[FaSerra]

I bought some freshwater pearls about 1 month ago. They were gorgeous having beautiful luster, but last week when I decided to use them to make a necklace I noticed that the white keshi had a lot of black holes which weren't there before and the other one was decaying, some of the sticks had at least 1/4 of nacre gone. I called the place that I bought them from and the person that I talked to said that the way they are. My point was, why they didn't have that appearence before? Why do they look like something is eating them? Is it a kind of bacteria from the farm? Ifsomeone can help me I really appreciate.
Thanks,
F.

[jerin]

Hi Faserra and welcome to us PG:ers,

I have no answer to your question as I never hav heard something like this.
Perhaps Kevin, Terry, Jeremy, Ashley or Amanda can say something about this.

One advice I have to give: Place the pearls in an unused, clean bag in case this has to do with bacteria!

And place every single strand in its own bag. Hopefully there is some other explanation.

[Pearlgully]

Although, I am not able to address your question as to what has happened to your pearls in the last month......I can tell you that depending on where you purchased your pearls (trade show, show room) the lighting is set up to deliberately distort the true appearance of pearls (and gem stones) and will always make the pearls appear much better than they really are. Luster always appears better and colors look darker. Also, blemishes may not appear as severe under those lights. Unfortunately, this kind of deception is legal.


Gail

[jshepherd]

It sounds as though something acidic may have come in contact with the pearls. Do you have a photograph of the holes?

[The Pearl Outlet]

Ok, here's a WAC (Wild Ass Conjecture). I've heard of using pearl dust as a filler... OK, I know I'm probably way off base here, but that sounds like such an odd issue.

[jerin]

Hi Terry,

that sounds interesting!

[pattye]

Hi FaSerra,

I sure hope you can post some photos. That would help a lot. Were they relatively inexpensive?

If you mean by saying the nacre is gone, that it looks white or chalky, I have had that happen to me because of the bright lights in the showroom making it difficult to see the true quality. That has happened with some belly drilled keishi also, where the black spots, especially along the edge of the "black" dyed ones showed up so much more clearly at home. Now Ihave learned to take my 3.25x "beading" reader glasses with me to the shows and have a good look at the items I want to purchase. It is surprising with just that amount of magnification what flaws show up. I think on another thread I told how at the Tucson Gem Show I nearly bought a $650 strand of fw round purple 9+mm--but with a close look thru the glasses saw lots of white spots on each pearl, that affected the lustre, but were not noticeable to the naked eye.

Can't say without photos just what is going on, however.

Pattye
so many pearls, so little time

[FaSerra]

Originally Posted by jshepherd

It sounds as though something acidic may have come in contact with the pearls. Do you have a photograph of the holes?

No, I just return them to the store in Georgia, yesterday.
Thank you for your replying it.
Fatima