Freshwater pearls are better then Akoya pearls?

[Spherical Flower]

Freshwater pearls are mantle-tissue nucleated, whereas akoya pearls are bead-nucleated. Instead of inserting a mother-of-pearl bead and a piece of mantle tissue into the gonad of a freshwater mussel, as is the process with an akoya mollusk, only a piece of mantle-tissue is used, and this is inserted directly into the mantle tissue of the freshwater mollusk. The result is a pearl composed of solid nacre.

Although harvested freshwater pearls are solid nacre, and akoya pearls may only have .1 to 2mm of nacre over a bead-core, akoya pearls are generally considered more valuable.

Akoya pearls will average higher quality attributes than freshwater. Freshwater pearls are rarely round, whereas akoya pearls are generally round. Freshwater pearls do not typically have the sharp luster and high shine found in high grade akoya pearls, but can exhibit orient in their highest grades - something akoya pearls cannot.

If freshwater pearls are solid nacre, and high-grade rounds have orient, and the amazing roundness of freshadamas, shouldn't they be more valuable then their akoya counterparts?

Do you think that they are far superior? If you had a choice between the two, what would you pick and why?

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Knowing how thin the nacre coatings had become, I refused to buy Akoya pearls, wearing Majorica imitation pearls instead. They weren't cheap, but at least they looked good for the amount of money spent-- in fact, they looked better than most of the Akoyas I saw.

Last year I visited some local gem shows and bought some off-round (but lustrous) freshwater pearls and strung them myself. I liked the look so much that in November I bought Freshadamas.

The harder shine of high quality Akoyas is attractive, but I want to be able to pass my pearls on to my daughter and have them look good for years to come.

Additionally, if I were to buy bead-nucleated pearls, I would opt for Tahitians or Cortez rather than Akoyas-- for their distinctive look, lack of bleaching and nacre thickness.

 

[Caitlin]

If freshwater pearls are solid nacre, and high-grade rounds have orient, and the amazing roundness of freshadamas, shouldn't they be more valuable then their akoya counterparts?

Do you think that they are far superior? If you had a choice between the two, what would you pick and why?

Gem grade pearls with orient were the most sought after in the days of natural pearls. Since all the sea pearls of the time were natural, there was little distinction between fresh water and sea water pearls. The best in both were solid nacre, round, and had orient. Both types were judged by standards, such as those put forth by Tavernier in his pearl travel tomes. (There were no official standards in the natural pearl days, but experts such as Taverier often described pearls he saw and it is by these descriptions we know what was most favored)

There is only one gem grade solid nacre pearl on the market today and that is the gem grade freshwaters. It is only because the Chinese are flooding every possible corner with low quality dyed and treated cultured freshwaters, that gem quality cultured freshwaters are relatively unknown to the mass market and thus demand has not pushed the price of best quality up to where it belongs. That day is surely coming and so I love to say that gem quality CFWP (cultured freshwater pearls) are a bargain and an investment.

We are seeing more and more bead nuked CFWP in the shows this week. Believe me, they will overtake the large freshwater market as they are perfected, because they only take a season or so to grow on immense beads.

At that point people with solid nacre gem quality cultured freshwater pearls will be owning pearls indistinguishable from the natural freshwater pearls of Europe and America up to the 20th century. (Not to mention India and the middle east!) The people who owned natural pearls (mainly royalty and nobility) are still recycling them to each new generation. Some are known to date from the time of Elizabeth the First. I am not kidding. That is how long solid nacre pearls can last, if not longer. I think the long lasting element of natural pearls is copiously proven by the photos in Kunz (1908) in which hundreds of European noble women in the 19th century are wearing unbelievable numbers of ropes and ropes of pearls. Not only do they pass them down, they keep acquiring them, so by the latter 19th century the highborns had amassed more pearls than had ever been seen before, in Europe. Then, pouf !went the natural pearl market and we have had to trade in orient for roundness, nacre for beads, etc.

