Recent content by Pearl Dreams

We can't really say what they are worth, because an item is only "worth" what someone is willing to pay for it at any given time. But you can get an idea of what people have recently paid by doing a search on eBay for SOLD, similar pearl necklaces. You may not find the exact same brand but you...

When I bought my baroque akoya necklace the clasp that came with it didn't have a safety. The clasp came undone and the necklace fell off my neck the first time I wore it out of the house! Fortunately I felt it going and caught them before they hit the pavement. I restrung the necklace with a...

Yes, 2nd harvest FWP and dyed. When the pearl from the first harvest is removed and the mussel is placed back in the water, the pearl sac (which is still there) produces irregularly shaped pearls.

An afterthought: if you don't feel sentimental about them, IMO you should feel free to do whatever you wish with them. I have told my daughter that she does not have to become the curator of my stuff when I'm gone! ;)

They look very much like imitation pearls. I base this on the excess coating near some of the drill holes (you can see where it curves outward in places), the appearance of the coating on some of the closeups and the uniformity of the luster, color and shapes. The way it is finished (with the...

Lovely! Hopefully one of our members who knows more about this sort of bead stringing will be able to offer advice.

There are also third harvest pearls! Have you seen flameballs/fireballs? Here is one stunning photo: https://www.pearl-guide.com/media/hisano-re-design-fireball-necklace-glamor-shot.447885/ After removing the 2nd harvest pearl, if a bead is placed in the now-enlarged pearl sac, a flameball...

Here are photos of some FW keshi; they are all 2nd harvest.

Honestly, they are different enough that I'd keep them all! Pearls take up so little room that surely that can't be a reason to declutter them. But if you are asking which ones I, personally, would keep, it's the whiter ones. Cream tones just don't go so well with my complexion.

To me they just look like regular first-harvest tissue nucleated FWP. The FW pearls often referred to as keshi are 2nd harvest pearls. That is, after they take out the first-harvest pearl, they place the mussel back in the water, and a new pearl forms in the existing pearl sac. Their shapes...

I have to agree.

With bead nucleated round pearls with good luster and minimal flaws, that is tricky. But I don't think there are that many Edisons in that size, of that quality, yet. Mostly they are larger.

I checked my copy of Pearls by Elisabeth Strack (itis back in stock at the GIA store: https://store.gia.edu/collections/books-charts/products/pearls-by-elisabeth-strack). While there are 69 pages on Japanese cultured saltwater pearls, there are only a few paragraphs on the post WWII era, and I...

Interestingly, Mikimoto themselves say of their AAA ("Reserve") strands that they are "near perfectly round" and have "minimally blemished surfaces." Perfection in akoya strands is not to be expected; even the best ones may have some flaws in some pearls...

I wouldn't say that, but it's true that some pearls seem more opaque than others. I'd say it has more to do with the quality of the nacre. Akoya pearls with thin nacre can look milky, because you can see the bead through the thin nacre. And these metallic white FWP, which are solid nacre, look...