[Bodecia]

Here is a photo - a close up of the clasp and a few pearls around it. Maybe you will see more from it.

As for my own naturals there is app. 40 inches for me to play with - WOW - I will probably remove about 12 of the smaller ones though as they are not top notch and any others that don't come up to scratch. Still have loads of fun. They were a good buy too No they won't go out of the house much, unfortunately but still I can drool over them. I drool over all my lovelies.

Bodecia

[Valeria101]

Speaking of the devil...

[Caitlin]

You have some interesting pearls there, but I didn't see any kind of provenance on any of them. The first strand looks like CFWP to me.

As they say, "once burned, twice shy". Since my experience with everyone, absolutely everyone, believing Zeide for a year of what turned out to be BS!(see post below for details), I have learned to ask for proof of any claims. We never even ASKed Zeide for provenance on her pearls for a year, we believed her expertise so implicitly. And we were so wrong not to have inquired.


Yet, when I did insist on ANY kind of provenance for ANY of her pearls, there was none. She could produce none, nada, zilch, not even for the tissue nuked Miki that had been through the court system and acquired by her grandfather. I bet your pearl lady doesn’t know 1/10th about pearls that Zeide does, so her knowing something about pearls does not tell you anything about her honesty either! Believe me, if she had provenance she would toot it all over.


I have learned to insist on provenance if you are going to call them "naturals”. Believe me, the big auction houses won’t sell them as “naturals” without proof. Why should you settle for less?


Without proof, let another fool buy them. Or if you did already buy them, get them authenticated before you call them "naturals". I am sorry, but I will challenge anyone who says their pearls are "naturals" for the provenance. This forum will up forever, so to speak, and we need to be sure, honest, and even educational in all our claims so we don't look dishonest or foolish. We want "street cred" and it took a kicking once already. (see post below)



BTW I will bet that the Miki is not a Miki either and the perfect looking one seems to have some BS too. If the second one in the thread is a natural, I'll eat my hat. She sure found your button, and she is pushing it. The picture Ana put up does look like a natural. The graduated one in your pic #7 looks new. If natural, it has to be about 100 years old. Even you question that one. Should you not question the seller's knowledge and integrity at this point? The shapes in #12 are interesting, but the color is awful. I would want to see more photos of that one spread out. And the back of the clasp.


BTW, I have some authentic, natural Lop Noor pearls I'd like to sell you. These are really the authentic thing from an apothecary shoppe in China that sells dragonballs and unicorn horns as well. You can't even get them in a regular pearl place; they get set aside for the special pearl shaman who comes around once a harvest for them........

[Caitlin]

For those who weren't here......In response to a flurry of Pm's.
Re Zeide

Well it turns out she was pretending a lot when it came to her own life and pearls. When she was asked to provide some kind of, any kind of, provenance on her Lop Noors, her transgraft project, her pteria sternas, in particular, she could not.

Yet she had sold several strands to a forum member claiming these kinds of origin. That is fraud. So when she was confronted with an expert from the GIA, (I was taking samples of all her disputed pearls to the Gem show and I asked her for any proof) she backed down, admitted in a thread called "mea culpa", that she had made it all up about the pearls and invented a character to hide behind, and then she left. She is a suburban housewife from Fresno who has an eBay collection of CFWP and a fanciful imagination.

Actually, I don't miss her sarcasm and lordly attitude toward people, though i miss her pearl repartee.

All this happened around Feb 2. There were some posts, but maybe Jeremy took them down. I don't think he wanted to post her downfall so blatently.

I deleted some of her worst BS posts, but many are accurate and an integral part of the thread. However, I will continue to take down any more of her blatant fantasies and falsehoods, as I find them.

I am sorry if I sounded emotional. Now you know why. Meanwhile, I will move this thread to Consumer Q & A forum. You get proof, let us know.

[Bodecia]

BTW, I have some authentic, natural Lop Noor pearls I'd like to sell you. These are really the authentic thing from an apothecary shoppe in China that sells dragonballs and unicorn horns as well. You can't even get them in a regular pearl place; they get set aside for the special pearl shaman who comes around once a harvest for them........

