Pearls ARE a Girl's Best Friend

Never mind diamonds. No, don't get me wrong, I like my diamonds, but pearls, Oh, pearls! They just have this certain "Je ne sais quoi" that makes my heart just pitter patter like a centipede's tap-dancing feet!
Two years ago, for our 10th anniversary, my darling husband asked me "What would you like for a gift honey?" I said "PEARLS!" Not entirely understanding my request, D.H. went out and looked for a jewelry item made of pearls for me. But after a whole week of searching, he finally admitted he just couldn't find anything that jumped out at him. Anything that he thought would 'suit' me. This is when I set him straight: "No honey, I don't want you to go out and purchase a pearl item for me, what I want are pearls, of my very own, to make my own jewelry with..." THIS D.H. could agree on. And so I searched high and low for the best pearl suppliers I could find, and afford, and I did find one with which I could agree on the pricing and quality of their items. Frankly, I fell in love with this site that sold nothing but Tahitian pearls, but, well, I just couldn't see D.H. buying me a boat load of black Tahitian pearls at $200 a piece... ;) So, I went with the Freshwater variety.
And I was NOT disappointed! Shall I tell you just how many pearls I did get from that single order? Well, it was 11 kilos!

Here I am, fondling some of my newly arrived pearl stash!
Gosh, I have that glazed over look, don't I ;)

And the ones I really found to be a personal splurge were these:

Natural 9mm round purple freshwater pearls.

And here's what I made with them:

A three-strand hand-knotted necklace with a silver box clasp.
I think I'll call them my "Desperate Housewife" strands... LOL!!!

But I did get quite a variety of other pearls, these natural pearls made my heart dance too. Having always had that "I wonder what this would look like" syndrome, I just HAD to try making a lariat with them. Of course, the unfinished rope sat there for a while, since I had NO clue what I could use to finish it. (Lariat ends are the BANE of this beader's existence... I always start with the rope, and always struggle with the ends. Well, unless I've purchased embellishments as an end in mind... ) 14 hand-strung 16" strands and two large Swarovski rondelles later, and this is what I came up with:

The rope is 45.5 " long (I thought it was longer, but then again, I have been measuring a whole lot of my ropes lately for listing in my shop... Oh well...)
I'm so used to making my 60" long ropes... ;)
The seed beads rope take longer to work up, but these pearl ones take longer to string.
Given the miliform nature of freshwater pearls, the holes all sit at different angles, so you can't really load them up in a spinner and string'em up... They literally had to be strung individually...
And yes, I HAVE been called crazy before, so you won't offend me if you call me out... ;)

I also like it worn tied at the wrist like an opulent handcuff...

Well, I've been debating with myself for a while now, wondering whether or not Etsy would be the right venue to list these in. I also have pearl rope done up with khaki freshwater pearls and smoky topaz Swarovski's on the ends. They'd be in the higher end price mark at $650 a piece... I'm tempted... Do you think they would sell? One thing's for sure, they'd certainly garner many "hearts".