[jpacella]

Hello,

Let me first say thank you to this forum as I ran across it searching for reviews on "thepearlsource.com" and found a very interesting thread dealing with misrepresentation and credibility. It seemed to me, very quickly, that the parties involved in this forum actually care about this market and work to ensure quality and fair competition, so kudos!

On to my dilemma - I am interested in purchasing Tahitian Pearl earrings for a lady-friend and a question arose that I felt could be answered in this forum. I'm sorry if this has already been discussed, but I couldn't find any thread with intial searches.

My lady-friend wants green colored tahitian pearls. Of course, she cares about quality as well, but right now, her main interest is color. I have looked rather extensively online and seen varied descriptions for products. The picture would show green pearls yet the title would say "black tahitian pearl..etc..". Other sites did describe pearls as green, which may have been inaccurate technically, but helpful to me, the consumer.

Mr. Shepherd, I am going to use one of your products as an example of my dilemma:

http://www.thepearloutlet.com/servle...supplierID=490

Now, I trust your site (or any reputable site) would deliver what I see in the picture with relative accuracy, but there is never any mention in the description of "green" color that I can find, only the picture and quality descriptions. Now, I understand pearls range in their colors, so I would be hesitant to purchase these pearls without physically seeing how green they really are.

Is there anything I can do to ensure the colors are as vibrant as possible? Should I expect what I see in the picture? Will they at least be green, just varying shades?

Any opinions on this matter would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

J

[Acksim]

I am new around here, but have you looked at PearlParadise.com? Their Tahitians are sorted by overtone color, so you could specify "green". I am sure if you called Pearl Outlet and asked for a pair that was green, they would help. Maybe an expert around here has a better answer, but I would say call! Good luck!

[Valeria101]

Hi

'Green' would be an overtone of the pearls. The websites of some web-shops give an automatic option to select the overtone. Others do not, but this does not mean the sellers would not accommodate a specific request.

I don't think you have much choice between 'color' and 'quality'. You might find a pearl with some blemished (= lower quality) and still with strong green overtone, but I believe that the peal still needs to have high lustre an thick nacre to show the overtone to begin with. Basically, by asking for color (I believe) you are asking for high quality too.

Now, I don't think that putting up with serious blemishing is going to make the purchase less expensive - it may take a while and you might as well never find the pearl with such specific trade-off: high lustre, orient, strong green overtone - a very desirable color, and some chips and scratches here and there. Not sure why the particular combination is not common - perhaps because those desirable qualities are also associated with thicker nacre... and pearls are polished. Who knows. After all, you just need one pearl, and the precise item might as well come by.

What should give you choice of price for the required color is the choice of size and shape of pearl: baroque ones tend to have stronger lustre and orient which show off those colors, and smaller pearls are more likely to be of high quality... and either option costs less then a round. for whatever reason.

Certainly, this is just my idea of how these things work. Not saying I'm right.

Originally Posted by jpacella

Is there anything I can do to ensure the colors are as vibrant as possible? Should I expect what I see in the picture? Will they at least be green, just varying shades?

'Guess you can ask for a specific overtone.

Should you expect to se it in a picture; not really... pearls are notoriously difficult to photograph. That's what return policies are for

You might want to clarify the difference between 'body color' and 'overtone' for pearls. But I would imagine that you are after dark body color with strong green overtone. Everyone is! Yes, there is allot of variation among pearls... that's why matching strands is not to be taken for granted, for example. Wish I knew some way to show this - the sight of a pile of dark pearls with their myriad of distinct natural shades is quite wonderful Try HERE (the website of a pearl grower who is posting here too on occasion).

[jpacella]

Thank you for the opinions so far. Everyone else feel free to comment!

To clarify, I am looking for tahitian pearl earrings (with dark body and green overtone) as well as a pendant necklace of 1 larger pearl. Can I ask the seller to match all three pearls as close as possible or is that asking too much?

Does anyone know any sellers that would accomodate a request such as this one?

[jshepherd]

I think any seller here would be willing and able to accomodate. If you have a picture of the exact coloration you are looking for just call or email the site with a link to the picture. It would simply be a matter of selecting pearls that look exactly like the pearls you are looking for or are describing. It would take a good selection of loose pearls to make an exact match, but it would not be too difficult to do.

[Kevin Canning]

picture would show green pearls yet the title would say "black tahitian pearl..etc..".

Tahitian pearls are known as a "black pearl", but this can be misleading. Tahitian pearls are not really black, they are shades of grey,silver,green etc. and can run from almost white to very near a true black color.

As Jeremy mentioned, the best way is it call a retailer and make a special request, Tahitians with a green overtone shouldn't be hard to find at all.

[GemGeek]

Like this?

[jpacella]

that is gorgeous. What would you say is the body and overtone of that pearl. from talks to different people it seems for the most vibrant green, I should be looking for medium body with prominent overtones. Any thoughts?

[GemGeek]

It's a black tahitian pearl with an extreme green metallic overtone. And I love it!

[jerin]

Hi, Jpacella
and welcome to the forum. You should perhaps know as well that usually pearls for earrings are chosen from the finest ones, i.e. surface is clean, shape round, body colour dark with either peacock overtones (green, rose, blue) or as in your case with a strong greenish overtone!

If You should choose baroque Tahitians (almost every other shape than round), the earrings would not be quite as expensive as if You go for a perfectly round shaped pearl. But the most expensive part with Tahitians seems to be their colours. There are lovely silver coloured Tahitians as well, just look on the sites of above mentioned sellers. They all can get you pearls that are matched for colour and shape and You can return them without getting problems if You are not satisfied. I have Tahitian pendants in drop form in that specific overtone, they are very lovely!

Let us know what you buy and please, post pics and tell us, what Your lady friend thinks about her first Tahitians.
I am attaching a picture of super beautiful Tahitians from Pearl Paradise, Jeremy Shepherd.

[jshepherd]

Those were some beautiful pearls!

I still think it is best to just send the picture to the seller to make a perfect match. Anyone can sell "green". Very, very few sellers, however, will be able to perfectly match a pair for earrings and a pendant that match the earlier picture. This would take a large amount of inventory.

[jpacella]

Well, thanks to this forum, I think I found the right people with enough inventory to solve my problem. They are just so helpful too, I can see why people on this forum were stressing how they based a person's business off the person and not the business. I'll let you all know how it comes out, maybe even with pictures!

Thanks again for all the input!

J

[CLICLASP]

Hello
The color grading chart of Tahitian pearls could help you
Here is a small extract

[Valeria101]

Yeah! There seem to be dozens of such charts online, more or less 'adjusted' by resizing, editing etc. and with little consistency between color names.

There's even THIS mother-of-all-pearl-color-naming-projects.

BTW. since light green was mentioned... does anyone care about 'pistachio' color pearls - that once-fabled greenish yellow color - anymore?

And since the name seems to mean various things in various places (including the impossible vivid yellowish green in the picture above) here's one sample of the color I'm talking about.

[The Pearl Outlet]

Hi J,

Our solution has been to ask customers to state their preference in our "Comments" box during checkout. We have a huge variety of body and overtone colors available and can accommodate most requests.

If trying to perfectly match an existing pearl, you'll want to send a picture, or even the pearl to us to match.