and_gold.jpg
 
That's it. There are other colors such as black onyx, smokey topaz, aqua onyx, and the blue topaz in yellow gold. I might get the smokey topaz if they ever bring it out in gold - it's currently only silver - and I might get the aqua onyx in silver. I have enough blue pairs and I don't like the black onyx. Hope you like my drops - I am very pleased to have the collection; the photos don't show it but the stones are very sparkly due to the cut, and the ten pairs plus two pairs of hoops cost quite a bit less than just one pair of the Kiki drops. :loopy:
 
I really like these. Very pretty! Are the drops heavy at all?
 
Thanks, CharmedOne! They have a nice weight to them, being 11mm square, but they are not too heavy.
 
Your so welcome :) I really like the versatility of them. They are a nice size as well. My MIL would love these. This just might be her Christmas gift!
 
Thanks! I got the drops from a company called Heavenly Necklaces - you can google them. They're foreign but take international credit cards and ship all over the world. I got my hoops from a local jeweler but the brand is A.Link. Heavenly Necklaces also sells CZ hoops that fit the drops.
 
Great! Thank you so much for all the info. My MIL loves to match EVERYTHING :) So hopefully I'm as successful as you were in acquiring them. She loves jewelry and I give her a piece of jewelry every year. After 21 years, my creativity in finding things for her peaked last year when I gave her a 5 stone diamond ring, so this will be perfect for her because she loves earrings.
 
Great! I hope she likes them - the drops are very swingy and sparkly. The photos don't really capture how nice they are in real life.
 
Jambalaya, I love your collection of drops! :love: Your earrings are so pretty! Love the photos of them in the tray too! It looks like a little box of candy colored goodness! I would have a hard time choosing which ones to wear. :naughty: Thank you for sharing. :appl:
 
They look fantastic on and I also love them all lined up in their box, how cool is that?????

Love them, thank you for sharing :wavey: :appl: Enjoy!!!!
 
I remember your original thread, thank you for consolidating.

I just love your collection. Something different for every day. As a February baby, I'm especially interested in the different colors of Amethyst. Pretty!

Thanks again, for sharing.
 
Thank you, everyone! Collecting these beautiful drops really is addicting. Now I'm like, hmmm, maybe I should get the smoky topaz and the aqua onyx after all!

Azstonie, may I just say, that little dog in your avatar is just the cutest thing ever! I love him! :love:
 
Beautiful, Jambalaya! Now that I got my own huggies I should definitely get a pair of those. Or two :-)
 
Beautiful!

You have the most amazing collection of jewelry and this new collection of earrings that you have acquired is just fabulous!
:love:

Enjoy!
 
Wow that's a beautiful collection! I love the size of the dangles, and the way they hang from the hoops - so very elegant!
 
Excellent new thread jambalaya. Amazing colors and combinations. They are a lot of fun, enjoy!! :wavey:
 
This is such a fun idea. And I imagine if you ever collect any pairs of gemstones you want made into drops, that would be easy enough to have a jeweler do, so it's infinitely versatile. They look great!
 
Rockinruby - thanks! Yes, they look fun in the tray, don't they. It's from Muji, which I find is great for jewelry storage. It's fun choosing what to wear each day. I might get a couple more drops - the rock crystal in gold, and the aqua onyx in silver. They tend to sell out quickly and they are made by a very small company run by a woman with three daughters working from home, so I'm collecting them while I can, before she gives it all up!

Azstonie - thanks again!

KaeKae - glad you like the pink amethyst! It is very pale in real life but you can tell that it's pink.

Tucs - you should definitely get some! Beware, though. Once you start, it's hard to stop!

Crystal24k - Thank you! I am happy to have the collection, so I don't get bored! I would be very interested to see the designer version in real life, by Kiki McDonough. I'd be lying if I said the "real thing" worn by Kate wasn't calling to me, but I'm afraid that if I even got one pair of the Kiki ones, I'd never wear my inexpensive versions again! And the Kiki ones are way, way too expensive to become a habit.

VRBeauty - Thank you so much! I think they look so nice in real life - very sparkly. I also think they look nice on the ultra-thin hoops. Of course, I have never seen the Kiki ones, and it would be very interesting indeed to see how they compare. I'm almost afraid to see them in case they're much nicer than mine and I go off my cheaper ones! But they are all checkerboard-cut, semi-precious gemstones on diamond hoops, same diamond weight. It's difficult to imagine that they would look very different. I keep searching the web, such as Purseforum, to see if anyone has bought Kate's and posted them, but no luck. :wavey:

Victoria10 - Thanks! Yes, they are fun. Of course, I prefer the seven pairs that are real gemstones, but the glass ones looked so lovely I decided to get them too. As you know, being a proud owner yourself, they are big enough for everyday to feel very glamorous but not so big they feel inappropriate.

distracts - thank you! At one of the colored stone vendors listed in the CS forum, I've actually seen some lavender amethyst and purple amethyst 10mm checkerboard-cut stones, and I was thinking of getting them and asking my local jeweler to set them like these. It would be a process though, and the jeweler likes to pick and choose what he does, so we'll see. I prefer to just buy ready-made, but these stones I found have a very nice color and are inexpensive.
 
I just wanted to show these two additions to my detachable drop collection that I bought a few months ago. Aqua chalcedony in sterling silver, and rock crystal in sterling silver with 18k gold plate. Less than 1/10th the price of Kiki McDonough. These two pairs complete my collection. Hope you like them!

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Hi Jambalaya. I love those, I bought two pairs from the same company. Glad to see all of them in your collection. Great colors. I have the green and aqua blue. Thank you for sharing. :love:
 
Queenie, you got hooked too, huh? Yes, the green amethyst is beautiful - perhaps my favorite. Question for you...does your mind ever wander to the "real thing"? The Kiki version that Dutchess Kate has? Mine does, but seriously, a thousand dollars for almost the same thing as the HN version, over ten times more...I looked at images that people have posted online of the "real" ones and they do look so similar. But a pair from Kiki would be so luxurious. Does your mind ever go there?
 
They are beautiful and what a fun way to get a ton of gorgeous earrings.
 
Thanks, Marcy! And really, I've bought too many of the inexpensive ones now to buy the "real" ones!
 
New drops are in at Heavenly Necklaces, beautiful and substantial east-west oval ones that look exactly like the Kiki ones but are 44GBP instead of 800GBP. The only difference is that the HN ones are silver and the Kiki ones are 18k, which doesn't explain the 750GBP difference.

Gorgeous oval drops: These are sterling silver but HN also has all these in gold over silver:

http://www.heavenlynecklaces.com/p/8464452/new-fabulous-silver-gemstone-rubover-studs-and-detachable-ovals.html

And here are the Kiki ones - same size, same design, same real stone: http://kiki.co.uk/index.php/collections/detachable-drops/blue-topaz-yellow-gold-oval-drop.html

Last night I bought the citrine drops, the blue topaz drops, the blue topaz studs (7mm!) and the peridot studs. :appl:

I also bought these in purple amethyst and moonstone:http://www.heavenlynecklaces.com/p/9150836/new-gold-clover-detachables.html

I'll do a show-and-tell when they arrive!
 
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