[Caitlin]

Hi ilovepearls!
Take the time to learn and ask away. The purpose of this forum is to educate and we do an excallent job of it. I gauruntee you will learn more about pearls than you thought possible. I did.

I come from a pearl loving family. My mom had natural pearls and so I learned a little about them and inherited some. My husbands mother and grandmother were crazy about pearls and they wore ropes and ropes of them, no kidding. But the ones they wore were cultured akoyas that have the mother of pearl bead inside. When we inherited them, they were worn out and had lost a lot of luster, even thougfh they were the best quality when new. I set myself to learn about cultured vs. natural and those with a bead inside vs those without and it opened up a whole new world to me.


Make no mistake some people love these "pearl plated beads" the best, even if they aren't solid nacre. In that case, buy from a dealer who can source the best quality without the Mikimoto brand name, which jacks up the price incredibly. Then you will be able to afford to replace them every decade or so.

Read about Hanadama pearls. Put "hanadama" in the search at the top of the page. They are absolutely the best and rarest of all the akoyas and get a certificatio which can only be gotten in Japan, and has not been diluted in anyway. Hanadamas are far better quality than most Mikimotos, in fact. You could replace your pearls with hanadama quality and put them on the miki clasp, for instance and have a better product than the originals.

But whatever you do, research away. If you loved pearls before, wait until you get to know them with an experts eye!