[pearlpunk]

hi there. i am new here, and i am new to pearls too.

my husband bought me a pair of 12 mm silver-ish white australian south sea dangle/french-wire (not sure what the correct term is) earrings, and that started it.

i like large pearls, even though i am only about 5'4'' (1.6 m) and about 110 pounds (53 kg), i seem to gravitate towards anything around 9 - 11 mm strands for necklaces. at first i looked around for south sea, akoya, then hanadama. but the prices are a bit too serious for a beginner like me. then i saw the freshadama at pearl paradise.

since pearl paradise is out of stock for the large 11 mm freshadama, i have been looking around the web for something comparable. i saw some site selling what they said to be the absolute top quality freshwater pearls in the size i am looking for. such as the "elite collection" from pure pearls. there are some other names in a few other sites, i can't remember which site or what the name was, but it was something like 'presidential' or something which suggested such an air.

can anyone tell me if freshadama is the absolute top quality fresh-water pearl, then, can those other ones with different names but claimed similar quality be considered comparable?

if not, how so?

thanks!