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Like Adeline, I'd been collecting gemstones in my 20's and in my 30's have moved on to pearls, although my collection is not nearly as extensive nor as fine. One of my obsessions in my teens was watermelon tourmaline which I saw for the first time in Hong Kong. (I still remember that shop window...

I agree - a purple SoC would complement the grey beautifully. Right now the white pearl just seems to wash out the colors on the grey, rather than enhancing its color and allure. Katbran, I have a cure for the shakes from Ebay withdrawal... It's called "etsy".... Lol.

Gasp! What an incredible piece! I love it. It's so unique and shows off the beauty of the pearl so well. Thank you so much for sharing.

Hi Lisa, my husband actually studies language acquisition and... unfortunately language CDs are not going to do it. :-( If only it were that easy. DH is a native English speaker and is fluent in Russian and Spanish. He is pretty good with Mandarin Chinese (I am a native speaker so we speak...

Adeline, your new Etsy shop has been absolutely eye-popping. I keep going to oggle all the goodies. Even though I made myself promise not to get any briolettes (since I never seem to do anything with them), I'm swaying to the sirens' song...

I second Adeline's suggestion. As a consumer, I have really liked Etsy as a place to find individual artisans and find the layout much cleaner and amenable to random browsing than ebay.

Thanks, Adeline! I already know the feeling of sliding down that slippery slope... It's scary when I tally up my wishlist and each day it gets a little bit longer...

Hi Perlinda, Thank you! The ovals are quite big. They are about 11 mm long by 9 mm, more or less. There is a little bit of variation on the strand and I've strung so that they're slightly graduated.

Thank you Linda, Pattye, Lisa and Cathy! I had no idea that Chinese fwp could be so beautiful and come in so many forms until I started lurking here. Now that I've started collecting, I'm having trouble saying "no". :-P For sheer wearability, I love the lavender "eggs" and the metallic...

Here are pictures of my new double-strand of metallic fwp from Pearl Paradise. These are 7.0 mm - 7.5 mm. When I first opened the box I was a little disappointed since they are much smaller than the jawbreaker-sized pearls I acquired recently. But after wearing them a few times, I've really come...

Those are absolutely lovely, Red! I saw those on Kamoka's website, and had wondered where they were when they disappeared from the site. :-) It's lovely to see your closeup photos.

Haven't had a chance yet, but will do so probably tomorrow! :-P

Thank you for all of the close-up photos! I was interested in this setting, but wasn't sure how it looks while worn, and this thread has been very helpful! (I.e., definitely getting something in this setting before too long...)

Very cool, Alex! How would you describe the difference in luster between the Hanadama and the metallic freshwaters that you have? I just got my metallic freshwaters from Pearl Paradise and they are very mirror-like and to me seem similar to Akoyas, but I don't have a strand of Akoyas to compare...

Oh, those are beautiful! My double-strand necklace is supposed to arrive from PP on Monday! Can't wait! Wish that I was more of a lurker back in the day when PP offered these beauties. Every time I see pictures of them...

Thanks, Caitlin! That is good to know. I have to order some more PowerPro and have been waffling on whether it's cost-effective to just get the big spools rather than the little rolls. As I don't string *that* much, I was worried that the spools would have crumbled to dust by the time I get...

Caitlin - for those huge spools of PowerPro, or strands that you knotted years ago, have you noticed any degradation in flexibility or brittleness? I'm wondering because it's still essentially a plastic fiber and the plasticizers could slowly leach out over time, resulting in increased...

ITA with Caitlin -- Now I only use white PowerPro for light-colored pearls. The moss green is reserved for my darker gemstones or darker dyed pearls. I ran into color transfer issues when knotting with moss green for a strand of dark green tourmaline which I had accented with white FWP. I can't...

I have had some color transfer with Moss Green Power Pro onto white pearls that I had used as accents -- very minimally around the drill hole and not noticeable once fully knotted and worn. I only saw once I took apart the piece after about a year. I love using PowerPro, so this hasn't stopped...

Sheryl, love that rope! I also knotted a rope while watching television recently. Not nearly as long as yours (just 36") but it was knotted while watching Downton Abbey and inspired by the long ropes that Lady Mary wore :-)