[tanakarn1]

Hi everyone,

I just saw pearls with excellent luster & strong rainbow overtone (pink & blue) at a local shop. For me, they are more beautiful than my AAA Akoya with pink overtone. The vendor told me they are salt water but he doesn’t know exactly what kind they are.

Then, I go to google and search for that kind of pearls. I found a photo that has rainbow color like them (please see attachment). Unlike the photo, the surface of the pearls are not smooth. Are they Hanadama? Could anyone tell me what kind of these rainbow pearls?

Many thanks,
Tanakarn


Edited: add information

[pattye]

Hi Tanakarn,

What was the size and cost? They look suspiciously like nice quality faux pearls to me.

Pattye
so many pearls, so little time

[Caitlin]

Hi Tana

That photo is very pretty. What jumps to my mind though, is Swarovski (sp?) glass pearls. Which is not to say the first ones are also faux- we'd have to see them to guess.

[tanakarn1]

Hi Pattye,

They look real to me. Unlike the photo, the surface is not perfectly smooth. I can clearly see a number of small blemishes and imperfections. I guess they might be unprocessed Akoya. They are 7-7.5 mm, 16 inches, and the price is around US$ 1,000 at this retail store. I never see the pearls with rainbow color like this before.

Tanakarn

[knotty panda]

They are definitely not Swarovksi. There is no irridescence in Swarovski. I don't know what they are, but I do know I'm going shopping with Tanakarn and Aycee from now on!

[Caitlin]

The price rules out faux pearls, but I find it a bit hard to guess about the ones you saw in the store by the ones in the picture.

I have some more ideas, but they are probably wrong too

I changed my mind. I bought a freshwater pearl last year that looked a lot like the above in color. This is my photo in indirect light. It is far prettier in person. A professional photo would enhance it even more.

[Caitlin]

Just for good measure here are some earrings I found on the web. Guess what they are. They are not quite as colorful as Tk1's picture, but almost. They are (very cheap) glass pearls with awful wrappings and poor photography, but I think they are a pearlescent color.

Maybe Swaravski per se does not sell iridescent pearls, but I saw quite a few of them on a trip to San Francisco, in those "wholesale" jewelry buildings full of small shops. I bought some in other colors than the pearlescent white, from a retail shop, but that color was there. Since the shops were all Chinese owned, they may not be Swaravski brand.

The peacock colored "pearls" were astounding. They would be worth a fortune, not the $35.00 they quoted, if real. I reported this here a couple of years ago, because the vendors tried to tell me they were real pearls. They were way too perfect in shape and a bit too heavy for the size (10mm)

[Slraep]

Originally Posted by tanakarn1

Hi Pattye,

They look real to me. Unlike the photo, the surface is not perfectly smooth. I can clearly see a number of small blemishes and imperfections. I guess they might be unprocessed Akoya. They are 7-7.5 mm, 16 inches, and the price is around US$ 1,000 at this retail store. I never see the pearls with rainbow color like this before.

Tanakarn

Hi Tanakarn,

OMG, one thing they are not is unprocessed akoya, which are unbelievably fugly to behold. In fact, they look more like "highly processed" akoya. But I too agree with Caitlin and Pattye that the pearls look suspect.

Slraep

[mikehrz]

Originally Posted by Slraep

OMG, one thing they are not is unprocessed akoya, which are unbelievably fugly to behold. In fact, they look more like "highly processed" akoya.

Um, that's not entirely accurate.
Guess?
The super-akoya posted by Jeremy were completely unprocessed. Granted, these are really exceptional examples, but I actually asked Jeremy about this via pm several months back, and he told me that although most akoya are not so great, the same is true of fw, and that many gem-level akoya are found straight from the oyster. The picture on the pearl-guide homepage
http://www.pearl-guide.com/
shows 2 such nice-looking pearls just as they were found in the oyster. Although there are plenty of over-processed pearls out there, the fact that an akoya has not been treated does not automatically mean that it will be hideous.

[pattye]

Hi Again, Tanakarn,

Now we have a little more information! I realize you choose a photo to show color, not necessarily the pearl quality. If the pearls were truly Hanadama, they would have an accompanying certificate of which the sales person most certainly would have advised you. You might want to review the Hanadama Akoya Pearls article. They certainly could be high quality freshwater pearls. The cost is a bit low in my mind for top quality Akoya, but not that size in freshwater. And freshwater are getting very round.

There are also some techniques of adding irridescent finishes to gems and pearls, and though I hope it would not be the case here, I have seen many gems on ebay listed as "mystic" whatever, meaning a special coating has been applied.

IMHO,
Pattye
so many pearls, so little time

[knotty panda]

Pattye: That "mystic" coating is the same coating used to apply the aurora borealis effect to Swarovski crystals. Mystic is becoming quite popular and is readily recognizable, but I have never seen it on pearls. There is a definite seam to the coating process. In gemstones, the seam is placed in back where it isn't so visible. I sincerely doubt the seam could be disguised on pearls. However, if there are mystic pearls in the works anywhere, my gal in Hong Kong will know. She's the mystic expert! Let me see what she says.

[Valeria101]

Vapor deposition?

The narrow range of colors in the irridescence doesn't sound 'real'. The price may well eflect the looks rather than anything. Wouldn't second guess based on the tag only. Maybe just to rule outright synthetics, as already said here.

[jshepherd]

Vapor desposition is not a common treatment for akoya pearls, and it is not used at all for other types. What you can see in the picture, however, is a perfected use of jeweler's lighting. I have seen it a lot more in Europe than in the US, but places like Palma have it down perfectly on the Majoricas.

What I would like to know is how did you go about taking a professional-grade picture of a piece at a local jewelry store? You can see the use of a large camera in the reflection...

[pattye]

Hi Jeremy,

Tanakarn just found another photo that replicated the colors he observed in the strand of pearls, he didn't take a photo of the actual pearls. That is why it has been hard to be very helpful. There isn't even a photo of the actual pearls.

Pattye
so many pearls, so little time

[jshepherd]

I see.... That makes more sense to me. I was starting to wonder.

The rainbow effect is not really that uncommon in akoya or fake. Especially with a well-lit display.