What was most regrettable pearl moment?

[ladykemma]

what was your most regrettable pearl related and moment and why?

When I was 20 i had a rich boyfriend. he gave me a pair of biwa pearl earring studs. He told me at the time they were expensive but I didn't understand what that meant. they were lovely and I wore them constantly for several years.

Then I got older and the earrings got lost in the house for years. I unearthed them during clutter clean out. I washed the yellowed gunk off from neglect and gave them to a friend.

Now I have learned a little about pearls and wish I had them back. It makes me slightly ill to think of what I threw away.

edited to say: they were keshi, not biwa. brain fart...

 

[Valeria101]

Lucky friend!

'Biwa' were just high quality freshwater... Perhaps the initial surce is gone, but surely the type must be allot more available now. And most likely allot less highly priced too. What were the studs like?

 

[ladykemma]

they were baroque lumpy round-ish. very very pretty.

 

[ladykemma]

i have another one...

dropping strand of pearls on the cold hard tile floor. Ouch!

 

[Cam Hatch]

I was helping a friend buy three loose Tahitians for his fiance for Christmas. One beautiful 15mm and a perfect pair of 11mm...fantastic colour and perfect lustre.
Unfortuantely she took them to her jeweller who does beautiful diamond work, but rather inexperienced in pearls...drilled straight through them all on an angle. Made me want to cry!

 

[ladykemma]

wow -did the jeweler have insurance? did he/she make good?

 

[Cam Hatch]

Unfortunately no insurance. Even when asking the jeweller "do you want me to mark the drill holes?" the reply was..."no, no problem"
The jewellery was finished with a slight design change to hide it, but maybe we can convince him to buy some white South Seas this Christmas!

 

[seadancer]

I was wearing my favourite pearl drop.....a lovely old akoya with beautiful orient......and the chain broke. I picked up the pearl drop and wrapped it in a tissue and put it in my pocket to return to my jewellery box when next in my bedroom.
You guessed it....forgot to return it and the tissue with pearl enclosed went into the trash on washing day! I didnt realise it until after the trash had been collected!
Cheers, Brenda

 

[Ragnorak]

My worst moment is loosing two black pearls between two international airports.

Both were about 12mm. One was a nice drop and the other a round. They both had a beautiful red/green overtone on top of the black.

 

[knotty panda]

It was time for my senior pictures and I wanted to wear a single strand of pearls like all the other girls wore. But, we were poor and there were no pearls to borrow.

So, I grabbed my babysitting money and marched up to the fabric store to purchase all the little packs of faux pearls I could afford. There were no beading stores then and clasps weren't readily available. Since I'd spent all my money on the pearls, I nixed the idea of a button clasp.

I strung the pearls to fit over my head with no clasp, but I didn't have quite enough pearls and had a two inch gap in the back where I knotted the thread. "That's ok," I said to myself, "that won't show in back!"

But, sure enough, when the proofs from my senior picture arrived, the necklace had shifted and the two inch thread gap was smack, dab in the front. The photographer hadn't bothered to say a word to me. I was mortified.

There was nothing to be done about it. And my senior picture was published with the thread gap.

I'm still mortified.

 

[Sanippy]

Resurrecting this thread!

Wearing my kamoka bracelet to meet my friend's new puppy. Said puppy proceeded to chew on my bracelet. Luckily it escaped (mostly) unscathed but I've learned my lesson. No pearls around pets!

 

[MSC]

This is a great thread, glad you unearthed it hanadama!

Pearl regret: Losing the turnip WSSP pendant. Come back to me!

 

[moneymeister]

Selling this ring when I was short of funds. I want to have a tribute ring made. Wendy is looking for a replacement for the pearl. I will need to find someone who can cast for me. I took jewelry years ago, I may want to try to make the wax myself. Or maybe not...

 

[Lady_Disdain]

It shouldn't be too hard to find someone to fabricate one. It looks pretty straight forward.

 

[MSC]

No pearls around pets!

What is it about pearls and dogs? My Porter loves to nibble on my pearls when I wear them too (and he's not a puppy). Perhaps the mineral component of a pearl is attractive to animals as a resource for mineral requirements; e.g. elephants eat clay for mineral supplementation.

 

[BWeaves]

Dropping my little h pendant on my tile floor and breaking off one of the emerald points. Luckily Hisano gave me good advice on what type of super glue to use and I was able to fix it. But I still feel like an idiot for dropping it.

 

[JerseyPearl]

This is a great thread, glad you unearthed it hanadama!

Pearl regret: Losing the turnip WSSP pendant. Come back to me!

Say a prayer to St. Anthony...the patron saint of lost things...say: Tony, look around!
ETA: I don't know if he really is the patron saint of lost things, that was what my grandmother used to say...she could have been referring to my Uncle Tony (she used to call him St. Anthony)

 

[moneymeister]

It shouldn't be too hard to find someone to fabricate one. It looks pretty straight forward.

I sent a message through your blog

 

[moneymeister]

Dropping my little h pendant on my tile floor and breaking off one of the emerald points. Luckily Hisano gave me good advice on what type of super glue to use and I was able to fix it. But I still feel like an idiot for dropping it.

You poor thing, that must have felt like time stood still. EEk.

 

[Sea Urchin]

JP, St. Anthony or the sainted uncle Anthony, too funny!

BW- I'm glad your pendant was restored. I love that one and also BAS's little h pendant with the peridot- ooh, and also her yellow and pink gems in pearl earrings.

Here's my regret- A huge GSS pearl was what I always wanted the most. I finally found the right pearl at the right price (and at the right time) from The Pearl Society. When it arrived, I tried to take photos of it outside and dropped it and it went merrily bouncing along on the concrete. You can see the dings in the lower photo, bottom center. I had asked advice on here about smoothing the dings out but then worried I might damage it more, so... It's still wearable but I was upset at the time.

Also, I have a wall-mounted jewelry box that is awkward to maneuver pearl earrings on, especially. I finally put a couple of big thick towels on the floor under it so anything that falls hits towels rather than tile.