[perlas]

ok.. i will grasp at straws.

1) having seen so many pearls, are these beaded FW fireball pearls really freshwater? aren't they attempts for a bigger nucleus in saltwater? they just look so different. the fireballs have the "pop" luster rather than the orient or water. i'm expecting that the tail would at least have the luster, orient, and water of the tissue-activated CFWPs.

2) aren't the farmers making the mollusks secrete more nacre too fast, too soon thus the tails? i have seen fireball pearls with long tails but at the same time exposing a portion of the nucleus (not exposing the nucleus in such a way that the pearl was peeled but it looks like the mollusk wasn't really able to "coat" the nucleus thouroughly).

just some far off thoughts stemming out of frustration that jeremy is hanging a carrot under our noses!

[purepearls]

The only thing I can think of that would cause this is the manner in which the mollusk is nucleated. If the farmer is able to control his harvests by producing fireball pearls, then he is manipulating something during the nucleation process. I can't think of what would be manipulated besides the bead nucleus or mantle tissue.

[Caitlin]

Hi Jeremy

I read your post with interest. Is Steve Bloom going to visit any part of this tour? This is a perfect Steve Bloom kind of story.

How do I know that? I got his book, Postville:A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America from Amazon and I love it. He is sensitive and perceptive and brings fairness to his work. He is a trained in and worked in journalism -and now teaches it, so his writing is clear and clean. He really has a keen eye and ear for nuances of language, phrases and their meanings to the users. He is a "participatory anthropologist" or something like that, because he is involved with 2 foreign cultures and he knows it. Whatever it is, it works in his writing.

I now realize the fine dinner with you, Doug and Stephen was really quite a conclave- a cosmic confluence. Anyway, see if you can get him in on some of this tail story, so he can write about it in his pearl book.

For P-G readers:
Stephen Bloom is not into pearls, per se, but into the stories generated by pearls, pearlman, pearl mongers, pearl pealers, stories of people, and places with pearls as the McGuffin. After reading his descriptions of Iowa, I know he can and will, ace whatever part of China he gets to see. I never thought anyone could make Iowa interesting, but he did and I now have a completely renovated view of it through Postvllle.

I am looking forward to his description of China, the land, the food, maybe even the toilets... and everything else he sees in China, because it will be one treasured read for pearl lovers.
(You are welcome, Steve, you deserve a plug).

[jshepherd]

Sorry this is going to be short. I am in Xuwen, and Internet access is very intermitten.

1) having seen so many pearls, are these beaded FW fireball pearls really freshwater? aren't they attempts for a bigger nucleus in saltwater? they just look so different. the fireballs have the "pop" luster rather than the orient or water. i'm expecting that the tail would at least have the luster, orient, and water of the tissue-activated CFWPs

No, they are definitely freshwater, and only cultured in the Sanjiaofanbang shell - H.c. They do not all "pop", this is rare, just not as rare as the rounds. This has to do with the same thin film interference that creates orient in true baroques. There are simply a lot of difference surfaces from which create light diffraction from the linnear edges of nacre platelets.

2) aren't the farmers making the mollusks secrete more nacre too fast, too soon thus the tails? i have seen fireball pearls with long tails but at the same time exposing a portion of the nucleus (not exposing the nucleus in such a way that the pearl was peeled but it looks like the mollusk wasn't really able to "coat" the nucleus thouroughly).

This is not a factor. Nacre deposition does not change.

The only thing I can think of that would cause this is the manner in which the mollusk is nucleated. If the farmer is able to control his harvests by producing fireball pearls, then he is manipulating something during the nucleation process. I can't think of what would be manipulated besides the bead nucleus or mantle tissue.

No. Fireballs are created in the pursuit of rounds, which are so rare that even a strand would be extremely difficult to produce. They have just become popular of late. There is one very, very important part of their production that everyone has missed, save what was briefly touched on by Akamatsu and Li in their report 5 years ago - but even that was experimental at the time.

Oh, by the way. Pearls used as nculei... total urban ledgend. Never happened, never could happen. It is impossible...

[jshepherd]

PS
Stephen Bloom is not going to pop up on this trip. This type of research is a bit different than what he was here for. He would like the fireball story, though.

[perlas]

Thanks for answering my far-fetched questions.
I think too that it's always in the pursuit of rounds. I think the most plausible explanation for fireballs here is given by CortezPearls but if it's not that...what else? *sigh*

Originally Posted by jshepherd

Pearls used as nculei... total urban ledgend. Never happened, never could happen. It is impossible...