 

[lisamla]

Knowing the differences it is hard to pick one over the other. It seems there are far more advantages to purchasing freshwaters, but there are too many comments on the look of high quality Akoyas to count them out all together. Because of the price difference, I would suggest starting with freshwater pearls and then when money is not the issue purchase Akoya pearls. I see it as the best of both worlds.

 

[airdancer]

I have recently changed my mind about Akoyas being better because I have seen some gorgeous freshwaters here and I think they are so much more attractive and interesting than akoyas.

 

[tanakarn1]

I do love both of them. I like rainbow orient and long durability of CFWP and I like high luster and strong (rose) overtone of Akoya. I have never seen clear evidences about durability of high quality Akoya; I expect that they would last generations too.

Tanakarn

 

[jerin]

I do love both of them. I like rainbow orient and long durability of CFWP and I like high luster and strong (rose) overtone of Akoya. I have never seen clear evidences about durability of high quality Akoya; I expect that they would last generations too.

Tanakarn

I have both types of pearls and I can speak out of personal knowledge: my mother had a 2-row Akoya necklace which was very lovely at the beginning but after a period of 10 years the nacre had vanished almost completely! I know for a fact that she did not use it very often and when I inherited the strand the bead nucleus shone through most of the pearls - it looked horrible, especially as I remembered what it once looked like! And believe me, it was a very expensive strand, my father bought it from a well renowned jeweller and had put a costum made clasp on it, so you can forget about passing it down to the next generation..

However, I by now have so many strands of gem quality freshwater incl. Freshadamas, I don?t have to worry anymore - they will last.

 

[olmander]

Well... I started with akoya and it took some time until I got interested in FW pearls. But my lovely, lovely akoya strand still remains as the first love. I have a special feeling for it

And... I have two sons and no daughters, so next generation problem is not very much on the agenda...

 

[Casey.R]

I wore akoyas on my wedding day. But if I knew then what I know now I'd have gone with a strand of really good freshwaters.

By the way has anyone noticed the jump in akoya prices? I bought mine almost 4 years ago from PP and they were much less expensive. Not quite double but close.

 

[salem]

I think Akoyas are still my main preference of the two. I love the mirror reflection and the shine. I wear my CFWP much more often and get many compliments on them. I don't own any Freshadamas yet, and may never buy another Akoya strand because oif the cost factor, but they are still the only strand I have that catch my breath when I open the box. Mine are about five years old, and still look perfect. I find it a bit amusing how many people on this forum swear by CFWP's but were all panting in expectation over the baroque Akoyas from Jeremy a couple of months ago. The oil slick colors still astound me. Now, of course we all know these has a deeper nacre than standard Akoyas, and we all trust Jeremy's ability to create something unique, but it amuses me none the less.

Anyway, I think it can be more about the strand than the pearl type. Sometimes, in any pearl variety, there will be something that calls out to you. These are the ones I like. Just wish I could afford the ones that come in Tahitian and SS.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Well, now, after that last post I had to look back at the Baroque Akoyas post. This private offer came along before I had ever begun reading Pearl-Guide.com.

Had I been a Pearl-Guide member at the time, I would have bought one of those strands as well-- the prices were so low for many of them that it wouldn't matter if the nacre didn't last for a great many years. My goodness, a lot of costume jewelry sells for that much and more. And, the look was very distinctive.

So I personally don't see any inconsistency in people buying the baroque Akoyas who are otherwise critical of Akoyas in general.

 

[Pearlgully]

I find it a bit amusing how many people on this forum swear by CFWP's but were all panting in expectation over the baroque Akoyas from Jeremy a couple of months ago.

I think the reason many people liked the baroque akoya so much was because these pearls were not processed. Not only was the color unusual, but it was natural as well.


Gail

 

[Casey.R]

I agree it was because of the color and that they were unusual ( they really are beautiful). I love mine but I don't wear them as often as my freshwater strands because of the fact that they probably will wear down faster.

