Here’s a String Theory for you: If gold pendants and diamond beads collide with nylon chord in the hands of jewelry designer Hortense Bonneau, beautiful, delicately wrought bracelets will form.

No mere hypothesis, Bonneau’s line, Hortense, is proof positive that well-designed jewelry can coexist with affordable prices.

The Parisian-born, Santa Monica-based Bonneau was a fine jewelry designer when the economy took a nosedive. Inspired to create a more accessible (read: inexpensive) collection, she began making colored string bracelets bearing small but valuable trinkets.

Choose between elegantly understated styles like the Wish-Me-Luck (a triple strand of fourteen-karat gold beads), Jasmin (wraparound sterling silver pellets), and Bird (a rose-cut diamond embedded in a gold disc).

Her slightly pricier collection, Twilight, is also worth a gander. We’ve fallen hard for the gold charms in whimsical shapes like a fish and crescent moon.

They tug at our heart strings.

Available at The Detox Market, 1524 Abbot Kinney Boulevard, between Navarre Court and Rialto Avenue, Venice (310-909-7277 or thedetoxmarket.com); Mohawk General Store, 4011 West Sunset Boulevard, at Sanborn Avenue, Silver Lake (323-669-1601 or mohawkgeneralstore.net). To see styles, go to hortensejewelry.squarespace.com.

Photo: Courtesy of Hortense Bonneau