J
jerin
Guest
Hi, Jun Wei,
South Sea Pearls, aren?t they? Very lovely, lots of orient in the white ones and the golden ones do look very saturated in colour. Where did you get them?
P.S.I just realized that you posted under "Freshwater Pearls" but surely these pearls are not dyed freshwater (golden) and the white ones surpass any of my Freshadamas (luster and orient)!D.S.
South Sea Pearls, aren?t they? Very lovely, lots of orient in the white ones and the golden ones do look very saturated in colour. Where did you get them?
P.S.I just realized that you posted under "Freshwater Pearls" but surely these pearls are not dyed freshwater (golden) and the white ones surpass any of my Freshadamas (luster and orient)!D.S.
Hi Jun Wei,
Wow, those pearls are gorgeous. And those are freshwaters? Nice! Now the two pictures above are both white pearls, right? I am assuming they look golden because of the photo quality. I mean the whole picture came out golden-ish, so I am thinking the pearls themselves are not colored. But I am curious are they golden? Have you seen golden freshwaters to rival SS pearls? That would really be something.
Jen
Wow, those pearls are gorgeous. And those are freshwaters? Nice! Now the two pictures above are both white pearls, right? I am assuming they look golden because of the photo quality. I mean the whole picture came out golden-ish, so I am thinking the pearls themselves are not colored. But I am curious are they golden? Have you seen golden freshwaters to rival SS pearls? That would really be something.
Jen
J
jerin
Guest
Jun Wei,
WOW - if these are beadnucleated freshwater pearls, where are the tails?
Where can I get such pearls? They are incredibly beautiful!
Hi,
They are the same pearls. Only the first pic was made with white balance (it is similar then to day light) and the second pic is under normal artifical light.
We have seen few golden fresh water pearls, and also their color is not so pure as the best SSP.
Most bead-nucleated freshwater pearls have tails. Few have no Tails or small tails. These pearls have no tails. The they have small holes, which can de drilled.
I promised a customer to show him some bead-nucleated freshwater pearls in Inhorgenta. If he does take it, Jerin: I can send some photos to you and you can think whether you get them or not.
Here is a photo for the pearls with tails. The pearls have a diameter of 12,5-16mm. I Hope you like them too.
They are the same pearls. Only the first pic was made with white balance (it is similar then to day light) and the second pic is under normal artifical light.
We have seen few golden fresh water pearls, and also their color is not so pure as the best SSP.
Most bead-nucleated freshwater pearls have tails. Few have no Tails or small tails. These pearls have no tails. The they have small holes, which can de drilled.
I promised a customer to show him some bead-nucleated freshwater pearls in Inhorgenta. If he does take it, Jerin: I can send some photos to you and you can think whether you get them or not.
Here is a photo for the pearls with tails. The pearls have a diameter of 12,5-16mm. I Hope you like them too.
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jshepherd
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 22, 2004
- Messages
- 6,148
JWei said:
Thanks for clearing the confusion on the drop-shape nuclei.
I guess I am such a stickler on bead-nuking after all the urban legends that have been spread around over the last decade. Of course this brings me to another point. The picture of your smashed pearl.
I marked up your photo a bit to show two things. The piece of material that I circled is what I am assuming you are calling the bead. Please correct me if I am wrong. The arrow points to a conchiolin layer.
The "bead" looks like pearl to me not shell. The remnants of the outer layering show a clear conchiolin layer between the outer layer and the inner pearl. It appears to me that when you smashed the pearl you simply broke a layer of nacre from the pearl and it split somewhat cleanly at a layer of conchiolin.
There is an old term called peeling. Peeling is removing a layer of nacre. It comes free quite easily over every layer of conchiolin. What you are left with is another pearl; a slightly smaller pearl.
Basically what I am trying to explain is that a pearl is just a pearl within a pearl within a pearl within a pearl, etc. This is one of the reasons so many people believed the first urban legend about bead-nuking in China; the Chinese were using pearls as nuclei. Jewelers would cut a pearl in half to 'prove' that there was a pearl in a pearl. But extensive GIA testing by Tom Moses and Ken Scarratt proved this to be false.
I do agree that some of the bead-nuked freshwater have incredible orient and luster, very often better than tissue-nuked pearls. I am unsure why they can be so fine, but to date have not chosen to carry them for environmental reasons.
S
Slraep
Guest
jshepherd said:
Bravo Jeremy. I applaud you. No reason is better than an environmental one at the moment. Some dealers are selling environmentally sound, cultured Tahitians(and touting their merits), yet at the same time, they are selling BIG flameballs. Don't know how they are reasoning that.
Nice explanation about the smashed pearl.
