What is the difference between "Treated" and "Dyed"

[Mikeyy]

Just wondering if there is something I am missing? The reason I ask is that I was recently at the Hong Kong show and saw piles of brown pearls. Far more then I have seen in the past. Those that like them call them treated. Those that don't call them dyed. Is that about the size of it?

[jerin]

Hi Mikeyy,

"Treated" can mean different treatments of the pearls like bleaching, luster enhancing treatments, dying and so on, while dyed means just what it says, i.e. the pearls have got some other colour than their natural.

Very often pearls of poor grade are dyed and it practically all the time means freshwater pearls even if for example golden South Sea pearls can be dyed to give them a more saturated look.

[Caitlin]

Hi Inge
That was so good, I can't think of anything to add to it. Your posts are so often very knowledgeable.

[sspearl]

Jerin says right.

i attached some "dyed" pearl photo.

normally.we use not good grade pearl to dyed.

[jerin]

Hi Inge
That was so good, I can't think of anything to add to it. Your posts are so often very knowledgeable.

Thank You Caitlin, high praise from an absolute expert on this forum!

[jerin]

Hi Mort and welcome to the Forum! Hi Mikeyy!

One way to suspect that pearls are dayed is apart from the colour the shape of the pearls.

In the above pictures you can see quite clearly that the shape of these pearls is very oval/eggy or whatever you want to call them.

The next thing I would look for are blemishes. If the pearls show blemishes, you could guess that they are at least dyed and probably luster enhanced as well, otherwise the sellers can´t get rid of them, even if there are most certainly many people who would go for the lower price rather than the ghastly colour or the large blemishes.

Luckily our members on this forum get so much education from other members, they will know exactly what to look for!

The third criterion that should tell you what kind of pearls it is about is of course the price. They should be very cheap.

The one thing I can say for those pearls is the fact that they are cheap and this might make them interesting for us beaders to train our stringing skills.

Finally there is a huge difference between dyed and dyed: If you look at last month´s Special from PP or from TPO and other vendors on this forum you will realize that not only are these strands a lovely colour, they are really round to the eye, not as many of the Chinese sellers try to make us believe, when they call their pearls "very round" that simply means be prepared to get oval potatoe shaped perals, and they (PP:s pearls) have a fine luster, very few blemishes if any, no disturbing ones anyway plus a very reasonable price!

So to sum up: for training reasons only it is OK to buy cheap, ugly dyed pearls or perhaps if you want to make yourself a "pearl curtain", in that case the money paid for may be worthwile....

[jerin]

Hi Mort,

I forgot to thank you for the pictures. The white pearls do look nice, the yellow/golden ones have nice luster and the brown ones in the one picture have probably much blemishing as they look like faceted pearls and that no one would do with low-grade pearls!

[sspearl]

Hi jerin:
Thank you kindly point out my mistake.
I am new here to .learn so much from you and all of the PG members.

YES ,the white pearls is not dyed .

of course ,not all the pearls is bad grade. like some colors popular in this years ,we will dyed this colors .i e: we dyed fw pearl to gold colors imitate
south sea pearls. like the picture show above.

[jerin]

Hi jerin:
Thank you kindly point out my mistake.
I am new here to .learn so much from you and all of the PG members.

YES ,the white pearls is not dyed .

of course ,not all the pearls is bad grade. like some colors popular in this years ,we will dyed this colors .i e: we dyed fw pearl to gold colors imitate
south sea pearls. like the picture show above.

What mistake would that be?
I too enjoyed the pictures very much, thanks again!