Originally Posted by Kevin Canning

Things are changing but the Chinese did a lot of damage to the FWP over the years with all those garbage freshwater pearls put on the market.

French Polynesia got it right with the Tahitians.

Yes, with the crap grade FWP, the Chinese really shot themselves in the foot big time. Not only has it devalued a potentially wonderful product consisting of 100% nacre, it has caused MASSIVE pollution problems for the Chinese(and ultimately us too). Problems that would not have occurred had there been some measure of quality control standards implemented so that every person with a body of water(any body of water) on his property didn't suddenly become a pearl farmer, nucleating his bivalves with up to thirty mantle pieces each and overfeeding these bivalves with manure that leaches into other bodies of water, spawning toxic algae blooms and choking the life out of them. Not to mention the major rat problems that arise when these overfertilized bodies of water overflow during a flood....

BUT, who buys this crap from the Chinese? Who helps them farm this crap and pollute? Take a wild guess. "Supply and demand", as Kevin says.

What about fireballs? The by-product of failed experiments, using an endangered species' shell as the nucleus. Who is helping them market those? Answer: The people buying them.

Slraep

[Caitlin]

Hi Slraep

Well said as always. Did you hear about the severe restrictions imposed on peasants when the water in their local lakes goes toxic with bloom? They have to buy bottled water!!!

From what I saw at the big pearl booths at the gem show this year, is at that if the Chinese quit producing tons of inferior pearls, they would still have a five year supply of junk pearls out there trying to get bought.

All the vendors, even the giants, Evergreen Trading Co and Majestic Pearls, who have an acre of pearls laid out between them, have boxes and boxes and bags and bags stacked everywhere that wasn't dedicated to display. Under the tables was full of boxes. Boxes and bags of pearls bulged out everywhere you looked. Magenta pinks, chartreuse greens, metallics of every shade, bronze, silver, black, brown, electric blue, shades of purple, brilliant yellows. Altogether they look like a circus of pearls. A carnival of pearls.

That's it! Those guys are Carnies- the new generation of Carny from China. They take their circus all over America and we gobble up a small minority of their wares. Meanwhile the wares keep backing up in China.......

And.....(a big AND) more and more of the junk pearls are nucleated. Nuked with stars, ovals, rounds of every size--I saw some 6-7mm rounds this year, crosses, lightnings, boxes, diamonds, and blobs, and a fair number of fire balls. These dyed nuked, pearls are a creeping proportion of the total goods. And every nucleated pearl is practice for the future of only nucleated pearls. Stick a huge nucleus in there and it is done in just a year or two. A high percentage of success guarantees they make far more money for far less nacre. At last! They will able to join the pearl plated parade! When they get the Kasumi -type pearls down, they will take on the smooth surface pearls. Tai Woo pearls, another large outfit with only a slightly smaller display then the two I mentioned earlier, had some sample of both kinds. Not good enough to make Fuji Voll's booth, but I see the technique is coming along. Both the rough round (5k) and the smooth rounds(1k) were all klonks, big time klonks.

[quote=Slraep;24803]What about fireballs? The by-product of failed experiments, using an endangered species' shell as the nucleus./QUOTE]

While at the Tucson gem show, I stopped by the Pacific Pearl booth. Fuji Voll showed me the most unusual bead nucleated cfwp strand that I'd ever seen. They were HUGE, almost round, multicolored and beautiful. They looked like kasumis, but were Chinese. (He referred to these pearls as "in body" fw.) So I asked, "if these pearls, along with the fireballs, were being nucleated with shell from the endangered giant clam". He said, "no".......he indicated that he does not believe they are being nucleated with beads from the giant clam. He believes that the nuclei being used in the Chinese pearls are the same kinds of beads used to nucleate SS pearls. However, the beads had been discarded (rejected) because the stripes on the beads were too dark to be used in white pearls; they'd show through. The stripes are not a problem for multicolored pearls.

I posed the same question to Elisabeth Strack after the seminar on Saturday. Her answer to me was that," since only two beads were tested, it is much too inconclusive to draw an opinion that the giant clam shell is being used to nucleate fireballs". She also indicated to me that Mr. Voll's explanation made sense.

Sorry if this sounds like a tirade, but I think it only appropriate to present the opinions of two other prominent experts.



Gail

[salem]

I never said there was anything wrong, or inconsistent with people buying the baroque Akoyas, I just found it amusing. It did actually make me chuckle. My main point was, actually, that even people who seem to swear by the superiority of the CFWP will still buy Akoyas if it is something that attracts them. I guess I just don't qualify "better" as being more durable. For me, better is what I enjoy more.

[Cathybear]

Originally Posted by Kevin Canning

Not true, prices are determined by supply and demand, just be glad that gem quality freshwater pearls are such a bargain right now. As Caitlin said, that could very well change in the future.

GOOD! Now I can stop feeling guilty for buying so many freshwater pearls that I'm nearly ankle deep! LOL

I still hope to be able to get 100% nacre freshwater pearls in the future, it would be too bad if we had to be content with PPB in freshwaters as in Akoyas, Tahitians and SS even though at least the Tahitians have a nice nacre coating compared to the Akoyas.

And it would be very great if we could get honest answers as to what type of nucleus IS REALLY USED in the Fireballs!

As long as an endangered species gets used and we consumers are buying products with them, we shouldn´t complain, the only way to stop it is not buying even though some of those fireball necklaces are relly stunning to look at!

[Caitlin]

Hi Pearl gully!
Excellent points. And compared to me,not a tirade at all.

People in general:
I wish you could have seen Fuji Voll's necklace. It was the size of the "Athena", one of Paspaley/Stuller's necklaces with HUGE pearls.) I hope he let Elisabeth Strack photograph it for her next edition. The beads were very tidy and quite round in spite of the wrinkly surfaces. No tails or protrusions, though it had the wrinkley/Kasumilike colors in a top of the line necklace. Retail price? Slightly under 30k- I think.

Then the one at Tai Woo was quite nice also, but only if you hadn't seen the best one first. It had problems with roundness and consistency of the wrinkles. The colors were pretty good, but not as good as Fuji's. Wholesale price on first quote, 5k

I shall continue to watch the Chinese pearl booths for the upgrades in these techniques and types of pearls. I tell ya, there are no pearls, including freshwater pearls, that freshwater pearls can't copy!