Gemandpearlover's Lowly Beading Adventures

[multichrome]

Oh, wow, that pearl smash is fascinating! And I love the coppery/bronze-y baroques.

 

[SydK]

That smash photo is excellent, thanks for sharing!
The pearls look quite coppery in that photo - were they darker than you expected?

 

[Gemandpearlover]

That smash photo is excellent, thanks for sharing!
The pearls look quite coppery in that photo - were they darker than you expected?

Indoors they are more coppery- outdoors they are more peach/orange. I would say they are about what I expected- maybe the luster a touch better.

Outdoor light:

 

[BWeaves]

Wow, I would have thought those were not bead nucleated based on the very baroque shapes. The pearl smash was quite enlightening. You definitely got your money's worth. They look great.

 

[jeg]

A bargain! And interesting colors and shapes to add to your freshwater collection.

 

[Charlotta]

So many beautiful creations. The nacre is really thick on that smashed pearl.

 

[amti]

Oh, those are nice colors that will match a lot of things. And how cool about the smashed pearl! Gotta love how neat pearls are!

 

[pattye]

Yay for pearl smashing!!

 

[lisa c]

Oh, God. I hate the smashing, love to examine the insides.

 

[Gemandpearlover]

So after my Edison purple pearl binge I am back to basics- all nacre FW pearls. Some Etsy sellers are saying that all nacre pearls are very much in decline as Chinese pearl farms have switched to bead nucleated FW pearls. They claim all nacre pearls are going to be very hard to purchase in the future. I wonder if this is true.

A few days ago I reworked a pre-loved Catherine Cardellini strand. I loved the pearls and how she had originally placed them so I just added 5 pearls on each clasp side to make it longer.

Then I combined two Ebay pearl strands to make an 18 inch necklace to compliment the Catherine strand. The luster on both strands is very good with some metallic pearls in the mix.

 

[SydK]

What beautiful strands. I like all-nacre pearls for their durability, and these ones are wonderfully round. I do like Catherine Cardellini’s pearls - such a nice size and lustre.

 

[Gemandpearlover]

Thank you Sydk! I too love all nacre pearls, but am very excited on how nice and affordable bead nucleated FW pearls have become. I hope that trend continues.

 

[pattye]

You wear your double strands so well, just lovely! CC offers lovely pearls!

 

[Charlotta]

Wonderful luster on these metallic freshwaters. My freshwater pearls are resting for a bit. I tried to string some tiny rose lavender off round metallics the other day. Had done about 8 pearls when the phone rang and my biggest cat took the opportunity to bite of the tread, leaving only the pearls that were knotted...and tried to eat the rest of the tread and needle. I caught her just before swallowing the needle (bendable but not really digestable), she spit out the tread and are fine...then I dropped the tiny pearls on the floor...clearly they aren't ready to be strung yet.