Slraep
Raisondetre
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2007
- Messages
- 943
Given that PP sells more pearls online to at least the consumer market than any other online retailer I think the decision to not sell fireballs for now is very sound. Kudos to Jeremy!
I know I'm a bit slow, and this stuff was already discussed at length over the summer, but sometimes it takes me awhile.
There are a bunch of things about the bead nucleated freshwater pearls that I don't really get. Mostly, I don't get, what's the point? Why are these being produced? I don't mean this to be offensive or argumentative, I just really don't get it.
What I have picked up, from reading this forum, as the attraction to these pearls is: 1. the bead-nuked pearls have special colorations that people really like, and 2. that they are huge, which is something that I didn't pick up on in the discussions at first.
Are all of the bead-nuked FW pearls using the large nucleus from endangered giant clams, or are they making smaller bead-nuked pearls as well? Is there something about the process that produces the wild colors, or can these be had in tissue-nucleated pearls as well?
I am also wondering if, generally, the bead-nuked FW pearls thing is a growing trend, or if it's just a small side note. Thanks.
Nicole
There are a bunch of things about the bead nucleated freshwater pearls that I don't really get. Mostly, I don't get, what's the point? Why are these being produced? I don't mean this to be offensive or argumentative, I just really don't get it.
What I have picked up, from reading this forum, as the attraction to these pearls is: 1. the bead-nuked pearls have special colorations that people really like, and 2. that they are huge, which is something that I didn't pick up on in the discussions at first.
Are all of the bead-nuked FW pearls using the large nucleus from endangered giant clams, or are they making smaller bead-nuked pearls as well? Is there something about the process that produces the wild colors, or can these be had in tissue-nucleated pearls as well?
I am also wondering if, generally, the bead-nuked FW pearls thing is a growing trend, or if it's just a small side note. Thanks.
Nicole
S
Slraep
Guest
I guess that the bead nuked flameballs are an attempt at making freshwaters consistently rounder, especially in the bigger sizes. I think that the 9-12.5 mm nuclei are pretty much from the big clam.
I too wonder what the fascination with flameballs is. I bought a pair of earrings way back when I didn't know what they were, out of curiosity. They are, in reality, just a by product of Chinese experimentation geared towards making perfectly round freshwaters. A "by product" that has found a market here in North America. After all, we will buy anything, even someone's fruits of failed experiments. On some flameballs I have examined, you can plainly SEE the outline of the nucleus. I dunno but that's not very attractive and totally in a different direction from what makes a pearl beautiful and valuable, not to mention the disregard for an endangered species. As for wild colour, I'll pick Jeremy's freshwater exotics in 100% nacre over nuked "by products" any time.
Slraep
I too wonder what the fascination with flameballs is. I bought a pair of earrings way back when I didn't know what they were, out of curiosity. They are, in reality, just a by product of Chinese experimentation geared towards making perfectly round freshwaters. A "by product" that has found a market here in North America. After all, we will buy anything, even someone's fruits of failed experiments. On some flameballs I have examined, you can plainly SEE the outline of the nucleus. I dunno but that's not very attractive and totally in a different direction from what makes a pearl beautiful and valuable, not to mention the disregard for an endangered species. As for wild colour, I'll pick Jeremy's freshwater exotics in 100% nacre over nuked "by products" any time.
Slraep
I guess that I'm actually hoping that this project will fail. As a consumer, it's difficult to know what you are getting when it comes to pearls. Especially when dealing with pearls from China, unfortunately. As the technique for bead-nuked freshwater pearls starts to produce more consistently round pearls, it will eventually be impossible to tell the bead-nuked from the 100% nacre. And you won't be able to trust sellers to fully disclose this information, even if you ask directly.
There are plenty of pearls out there with bead nuclei for people who like that sort of thing. I just wish that they wouldn't mess with freshwaters. Just my personal opinion.
Nicole
There are plenty of pearls out there with bead nuclei for people who like that sort of thing. I just wish that they wouldn't mess with freshwaters. Just my personal opinion.
Nicole
Caitlin
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2004
- Messages
- 8,502
That's why I have been saying that top quality freshwaters are an investment. Get them now, because when bead nucleating is a mature science/art in China, even the larger pearls will be done in a season and then the solid nacre two-four year pearls will be a thing of the past.
Wild, natural, gem quality freshwaters have always been worn by royalty, right along with their salt waters and you really can't tell old wild freshwaters from cultured ones. At least not until they start nuking them.
So invest in the best quality freshwaters you can and pass them down for generations, just as royalty always has with their wild natural pearls.
Wild, natural, gem quality freshwaters have always been worn by royalty, right along with their salt waters and you really can't tell old wild freshwaters from cultured ones. At least not until they start nuking them.
So invest in the best quality freshwaters you can and pass them down for generations, just as royalty always has with their wild natural pearls.