Hi Caitlin and All,

Oh, yes please do sell them to me ))) Not the unicorn horns though as I am eco friendly )) You are a card. I maybe a little gullible though to be sure. The lady who had the so called naturals has all of a sudden pulled them from sale. Said she is keeping the more irregular "naturals" and has sent the other round naturals to an Auction House that she and her husband has dealt with for years. I am not sure what to believe at this point. Still offering the Miki look-alikes though. I am still considering them and will for a while yet.

What though did you think of the Naturals that are mine. I bought them about 2 or 3 weeks ago and will included the photo again as with all the photos it can get confusing. I believe they are the real thing. But if anyone wants to disagree I will be all ears or eyes.
Still having computer setting up problems which are a real pain so not online as much as usual and still not catching up with all the PF posts.

Please do give me opinions on my very own Naturals though. Would love the feedback. About a dozen need to be discarded but the rest appear good to me and I plan to string them up into another double strand or one long strand. Probably one long strand and use a few spares for earrings etc. I haven't remeasured them but I think they are 2 to 3 mm to 5 mm from memory. I have just popped them into my jewellery box waiting for me to have the energy. Still I do love them warts and all.

Thanks, Bodecia

[Caitlin]

The shapes in #12 are interesting, but the color is awful. I would want to see more photos of that one spread out. And the back of the clasp.

more pix pls

[Bodecia]

Hi Caitlin,

Do you mean the natural pearls with the red background. I can take a photo of them within the next couple of days and post them. I haven't set up this new computer to take my photos yet although I supposed I could go back to the old one if I have problems. I am not all that high tech but will post them asap. That strand (which is mine now) I can take plenty of photos of.

Thanks Bo

[Valeria101]

Have you brought in the small rounds w/o clasp or the others? If they are not priced very high... and if they are, the cost of proof starts to get reasonable.

Here's ONE that is confusing in the same way (one could say: 'too round to be true'), labeled and priced boldly outside Ebay. For their size, I don't roundness is so out of this world; besides not all are that perfect...

Your rope of small natural pearls sounds like a great plan! Maybe one day you could have them tested (DIY? ), but until then, there is reasonable doubt, IMO.

----

All of the above are based on a conviction that natural pearls below 4mm were not nearly as exceptional as round ones in any larger size, with 5mm a sort of 'tershold' of rarity. Would be surprised t find a twenty strand hank of a necklace all with really round 3mm natural pearls (like the Poe Pipi, btw! = proof that even that is feasible after all)... but in one of those 2/3 - 5/7mm graduated starter strands, not so surprised.

Caitlin, houw about your naturals? Any insider clues of the Gulf pearls production your grandparents were engaged in? [unless answering already breaches your deal with some publisher, that is! ]

[Raisondetre]

Originally Posted by Caitlin Williams

For those who weren't here......In response to a flurry of Pm's.
Re Zeide

Well it turns out she was pretending a lot when it came to her own life and pearls. When she was asked to provide some kind of, any kind of, provenance on her Lop Noors, her transgraft project, her pteria sternas, in particular, she could not.

Yet she had sold several strands to a forum member claiming these kinds of origin. That is fraud. So when she was confronted with an expert from the GIA, (I was taking samples of all her disputed pearls to the Gem show and I asked her for any proof) she backed down, admitted in a thread called "mea culpa", that she had made it all up about the pearls and invented a character to hide behind, and then she left. She is a suburban housewife from Fresno who has an eBay collection of CFWP and a fanciful imagination.

A bit OT here. I was lurking for a while and reading with avid interest all Zeide had to offer. It started getting a little suspicious when she talked about the transgraft project - it did not seem like she'd even set foot in China. Anyone's who's been in business in China (I did fashion for a brief period of time) would know it's hard not to get ripped off as a foreigner even if you were there in person, and for some obscure pearl farm somewhere in Xinjiang to have legitimate dealings with her over the internet seemed somewhat far-fetched.

I must say she did her research for the most part, though I did not care for her attitude either saying that some of the vendors here were promoting their own wares, which they were not. This is the only objective source for pearl-related information on the web aimed at educating consumers, and while I can't say I'm an expert I am certainly more savvy now than before I started. I wouldn't have taken the plunge and bought pearls online otherwise without getting convinced of the quality I was getting. She did have some lovely freshwaters though.