I have a question regarding the colors of freshwater pearls. The lot of loose baroques that I have has a predominate peachy tone and I presume is untreated. The lot of loose Keishi that I have has a predominate silver/ grey tone to it and again I am presuming that the lot is untreated. The keishi strings that I have also have a silver/ grey color to them. Both lots contain a complete range of colors that I am familar with as natural colors for freshwater, mauves, oranges, whites, pinky whites etc.

Are these peachy tones in the baroque and the silver grey for keishi the colors that whites are before bleaching? What causes the baroques to have a different overall tone than the keishi ?

Doug

Hi Doug,

The lighter natural colors are indeed typically bleached to a more marketable white. The other colors can come from both other species of mussels (there are about 10 different species being used in culturing pearls in China) and from close to the hinge and within the soft body where many of the truely fancy colors occur. Since the pearls that grow near the hinge are almost never even near round, you see most of the wild and whacky colors in baroques and keshis.

Zeide

Hi Zeide,
There are small number of intense orange/ peach and some intense mauves that have almost what I would call a "metallic" look in my baroques and keishi. The orange ones are very nice and my favorite. I don't remember seeing these intense colors from my biwa pearl buying days. Is this metallic look overtone, orient or what is it called? and how do the cultures acheive this.

Doug

[purepearls]

When you are referring to metallic look, I believe you are referring to orient. The more vibrant colored pearls would not be bleached.

Orient is the reflective quality of the nacre and occurs due to the nacre quality and the way the nacre lines up.

Originally Posted by DFrey

Hi Zeide,
There are small number of intense orange/ peach and some intense mauves that have almost what I would call a "metallic" look in my baroque and keishi. ..

Doug

Can we see? Orage keshi pearls sounds intriguing, at the very least!

Hi Valeria,
I have attached a jpg showing some orange colored keishi . These pearls have great lustre and intense color. Shown are some single pearls and a matched pair. All are at least 7mm in one direction, ie 7mm x 12mm etc. I am currently using this color in combination with a white, creme or silver colored Keishi in pendants.

Doug

These are not keshis and baroques but the colors are really vibrant.

Hi Perlas,
Are those all natural colors? Any treatment? They are beautiful. What size are they? Thanks for such a good photo! Doug, I love your keishi also!!!
Pattye

Hi Pattye,

Yes, all are natural colors at the 9-10mm range and are not treated. They are more of potatoes than rounds though. The 6 white pearls at the end of the string are sunbleached.

I cherry-picked the pearls from 3 multi-colored strands.

Originally Posted by perlas

These are not keshis and baroques but the colors are really vibrant.

MEGA DROOL over those colors!!!!!!! WOW.. I am Speechless, Well relatively... The colors are amazing!

Cheers
Happy Friday All

Ash

Wow, I'd love to have a ton-sur-ton necklace of lavender to purple. Orange and purple makes a shocking combo too; perhaps instead of equal amounts of each color, just a one accent pearl every 5 inches or so.

ohhh I love the purples from light to dark and the Orages/Peaches. same things. I woudl also like to see a strand of purple with a gold tone every few purples.... I can not get that strand out of my head!!! they are just so Lucious!!!!! I mean... WOW!!!!! Even hubby did a TRIPPLE take!!!!!!!! When I asked him to look at them! Now that says a lot!

Man I really need to start investing in some natural pearls in every color I can get my hands on!


Ash

Hi Ash,

A uniform orange or purple strand of natural color is common for pearls 7mm down. As the sizes go up, it's harder to come by because the matching is difficult so they are scattered about in multi-colored strands.

Thanks for the "WOW". Living in a pearl country, pearls even on the 10mm range don't catch much attention around here. We're just used to seeing a lot of pearls.

So if people here want the "bling" in pearls, size matters. I've seen people wear 20mm south sea round (not button!) studs. Ouch!

The most I can wear are 13mm round studs and my ears hurt by the end of the day.

Originally Posted by perlas

... pearls even on the 10mm range don't catch much attention around here. We're just used to seeing a lot of pearls.

Whatever size they be, the purple rounds in that necklace are just crazy. The picture makes them look like crayons on this side of the screen.

If color matching is a long shot, is a set with some color gradient from intense to pastel to white achievable? I have never seen nice freshwater pearls strung that way - the idea comes from a designerish strand of black pearls graduating in both color and size from dark & large to small & silver. Perhaps not of great value, but definitely looking good.

If the color and the size are graduated, it's definitely achievable.

I actually like the purplish/pinkish silver color better than the purples (located at the center of the curled strand). They're more catchy. The photo cannot capture the color but they actually look like they swallowed a rainbow. However, only one or two of these rainbow pearls are included in a strand so it will take a lot of strands for me to assemble a decent matching.