Annette Howe
With this sort of item, as with any cause, cancer research support (pinkwashed retail), etc., I'd like to see clearly that this is made by Ukrainian artisans, that some of the money is going to help displaced Ukrainians, or basically that it's doing anything to benefit those whose cause it represents. If not, you may as well just go buy a heart pendant and keep on walking for all the good it's going to do anybody. Visible support is nice, but actual support is better.The piece is quite dainty, and looks nice when worn. It's stamped 925 on the clasp, and does not react to a magnet, other than the spring ring itself, which is normal because that inner spring should not be made of sterling. To my eyeballs, the gold color on the tryzubs is slightly different than the chain - and the color on the tryzubs is the better color, thankfully, as it's the more noticeable part of the piece. The chain is definitely leaning more orangey than I like to see. On a piece this size, it's probably not going to be terribly noticeable unless it's right next to real gold or the wearer has a very cool skin tone, which will absolutely bring out the brassiness in any piece of yellow gold jewelry.The length on this is about 15.5 inches, with an extender to get it up to a max of about 17.5. I'm pretty medium sized in the neck, and I can get it on at the smallest, but it's quite snug up to the neck. At that length and also at about mid-extender, the tryzubs want to flip up when the muscles in that region activate. When it's up super close, all that takes is a deep breath. They're also light enough that they stay pointing up until you sort of coax them back down, or manually flip them.I'm not sure I'll be using this extender, though. I'll probably add a different extender and just let the attached one hang simply to avoid using the clasp on this. It is HATEFUL to use, as in it hurts my fingers. The spring is SUPER tight and the opening is SUPER tiny, so getting this on is a bigger struggle than with any of my other pieces, or at very least most of them. This is not for folks lacking manual strength or dexterity - neither of which I lack myself, but the spring clasp and ring are one immobile piece, with the ring needing to be rotated 90 degrees if it's not going to dig HARD into the fingers.This is also super lightweight and the chain is thin, so it's going to tangle if you look at it wrong, especially with the tines on the tryzubs. I've worn it twice and twice had to pin it to a tray and detangle it with silk pens - and that's taking it from hanging up to my person and back again, not like puddling it in a little jewelry organizer square and expecting it to come out unscathed (it absolutely will not, and a great many delicate pieces will behave similarly).This is not bespoke jewelry, for the record. Bespoke is custom made to order, usually designed especially for one client and never repeated, or if a jeweler is stretching the term, at very least customized in some way from its original form (other than sizing, which absolutely does not bespoke make, or changing out a stone or a basket setting or similar). I'm not sure how low bespoke goes in terms of price, but I'm positive it's not this low ($46 at time of review) - that doesn't even cover the jeweler's time to design and fabricate, much less materials and incidentals, at least in the US. It's a rack piece, and there's nothing wrong with that. The vast majority of my own collection is made up of rack jewelry, and that's true for most collectors, even very serious ones.
