Bracelet Slides Views

Jewelry

The Victorian slide bracelet was a fashion accessory formerly worn by many women in 19th century England. Before the creation of the wrist watch, Victorian women wore their time piece on a neck chain that stayed in place with a decorative station that supported the watch (just under it). With a variety of these stations to wear with different outfits, they needed some use for all that jewelry after the wrist watch came into fashion. The various pieces were lined up on a 6 or 7 inch double chain with little gold balls for spacing them called slide bracelets. Even old stick pin heads were mounted on blank slides to add into these bracelets.

Slides are antique reproductions of watch fobs worn in the Victorian Era. Ladies wore fobs as decorative pieces on long necklaces. At the bottom of the necklace was a clip where a pocket watch was attached. The fob was not only decorative, but kept the watch from turning. In the early 1900 ′s, when wristwatches became fashionable, the fobs were removed from necklaces and added to bracelet chains. In the early 1990’s beautiful antique reproductions began to appear and grew quickly in popularity. Today, this unique idea offers you the opportunity to design your own bracelet and create a family heirloom to be passed from one generation to another.

The flexible starter bracelet consists of two chains and a clasp. The flexible starter bracelet is available in any length chain. (A standard length is 7 1/4a″). Starter bracelets should be ordered slightly longer than a regular gold or diamond bracelet because as slides are added, the chain will shrink in length. Slides are drilled with four holes and most jewelers are able to add them easily to the flexible bracelet chain. It is important that slides are made stationary on the chain to prevent them from moving back and forth when worn. This is done by stuffing cork inside the slide or inside beads placed on either side of the slide. Slides may be arranged anyway you desire. If you are not sure how to arrange the slides, let our experts assist you.

If you prefer, let one of our experts assist you with designing and stringing your flexible bracelet. When slides are purchased from us, installation is FREE and you pay only the cost of shipping the bracelet and slides to us. However, if you want to cork and string the slides yourself, all it takes is a few tools and a little practice. Tools needed are: needle nose pliers, thin wire for threading, scissors, tweezers or other straight-pointed object, thin sheet of cork and a paper clip. (Most items may be purchased at a local hobby or hardware store.)