 

[KAC]

If freshwater pearls are solid nacre, and high-grade rounds have orient, and the amazing roundness of freshadamas, shouldn't they be more valuable then their akoya counterparts?

Not true, prices are determined by supply and demand, just be glad that gem quality freshwater pearls are such a bargain right now. As Caitlin said, that could very well change in the future.


As for durability concerns, you'd be surprised how little most consumers care about this. I get calls almost on a daily basis asking which pearl type is better Akoya or Freshwater.

9 times out of ten when I explain that Akoya pearls will not last, they just don't care. Most times the strand costs a few hundred dollars and they don't expect the strand to be around forever - they just want a nice strand to give to their wife/mother/GF/daughter etc.

Things are changing but the Chinese did a lot of damage to the FWP over the years with all those garbage freshwater pearls put on the market.

French Polynesia got it right with the Tahitians.

 

[Caitlin]

I have never seen clear evidences about durability of high quality Akoya; I expect that they would last generations too.

The reason you have not seen evidence of durability in any quality akoyas is that they aren't durable. My mother-in-law and her mother were both pearl fanatics in the 20's, 30's, and 40's. they collected and wore ropes and ropes of highest quality akoyas. Yet when it came time for the grandchildren to divide up the pearls, many if not all of the pearls on the strands were chipped and peeling around the holes, if not worse. The worst were beads with shreds of nacre clinging pitifully.

So many beads- er- "pearls" needed replacing that it hardly seemed worth it. Even the clasp was a peeled pearl. In fact, it was this situation that brought me to Pearl Guide in the first place. I realized I had to get my own pearls and pass them on, because in one more generation, gt grandmother's and grandmother's pearls will be in the dress-up box for the little girls--even if all the pearls are replaced. Then what is left of what grandmother passed down, anyway?.

On my side of the family my mother and grandmother refused to accept pearl plated beads as pearls at all and they had natural pearls available to them due to my grandfather's work in the middle east. It became my quest to find pearls like the old fashioned real pearls I had grown up with. I found them in cultured freshwater pearls and kept saying that there must be some high quality freshwaters out there. At that time many people on this forum Pooh-poohed me and said freshwaters were junk and would remain junk. Period.

However, I was joined by others in this quest and then Jeremy found them in the loose pearls of the highest quality, which were reserved for earrings. He began matching strands from these loose pearls and Voil?! gem quality cultured freshwaters on strands became available. For the first time since the natural pearl industry went kaput!, pearls indistinguishable from natural pearls were again available.

I am saving up for a lecture on the way the akoya market bent pearl standards, stole the methods for obtaining loose, cultured pearls, and fooled the world into accepting what is a vastly inferior product to natural pearls, and how they used Mystique to stimulate desire for this product. Even the thickest akoya skin is about .5 centimeters. The thickness of a piece of paper. These beads were dipped in the oyster long enough to get a paper-thin coating of nacre. Then the resulting beads are subjected to a variety of known and unknown treatments to get the ball bearing luster which fades soon after......

I hope I do not sound like I am on a tirade. If you heard me speaking you would know I am only trying educate you to the real truths of pearls.

So enjoy your akoyas, but remember they turn back into pumpkins all too soon.

 

[Slraep]

Yes, with the crap grade FWP, the Chinese really shot themselves in the foot big time. Not only has it devalued a potentially wonderful product consisting of 100% nacre, it has caused MASSIVE pollution problems for the Chinese(and ultimately us too). Problems that would not have occurred had there been some measure of quality control standards implemented so that every person with a body of water(any body of water) on his property didn't suddenly become a pearl farmer, nucleating his bivalves with up to thirty mantle pieces each and overfeeding these bivalves with manure that leaches into other bodies of water, spawning toxic algae blooms and choking the life out of them. Not to mention the major rat problems that arise when these overfertilized bodies of water overflow during a flood....

