White Spots In Between My Artsy Braided Handle .. What Can They Be?

Hi TPF'ers!


I've purchased a preloved Artsy MM a while back through ebay that had already been authenticated here at TPF and deemed as authentic! The seller is also a fellow TPF'er

I love my Artsy to death and rarely do I use her as I want to keep her as perfect as possible. After reading many posts here about how we should enjoy our bags and every moment is a special moment I came to the realization that I need to rotate my bags more and use ALL of them not just the more used ones

So Finally I am using my Artsy MM for the first time after many months of admiring her. I noticed today that in between the braided handles there are some white spots. I am just curious as to what they could be? My gut tells me it is uneven patina? The whole braided handle had developed a beautiful honey patina -- could these white spots be the spots that had not patina'd yet? The spots looks to be like what the handle would've looked like when it was brand new before the patina process.

Let me know what else they could be? It doesn't bother me and I love my Artsy MM to pieces but I still would like to know what they could possibly be.

Here are some pictures . There are only a few spots - I just took more than one picture for better viewing of the spots.

 

Hi, I've just tried to scrape it with my finger nail and it is not mold -- it feels no different than the rest of the handle ... It could be as simple as uneven patina?

I am not sure if I should bring it to LV or not since the handle is broken into now and oh so comfortable. A brand new handle would be very stiff right?