If I'm not mistaken, I think the Strack mentioned pearls as nuclei, although perhaps not with certainty that it truly exists. I'm just curious why it could never happen. I mean, if you polish a pearl to be totally round, why can't it function the same as a shell nuclei?

[Valeria101]

Peal nuclei.... also a SSEF report round Kasumiga pearls, using drilled pearls as nucleii. Don't think the case can be counted as significant volume, just proving that somehow this can be done, technically speaking.

Gems & Gemology, May 30 2000: Freshwater Cultured "Kasumiga" Pearls, With Akoya Cultured Pearl Nuclei

"... three 40-cm-long strands consisted of approximately 40 pearls each, with diameters ranging from 9 to 13 mm. X-radiographs revealed the presence of two drill holes in each pearl at a random orientation to each other.

... half of one cultured pearl was ground away and the surface polished. The bead nucleus was covered by a very thin (0.2 mm) overgrowth of nacre, which was separated by a slight gap from a much thicker (>2 mm) layer of freshwater nacre. An energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis of the pearl's surface showed an abundance of manganese, thereby confirming the freshwater origin of the outer nacre layer."




Whether anyone else might consider this sort of thing economically sound, that is another question. Those round Kasumiga pearls were sold orders of magnitude over Chinese freshwater prices today (at leats sometime, I know of the fate of two high-end strands of rounds only).

PS. The earliest report of such pearls was in another G&G number mentioned by the article above as well: G&G Spring 1962 (pdf. download), and Fall 1960.

[jshepherd]

Hailing from HK International airport...

Yes, the Kasumis did use pearls, but not freshwater. They were nucleated with drilled Akoya (perfect round).

There are several reasons that it does not work in China. We actually asked several farmer about this do really understand.

First, economically it is not feasible. Second, pearls cannot go through the same process bead nuclei do. The shell is cut, rounded, shaped, and then tumbled in acid. This produces a perfectly smooth nucleus - like glass. A pearl cannot go through this, and if the nucleus is not pefectly smooth it will create a low grade pearl.

Akamatsu actually tried to create a nucleus from a pearl - he found it was impossible.

Now this is not to say that it was not attempted. It was, by the Shanxiahu company in 2000-2001. It was probably an experiment that many companies tried - but it did not work.

The reason this is so important is because of the big nuked-freshwater uproar of 5 years ago. Fred Ward was claiming it, as was Antionette Matlins, as was Bo Torrey, as was Lois Berger who thought she had found a pearl nuked pearl at Tucson (which was likely nothing more than a conchiolin layer separation). If you research the subject on google, you will see how far off they were.

Anyway, the plane will not wait!

[Ragnorak]

Originally Posted by jshepherd

Anyway, the plane will not wait!

Can't it wait a bit longer. I for one would love to hear what you have to share.

[Valeria101]

Originally Posted by jshepherd

...the big nuked-freshwater uproar of 5 years ago. Fred Ward was claiming it, as was Antionette Matlins, as was Bo Torrey, as was Lois Berger who thought she had found a pearl nuked pearl at Tucson (which was likely nothing more than a conchiolin layer separation). If you research the subject on google, you will see how far off they were.

Looks like allot of literature alright!

'Conchiolin layer separation' gets me lost - 'bet everyone else has a couple of rattly pearls in their stash , just not me... yet.

[jshepherd]

Conchiolin separation looks very much like a pearl inside a pearl. The reason is simple - it is a pearl inside a pearl (think pearl peeling).

Things are set with the GIA's Gems and Gemology. The bead nuke article is going to be a feature in the Spring Issue, and we are actually writing two, but one is going to be in gem notes. Doug Fiske and I are co-authoring them together. Regarding me spilling the beans here, it will be at the same time. That was my only condition.

[Raisondetre]

Anymore on the fireball story? It's like the best reality show ever!

[jshepherd]

Doug Fiske and I are finishing the FW feature article for Gems and Gemology this weekend. We start the smaller akoya article next week. The next G&G comes out this Summer. I cannot (unfortunately) give the full details on the fireballs until the article is published, but the deal we made is that I can publish a second article here on the same day.

There are 2 really big points in the FW article. One has astounded me even more than the true story behind the fireballs. It will all be here soon, I promise!

[salem]

Hi Jeremy,

When you know the approximate time-frame for posting that article here, can you give us some notice? Just a week or even a few days is all I mean. Some days when I check for new posts, there are quite a few(like today) and sometimes I don't read them all. I don't want to miss it because it sounds fascinating.