Sun Dragon by Ohm Beads – Review, Pictures Galore, and Composition Ideas

Preface
I’m being an ass again, reviewing something that is sold out… but should you find it second hand at a non-jacked price, you really should seriously consider getting it. This review here is to provide insight that’ll hopefully guide your decision making process.

This is the Ohm Beads Bead of the Month for August of 2017 in commemoration of the solar eclipse that will be taking place on the 21st which is, conicidentally, the day I start the fall semester of my M.S. program, and the day my life as I know it will cease to exist. (Similar to how if the sun was devoured and the Earth cast into darkness, life would cease to exist.) Kidding. It’s not that bad because we’re only going to be in three days of classes (rather than five) with one day of fieldwork. But we have been warned that fieldwork will be quite… intense.

Anyways, where was I? Oh right. Eclipse. I don’t care about that. I mean, I do REALLY want to view the total eclipse if I can swing it (ditch class maybe?) but my train of thought in getting it went more like, “I see pretty dragon. I want pretty dragon. ” Plus, it’s shiny. *cue Moana song*

The Bead
It’s obviously East Asian inspired in design with the boxy head with “antlers”, feathered tail, and lack of wings . Just about every other dragon design I’ve seen has been goofy looking, or the dragon has been given a bird-like head. No, just… no. This little guy was handsome and beautifully detailed so I “had” to have it.

 

I’d call this a charm rather than a bead. Being made of solid sterling silver, it’s pretty weighty despite the delicate, sinewy appearance. It’s a good size that will get noticed, but it is still small enough that it doesn’t take over a bracelet. it doesn’t HAVE be the focal point of a composition (as i will demo on a few bracelets later in this post. 

The Sun Dragon’s body is heavily textured and intricately detailed and looks awesome no matter what angle you view it from. Looks like an oddly textured infinity symbol from afar. Take a closer look though and you’ll see that it’s a majestic little lizard-dude dragon.

 

This charm fits on everything including Pandora and Chamilia bracelets with the threading due to the larger aperture of the threading hole. That being said, the hole is juuust small enough so that it doesn’t slide off of the large ring end of a Trollbeads Foxtail (Signature Chain) bracelet which is pretty nice so you can string it on a chain and not worry about it flying off when trying to fasten it.

I personally like the look of it best on a smooth, polished bracelet or a lightly textured one (Trollbeads silver bangle, Chamilia Connections Bar Bracelet “Bright”), alone or paired with a little of texture and contrast. I don’t like putting it on a snake chain bracelets or oxidized bracelet (Pandora signature bracelets, Trollbeads signature chain bracelet) because then the whole thing feels “too busy”. The Sun Dragon would look rather nice as a pendant on a simple, delicate chain necklace, but I don’t really wear necklaces.

I think it would be next-level awesome if the “sun” that the dragon is clutching was gold plated, for obvious reasons. Just saying. Ohm Beads missed the “perfect” mark by just a little bit.

Mine is Sun Dragon #165/888. For fun (who am I kidding. I was procrastinating while writing this), 165 broken down is 3, 5, and 11 which totals up to 19, another prime number and are all odd. Like me, hahaha. That actually brings up another nitpick: the total number made should have been 999 as dragons are heavily associated with the number nine, having 9 attributes of other animals and scales in multiples of 9’s.  Fun fact: Kowloon = nine dragons

 

Bracelet Inspiration & Demo
Warning to the purists who hate mixing components from different brands. Do not proceed. I’m not responsible for your aneurysm.

1) Here’s a simple use of the Sun Dragon alone, but jazzed up a bit. It was looking a little sparse with only one stopper on each side. The black silicone parts of the silver stoppers that peek out complement the Sun Dragon’s texture wonderfully by adding contrast. Hopefully these pictures also adequately shows off the front and back of the Sun Dragon from two angles (left and right). It’s a wonderfully intricate bead and if you look closely enough, you can see that the 925 marking is stamped on the dark “back” side of the tail feather

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• Trollbeads – Silver Spacer x 2
• Ohm Beads – Sun Dragon
• Trollbeads – Silver Spacer x 2

Yup this one is definitely my favorite. Not only does it wear well, but it also “photographs” beautifully. Photographs is in quotation marks because, well hello, have you SEEN my photos?

2) Here’s what i mean by the Sun Dragon doesn’t have to be the focal point. In this bracelet, the composition is dynamic with height progressively increasing as you go from one side to the other, and the bouncing between smooth to textured stretches. Please ignore the writing on my hand. Those very visible reminders and mini task lists to myself is how i keep my life from falling apart.

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• Trollbeads – Silver Spacer
• Pandora – Mystic Floral, Clear CZ & Black Enamel
• Trollbeads – Silver Spacer (optional)
• Trollbeads – Green Jade Bead
• Trollbeads – Silver Spacer (optional)
• Ohm Beads – Sun Dragon
• Trollbeads – Silver Spacer

3) This variation on the above bracelet is probably my favorite bracelet combination incorporating the Sun Dragon. I feel like it’s more balanced because it’s still textured but the width of the silver bead on the left better matches the width of the Sun Dragon. Unlike the above combo, both silvers are free to move. That means it’s also slightly noisy as there are two metal things clinking around

The “Chinese Bracelet” This bracelet is so Chinese it’s almost embarrassing

• Trollbeads – Silver Spacer
• Trollbeads – Auspicious Bead
• Trollbeads – Silver Spacer
• Trollbeads – Green Jade Bead
• Trollbeads – Silver Spacer
• Ohm Beads – Sun Dragon
• Trollbeads – Silver Spacer

All of these arrangements are on a Trollbeads Silver Bangle of the XS size. For size reference, my wrists are exactly 6.5″ in circumference at the widest part w/ the bony protrusions.

Pricing and Availability
I ordered mine from Great Lakes Boutique the day after the release went live on August 2nd (so on the 3rd) at retail of $70 USD w/ free shipping by USPS first class and received my dragon on the following Monday afternoon.

To my knowledge it’s pretty hard to find at retailers other than Joseph Welch at the moment because it was so popular in pre-orders. As of writing this, it is now sold out at GLB. I got lucky. I didn’t do pre-order because I was holding out on it as a little reward to myself.

Here’s how it came packaged (the bead was in the little pouch):