I am 63 and the first piece of jewelry I have ever written a letter about is a copper bracelet I saw at our community pool
I am 63 and the first piece of jewelry I have ever written a letter about is a copper bracelet I saw at our community pool
Six things the Nadine Copper Bracelet gets right that everyday jewelry gets wrong, from a woman who had never once written to a store about anything.
Peggy Dalton · Customer · Austin, Texas · 5 min read
I ought to tell you straight off who you are hearing from, because I am no writer. I am Peggy, I am 63, I live in Austin, Texas, with my husband Frank, and in all my years of birthdays and anniversaries I have never once written to a store about a piece of jewelry. What I have done is fill a box with things I never wear, thin chains that tangled, bangles that rattled down my arm and clattered on every table, gold colored things that stopped being gold colored by the second month. So this is not a review. It is a woman who was wrong about a bracelet, saying so.
The one I am writing about is called the Nadine Copper Bracelet, from Iris and Nora, a small boutique here in Austin that has been quietly making the ordinary things a little lovelier for a few years now. I first saw it on the bench across from me in the locker room at our community pool, before the Tuesday morning water aerobics class, slipped off a wrist and set down on a folded towel, and when the boutique later asked if they could put my letter up for others to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
A twisted band of warm copper, the color of a new penny, catching the light under those unforgiving locker room bulbs of all places. When we were both back at our lockers I watched her put it on again, before her watch, before her coat, first of everything. So I asked her about it. Read on.
On the arm of my chair, on the rust sweater I wear half of fall. The color is the whole point.
Here is what a lifetime of jewelry taught me. It comes in two piles. The precious pile, the pieces that live in the box for best and come out twice a year, if the clasp cooperates. And the everyday pile, the odds and ends that clatter, pinch, catch on cardigan cuffs, and end their days in a drawer looking exactly what they cost.
Jewelry either sat in the box being precious, or sat on my wrist looking cheap. I had stopped expecting a third option.
The Nadine is the first piece I have owned that is neither, and having worn it every day since it arrived, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The day it came. I ordered it expecting to send it back. I did not.
It does not look like its price
It looks inherited. That is the best word I have for it. A twisted copper band with a proper weight and a soft satin finish reads as the sort of thing that comes down from a mother with a story attached, not the sort of thing that arrives in the mail. I assumed exactly that about the one at our community pool, and I was exactly wrong. Nobody has looked at mine and guessed anywhere near what it cost, and I have not been correcting them in any hurry.
On the little green dish on my dresser. It has a way of looking like it has always been there.
My daughter turned it over looking for a hallmark and asked which relative had left it to me. I bought it three weeks ago.
Carol S., Johnson CityThe twist is the detail people notice
The band is not a plain hoop. It is a ribbon of copper wound around on itself in an even twist, so the light moves along it as your hand moves, softly, the way it does on old candlesticks. The finish is brushed rather than polished, satin rather than shiny, which is precisely why it does not look cheap. Shiny copper shouts. This one does not say a word until somebody leans in, and somebody always does.
Next to the reading glasses, where it gets left at night. The twist is what everyone leans in to look at.
Three people at church asked about it in one morning. It is the twist that catches their eye, every time.
Sylvia R., La GrangeIt has a proper weight, and sits quietly
Most bracelets at this sort of money feel like they might blow away, and the heavy ones rattle down your arm and clatter on every table. The Nadine does neither. It has the solid, settled feel of a proper piece in the hand, and because it holds its place on the wrist it does not slide around or knock on the desk when I write. I put it on in the morning and it stays exactly where I put it, which after years of chasing bangles up my arm feels like very good manners.
On, with the morning coffee. It sits where you put it and stays out of the way.
It feels like a piece three times the price when you pick it up. Substantial, but it never once gets in my way.
Margaret P., KingslandThe color was made for this time of year
Warm copper against rust, mustard, brown and cream is one of those pairings that simply works, and that is most of my wardrobe from September on. Gold can look brassy on our coloring and silver can look cold, but copper is warm without shouting, and it flatters a wrist that has seen some weather, which mine has. I have worn it with a rust sweater, a brown coat and my good cream cardigan, and it has yet to argue with any of them.
Against my fall sweaters it looks lovely, warmer than gold and kinder than silver. I get more compliments on it than on anything I own.
Kathleen D., SpicewoodOpen at the back, so there is no clasp to fight
I want to shake the hand of whoever decided this one did not need a clasp. The band is open at the back, so it eases on sideways in a second and sits snug, and taking it off is just as quick. No squinting at a tiny catch, no holding one end in your teeth, no asking Frank to do the fussy little catch. My fingers gave up on little clasps some time ago, and this bracelet simply does not have one.
On in a second, off in a second, no clasp at all. I can manage it with wet hands at the sink, which says everything.
Doreen M., LulingOne size, and it never comes off
Because the back is open, one size sits right on any wrist, and there is no measuring and nothing to get wrong. The woman at our community pool told me hers comes off for the water and goes straight back on after, before her watch, before her coat, and I understood her completely within a week of mine arriving. The box pieces take turns. This one just stays on. I have already told my sister Sue she is getting one for Christmas, which is that particular worry quietly solved.
I take it off at the pool and put it straight back on after. It is the only piece of jewelry I actually wear.
Jean B., Lago VistaThe Nadine, against the bracelets you have been buying
You can find a bracelet for this sort of money anywhere. I know, because I own a boxful of the evidence. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Too precious to wear, or too cheap to love
Finicky clasps that need a second pair of hands
Rattle down the arm and clatter on every table
Gold colored until about the second month
Look exactly what they cost
A twisted band of warm copper, satin not shiny
Open at the back, eases on in a second, no clasp
A proper weight that sits quietly where you put it
One size that fits any wrist, nothing to get wrong
Looks a great deal more expensive than it is
About the price
The Nadine Copper Bracelet is $39.95, down from $65.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that this is the run being cleared in the sale to make room for the fall stock, and once it is gone, it is gone. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that I would have counted $65.00 fair money for it, so coming down to $39.95 made it an easy yes, and after weeks of daily wearing I have not found a single reason to think otherwise.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women’s words.
In the dish on the hall table, next to the keys. Though most days it never comes off at all.
If your jewelry box is full of things you never wear, and your fall coats are all waiting for something warm at the wrist, this is the one I would ease onto your arm myself, while there is still stock to be had. Stop debating with yourself and go look.
Peggy
THE NADINE COPPER BRACELET
- A twisted band of pure copper, as the boutique has it
- Soft brushed satin finish, warm rather than brassy
- Open at the back, no clasp to fight with
- Eases on sideways and sits where you put it
- A proper weight that feels far more expensive than it is
- One size, no decisions to make
- Free shipping
Sale on now. The first fall stock is already going.