Can I wear mother of pearl every day? Alhambra MOP

[celestial8]

Hi everyone,

I recently placed a deposit for the vintage alhambra WG MOP 5 motif bracelet and I'm excited to receive it. A question to those more knowledgeable than me...I understand that mother of pearl needs more care than other stones (e.g. onyx) and metals. However, I'm not sure how delicate it is. I don't sleep/shower/exercise in my jewelry so that's not a problem. I'm just wondering if it's fine to wear every day otherwise. I've heard some say you should only wear MOP for the specialist of occasions but I'm not sure if this is true. Ideally, I'd like the cost per wear to be low, so if I shouldn't wear it everyday, I might have to reconsider for a different stone or metal.

Thank you for your thoughts!

 

[DS2006]

I think since you aren't planning to do anything risky while wearing it, you should be fine. MOP is pretty durable but the surface may get fine scratches if you wear it a lot. The good news is that you can always pay to have the motifs replaced if they eventually show too much wear. It might cost around $1000 to do that, though. The best solution is to have more than one Alhambra bracelet, and then you'd reduce the wear by half!

 

[phoebe.bqueen]

I wear pearl necklace for few months straight in recent years. They are easy to care for. I think if you wear as bracelet, depends on which side, the left side you will move less (unless you are lefty) therefore less chance to get scratched

 

[Notorious Pink]

The co-owner of one of my favorite hot yoga studios wears all of her mother of pearl pieces all the time. I've asked her about it and I don't think she takes any of them off (5 motif bracelet, sweet necklace, earrings). While I wouldn't recommend that, I keep on meaning to mention this here because her pieces still look perfect.

 

[rose60610]

Based on what you said, not wearing it for exercise, sleep, etc, I don't see how wearing MOP everyday would be that risky. I think MOP is absolutely gorgeous. A bracelet isn't going to be subject to as much potential bumping as a ring, for instance.