BUT, who buys this crap from the Chinese? Who helps them farm this crap and pollute? Take a wild guess. "Supply and demand", as KAC says.

What about fireballs? The by-product of failed experiments, using an endangered species' shell as the nucleus. Who is helping them market those? Answer: The people buying them.

Slraep

 

[Caitlin]

Hi Slraep

Well said as always. Did you hear about the severe restrictions imposed on peasants when the water in their local lakes goes toxic with bloom? They have to buy bottled water!!!

From what I saw at the big pearl booths at the gem show this year, is at that if the Chinese quit producing tons of inferior pearls, they would still have a five year supply of junk pearls out there trying to get bought.

All the vendors, even the giants, Evergreen Trading Co and Majestic Pearls, who have an acre of pearls laid out between them, have boxes and boxes and bags and bags stacked everywhere that wasn't dedicated to display. Under the tables was full of boxes. Boxes and bags of pearls bulged out everywhere you looked. Magenta pinks, chartreuse greens, metallics of every shade, bronze, silver, black, brown, electric blue, shades of purple, brilliant yellows. Altogether they look like a circus of pearls. A carnival of pearls.

That's it! Those guys are Carnies- the new generation of Carny from China. They take their circus all over America and we gobble up a small minority of their wares. Meanwhile the wares keep backing up in China.......

And.....(a big AND) more and more of the junk pearls are nucleated. Nuked with stars, ovals, rounds of every size--I saw some 6-7mm rounds this year, crosses, lightnings, boxes, diamonds, and blobs, and a fair number of fire balls. These dyed nuked, pearls are a creeping proportion of the total goods. And every nucleated pearl is practice for the future of only nucleated pearls. Stick a huge nucleus in there and it is done in just a year or two. A high percentage of success guarantees they make far more money for far less nacre. At last! They will able to join the pearl plated parade! When they get the Kasumi -type pearls down, they will take on the smooth surface pearls. Tai Woo pearls, another large outfit with only a slightly smaller display then the two I mentioned earlier, had some sample of both kinds. Not good enough to make Fuji Voll's booth, but I see the technique is coming along. Both the rough round (5k) and the smooth rounds(1k) were all klonks, big time klonks.

 

[Pearlgully]

What about fireballs? The by-product of failed experiments, using an endangered species' shell as the nucleus./QUOTE]

While at the Tucson gem show, I stopped by the Pacific Pearl booth. Fuji Voll showed me the most unusual bead nucleated cfwp strand that I'd ever seen. They were HUGE, almost round, multicolored and beautiful. They looked like kasumis, but were Chinese. (He referred to these pearls as "in body" fw.) So I asked, "if these pearls, along with the fireballs, were being nucleated with shell from the endangered giant clam". He said, "no".......he indicated that he does not believe they are being nucleated with beads from the giant clam. He believes that the nuclei being used in the Chinese pearls are the same kinds of beads used to nucleate SS pearls. However, the beads had been discarded (rejected) because the stripes on the beads were too dark to be used in white pearls; they'd show through. The stripes are not a problem for multicolored pearls.

I posed the same question to Elisabeth Strack after the seminar on Saturday. Her answer to me was that," since only two beads were tested, it is much too inconclusive to draw an opinion that the giant clam shell is being used to nucleate fireballs". She also indicated to me that Mr. Voll's explanation made sense.

Sorry if this sounds like a tirade, but I think it only appropriate to present the opinions of two other prominent experts.



Gail

 

[salem]

I never said there was anything wrong, or inconsistent with people buying the baroque Akoyas, I just found it amusing. It did actually make me chuckle. My main point was, actually, that even people who seem to swear by the superiority of the CFWP will still buy Akoyas if it is something that attracts them. I guess I just don't qualify "better" as being more durable. For me, better is what I enjoy more.

 

[Cathybear]

Supply and demand ... GOOD! Now I can stop feeling guilty for buying so many freshwater pearls that I'm nearly ankle deep! LOL