[pearlescence]

Hi
I've been reading the threads about fireballs etc and I happened to look at these three strands of pearls in a ohhhhhhhhh?' sort of way.

They are a pale apricot peach colour wtih great satiny to metallic lustre with gold/rainbow highlights, size of the biggest is up to 17 x10cm.

They are very light in weight for such big pearls. I'm wondering if I have a good strand of peach fireballs disguised as three strands of peach baroques, which is what I bought them at (at a peach baroque price) plus a couple of drop shapes to make some lobe-stretching earrings!

Your thoughts?

[Pearlgully]

In my opinion, they don't look like fireballs.

Gail

[pattye]

IMHO, the fireballs I have seen have a more distinct tail. These appear to be really large, fun tissue nucleated fw.

Pattye
so many pearls, so little time

[pearlescence]

What made me wonder is the light weight for size - they just do not feel like great big FWs. Without getting out some scales they are about the same weight as a strand of 7-8mm rounds when they have to be about double the mass

[Sueki]

Hi Wendy,
They don't look like fireballs to me, more like large baroques.
Can't explain their comparitively light weight, though. Dunno, could they be bead nucleated, and would that explain the lack of weight ?
Just thinking aloud....

[pearlescence]

Could be... but what is the difference between a fireball and a bead nucleated large freshwater pearl with good lustre and a bit of a tail?

[Sueki]

Hmmm,
Now you got me !!
Hoping someone more knowledgeable than I will come along soon.

[Kevin Canning]

looks like baroque but the weight issue is strange, don't know what to tell you there.

[pearlescence]

I went back and had another good look and noticed that some seem to have a pearl inside them...you can see this in the middle, at the end of the coil, there is a hole in the pearl and what looks like a smaller pearl peeking out, Russian doll style.
Could these be what I've seen called re-born pearls, where they put a pearl back into a pearl sac to grow some more?
still doesn't solve the weight thing though

[olmander]

Hi Wendy,

I have a similar beige/apricot strand (11-15 mm and 130 cm long) and always thought that these are nucleated FW baruques. But my strand is really VERY heavy.
Can the difference in weight be a result of different stuff used for nucleating? Because I don't think that not-nucleated FW baroques can grow that big... or am I wrong?

Olga