I was in Inhorgenta and then I had forgotten the passwordconfused, so I have delayed to reply the above message.
Jeremy, you are right that the circled material is bead and arrow shows the outlayer. I have checked it again and think that the bead is probably also a pearl as you, which has probably been processed before nucleation. It is a natural thought to insert a pearl into the mussel because they are cheap and accessible as well as have the same composition. Any way, I think that the pearls are bead-nucleated, but I can not prove which beads are used. Beads can have button form. Some try to produce bead-nucleated ?mabe? pearls (I had some, which are really half pearls). If you are interesting at it, tell me your address. I can send you some pearls in the above picture for check.
In order to explain which beads are used in new fresh water pearls. I have spent some time to collect the information and to ensure that they are correct, I have called some bosses and common people in the bead factories. The beads in China are produced in a community in Province Jiangxi. They claimed that they produce 95% of the beads in China and one factory produces alone about 75%. They have also about 70% of bead market for SSP and Tahiti.
The most used materials for beads are mussels from Mississippi river and the wild mussels from Po Yang Lake (one of the largest three lakes in China). The beads with Chinese wild mussels can be larger than 10 mm and have been exported to other countries for Tahiti and SSP. One can see some pictures with the link http://cp.legoo.com/dh/10/1477/. The left lowest picture shows some beads produced with mussels from Mississippi and Po Yang Lake for Tahiti. The mussels used to produce the pearls can not be used for large beads.
I have clearly asked whether the shell of gigantic clams has been used in the production of beads. They told me that the factories in that community (which produces 95% of beads in China) do not use that shell now to produce beads. The causes are that the death rate of mussels is too high and the material is too hard (then also problems in the late processing). The pearl farmers will not use it. They told me that probably some small factories in Province Hainan or Hunan try it.
Some people told me that the shell powder and glue are used for the bead production. The factories told me that the density is too low and death rate is high and it is easy to break off. So it is not used.
The collusions are: fresh water mussel shells are mostly used for the production of beads. Bead-nucleated pearls, SSP and Tahiti use almost the same materials.
confused, so I have delayed to reply the above message.Jeremy, you are right that the circled material is bead and arrow shows the outlayer. I have checked it again and think that the bead is probably also a pearl as you, which has probably been processed before nucleation. It is a natural thought to insert a pearl into the mussel because they are cheap and accessible as well as have the same composition. Any way, I think that the pearls are bead-nucleated, but I can not prove which beads are used. Beads can have button form. Some try to produce bead-nucleated ?mabe? pearls (I had some, which are really half pearls). If you are interesting at it, tell me your address. I can send you some pearls in the above picture for check.
In order to explain which beads are used in new fresh water pearls. I have spent some time to collect the information and to ensure that they are correct, I have called some bosses and common people in the bead factories. The beads in China are produced in a community in Province Jiangxi. They claimed that they produce 95% of the beads in China and one factory produces alone about 75%. They have also about 70% of bead market for SSP and Tahiti.
The most used materials for beads are mussels from Mississippi river and the wild mussels from Po Yang Lake (one of the largest three lakes in China). The beads with Chinese wild mussels can be larger than 10 mm and have been exported to other countries for Tahiti and SSP. One can see some pictures with the link http://cp.legoo.com/dh/10/1477/. The left lowest picture shows some beads produced with mussels from Mississippi and Po Yang Lake for Tahiti. The mussels used to produce the pearls can not be used for large beads.
I have clearly asked whether the shell of gigantic clams has been used in the production of beads. They told me that the factories in that community (which produces 95% of beads in China) do not use that shell now to produce beads. The causes are that the death rate of mussels is too high and the material is too hard (then also problems in the late processing). The pearl farmers will not use it. They told me that probably some small factories in Province Hainan or Hunan try it.
Some people told me that the shell powder and glue are used for the bead production. The factories told me that the density is too low and death rate is high and it is easy to break off. So it is not used.
The collusions are: fresh water mussel shells are mostly used for the production of beads. Bead-nucleated pearls, SSP and Tahiti use almost the same materials.
V
Valeria101
Guest
What about this 'inner pearl' makes it likely to have been a different pearl used for nucleation... rather then being just an layer of the same pearl growth?
It seems that the bead is a pearl for me and sometimes processed, but I am also not sure.
The factory told me that the pearls are bead-nucleated. But they probably decided according to the surface and luster. Any way, they are normal small cheap pearls.
The large bead-nucleated pearls have no such problems. They are not only large but also obviously have other features.
The factory told me that the pearls are bead-nucleated. But they probably decided according to the surface and luster. Any way, they are normal small cheap pearls.
The large bead-nucleated pearls have no such problems. They are not only large but also obviously have other features.
