what are these tadpole pearls?

S

sleight

Guest
My pearl vendor knows I like baroque pearls and she sent me these tadpole-looking pearls to look at. Can anyone give me any information about them? I seem to recall reading an article somewhere about firetail pearls, but now I can't find it to see if these are firetails. And does anyone know about their value? They are 10-11 mm. Thank you! tadpoles.jpg
 
Hi Sleight,

They look like bead-nucleated freshwater cultured pearls. If the tail is more fanned out they are called fireballs.

Zeide
 
Fireballs not tails, that's why I couldn't find the article! Thank you! But since you don't think these are fireballs, do you have any idea how much these are worth?
 
Hi Sleight,

Not really, the market value in China is often significantly different from the market value in the rest of the world and it is not always cheaper. China has a vast domestic market and if a particular style is popular, they just stay in the country. In general, though, the nucleated freshwater cultured pearls cost more than the tissue-only nucleated ones unless the TONCPs are bigger than 9mm. With the 9-12mm size range being the most sought after in China, you will see fewer of them going to the international market and at ever increasing prices.

Zeide
 
What crazy colors! Shape or no shape... the dark rainbow ones look straight surreal. Is that natural color? If so, could they possibly be ... err... more convex and still have a skin like that?

Sorry for just piling the questions up instead of any answers. I've never seen that shape on sale at all, expect in less expensive saltwater baroque pearls.
 
They are very peacock, definitely color-treated. And the shape is really just like a tadpole - a round "head" with a flatter "tail" coming out of one side. They're very interesting, but I'm conflicted about keeping them or sending them back.
 
Sleignt,

What do youplan on doing with them???? Jewelry? or as a conversation piece? would you really use them at all????

Just some Q's to think about to help ypu decide if you wnat to keep them or not...

Hope it helps

Ash
 
This is fortuitous. I was just looking through a list of websites at a back of a book that arrived from amazon today about making pearl jewelry and at 'a grain of sands.com' I came across these so called OKOYA pearls.
http://www.agrainofsand.com/Beads-Wholesale-Freshwater-Pearls-59.html
Of course I immediately flicked over to the pearl guide to do a search for the term and I find this thread about firetail pearls which to me look very similiar..
So I have a couple of questions as well that I hope you can answer .
What are so called OKOYA pearls?
Are they shell nucleated?
Can you get these OKOYA/firetail pearls without the bead and if so - how big without the bead?

Susan
 
Has to be a mistype. I have heard more than one time of the people on QVC selling "Okoya" pearls. Probably just becuase of how some people pronounce it - 'Uh-coy-ya' for those of us down south :D
 
Dear Sleight:

The picture shows that is a Chinese Freshwater Baroque, so far they are pretty expensive in the market. The reason why you don't see much of these pearls out there is because of the limitation in material and the price.

The size that you have is about 10X15mm?. Prices are running around $ 300.00 per strand (retail). At this moment, the designers in Europe are starting to use these but it seems to be a little bit hard since they can't have enough quantity to produce them.

I saw the other link that Susan Posted, those are not the same as the ones you have in the picture. They are Salt Water AKOYA Pearls in baroque shape, their sizes is aboutr 7-9mm available, price is innexpensive.

I hope this can help you choose either keep them or send them back.

Enjoy them!
 
I disagree. Both of the photos are of freshwater pearls. The link Susan posted with the name Okoya is freshwater without question. Baroque Akoya look very different.

There is one other point to make on both pictures. They are not simply baroque freshwater, they are bead-nucleated freshwater pearls, nucleated with the same shell Chinese Akoya are nucleated with (not rounded pearls as some claim).
 
Thanks Jeremy

Couple more questions.
Can you get freshwater Baroques in this Okoya/fireball shape without the bead?

If so how big?

If not are we perhaps talking about baroque shapes in tissue nucleated freshwater (like Zeide's flintstone necklace) being common and large say 12mm upwards and numerous or not?

I personally love the idea of a necklace in these fireball freshwater pearls in a large size- but would prefer them not to have the shell nucleous if at all possible.

Susan

Susan
 
jshepherd said:
I disagree. Both of the photos are of freshwater pearls. The link Susan posted with the name Okoya is freshwater without question. Baroque Akoya look very different.
Click to expand...

It seems that I spoke before looking at the picture or doing some investigation. It seems that the word Okoya is being used a lot in conjunction with Freshwater pearls (especially on eBay). Evidently this term is being used with bead nucleated Freshwater pearls (Freshwater pearls that are cultured in the same manner as Akoya - thus Okoya).

I may be wrong as I am not really familiar with this term (and why I just thought is was a misprint at first glance)...
 
Thank you Carol. At least I now understand Okoya is another name for firetail pearls. At least in some circles.
 
Susan said:
Can you get freshwater Baroques in this Okoya/fireball shape without the bead?
If so how big?
If not are we perhaps talking about baroque shapes in tissue nucleated freshwater (like Zeide's flintstone necklace) being common and large say 12mm upwards and numerous or not?
I personally love the idea of a necklace in these fireball freshwater pearls in a large size- but would prefer them not to have the shell nucleous if at all possible.
Click to expand...
In that particular shape the chances are not very good. In a tissue nucleated freshwater you are looking for a shape of chance, but with the bead nucleated material that particular shape is very consistent and distinct. It is similar to the freeform South Sea baroque pearl shape.
http://www.pearlparadise.com/detail.aspx?ID=426

If you are interested in that type of shape, it would be easiest for you to go with the bead nucleated variety. Although you may eventually find something very similar with tissue nucleated.
 
Last edited:
Hi Susan,

My tissue-only nucleated drops are a minimum of 12mm and a maximum of 14.4mm measured perpendicular to the drill hole and a minimum of 14mm and a maximum of 17.1mm measured hole-to-hole. I have not seen many of those around but some do pop up every now and then. How much they cost always depends on who is selling them and where. I do not know a going market rate, but surely Jeremy should know.

Zeide
 
Not really, actually. When the market was flooded with baroques we went nearly exclusively to high-end rounds to carve a niche and to avoid competing with the billions of low-end pearls and thousands of low-end pearl dealers on the market. I often travel to Zhuji with friends of mine in the beading industry, and their average costs for baroques go from about $15US per kilo and up. I am sure that certain premium strands could cost substantially more, however. These would likely either be loose matched outside of a factory, or sold as a single piece from a factory.
I do not personally buy any of those pearls unless I am doing someone a favor. In the end they spend about $10k US for every $100k US that I spend with a converse amount of volume.
 
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