artist sourcing pearl

[elraval]

Hello,
I am tring to source a pearl for a sculptural painting, the idea of which is;

Representative of the womb like environment of its growth. It is about displacement, and in a wider sense, growth from this. 'Beauty' out of an alien form or experience.
The space of the canvas creates the feel of a vast mother or womb like nurturing environment, initial irritation is cause of this 'nurturing' the vastness of the canvas against the size of the pearl to give 'vertiginous' big/small fragility and subsequent durability and beauty formed out of this initial irritant.

I know very little about different types of pearl, apart from what I have read, but one thing I feel, is, that the pearl does not necessarily have to be the 'perfect' specimen more over an imperfect 'beauty' would be more appropriate.

if any one has an idea of where I can source an imperfect, natural (prefereably) pearl or has any information about the nature/history/ location of imperfect forms I would be very interested to hear.

debbie

 

[Caitlin]

Hi Debbie
Why is a natural pearl preferred? Even imperfect ones can be quite expensive. Natural pearls occur in the wild with no human intervention. The natural pearl business has been dead for about 100 years, supplanted by cultured pearls. With few exceptions it is quite difficult to find any natural pearls newer than that.

The island of Bahraini sells guaranteed, certified, natural pearls. Any other than natural pearls are illegal, so you know what you are getting.

On the other hand Chinese cultured freshwater pearls (CFWP) are solid nacre like wild pearls. (they don't have a round mother of pearl bead nucleus covered by nacre to a thickness of up to 1 or 2 MM) and the the imperfect shapes shape occur often.

I am wondering if "imperfect shape" means not quite round or perhaps you are thinking baroque? The following picture is one of several from this thread LINK
The photos on that page are all strands of pearls meant to be turned into jewelry. You can buy a single large baroque CFWP also. I'll look for one for you.

 

[Caitlin]

Here is a fairly large, very baroque pearl for sale at eBay. I bought one from this seller about 2 years ago. The luster is gorgeous. LINK

Here is another one LINK scroll down to se the other pictures. I have not bought from this seller but she has over 5,000 feedbacks 100% positive. That is actually remarkable. This one is inexpensive and the shipping costs much less.

 

[elraval]

wonderful!

wonderful!

Caitlin,

Thank you so much for this! this is very interesting - I used the word imperfect - really from the concept of 'perfect beauty' and how that is, and has been percieved in the past, not just for pearls but the idea of what is considered beautiful. So imperfect from the measure of perfection only.

Those links look excellent especially the little one where the shape looks like it has another grown from it. I think you might have found it! many thanks. I will take another look at both of them.

The Bahraini ones also sound interesting from the point of view that I am doing a 'water under the sand' piece along side the pearl one, which concerns the fresh water that comes out from the Saudi Arabian desert in Oman (I read the divers used to fill up here before they went out to sea)
and that the peninsular countries are currently finding ways to tap this
LINK

I have quite something to go on here! many thanks
debbie

 

[SteveM]

Just to be sure all bases are covered, 'baroque' and 'natural' would be most intensely expressed in the world of abalone. This, the infamous La Catalina, may offer its own inspiration and I would be very interested in the artist's view!

 

[Valeria101]

Oh! I hope you will come back and post about the making of the two (mix-media?) paintings!

With so any options for pearl shapes, colors, sizes... around, I have no doubt you will find a suitable one.

Have you considered blister (mabe) pearls? For once, the typical half-pearl shape given to most cultured blister pearls is perfect for fitting on a flat surface (=canvas) and sometimes flat nacre is left around them and the resulting object looks as if a round pear was rising half-way from the nacre around it... although that has nothing to do with the way these pearls form, of course. Take the abalone blisters or the black ones, for example.

Blister (mabe) pearls are usually both larger and cheaper then full pearls.

A similar argument goes for button pearl - whole pearls that have a flat side.

Just a thought...

 

[Nerida]

I had similar thoughts on this - a large, flat blister pearl would be spectacular!

 

[elraval]

thank you I have plenty of thinking to do now about which one! La catalina does have a very fluid shape with lots of movement -
different from a water drop shape - the slightly thinner end does finish like a fish tail and with the blue tones is very dolphin like.

My work is all sculptural mixed media paintings and I will post a picture(s) when they are completed.

The black mabe also look very interesting, as my mixed media up to date has included a tryptych made out of natural rubber, crude oil, silver and jet (framed in monkey puzzle wood). Although the pearl painting has more to do with the topsy turvy idea of water under the sand (untapped water under the desert) and all the colours that are associated.

I try to bring a balance and mirror the elements that have been with us for millennia and have been through a process of metamorphosis.
The pearl is particularly interesting to me because of its 'conception'. Out of all the different ways of metamorphosis this is quite beautifully unique.

many thanks for this help!
debbie