Button Pearl Question

[Shiby]

Ok, this is probably going to sound silly.. I might learn this later on in the pearl course and just haven't gotten there yet but...
Why do button pearls all seem to be so similar and have less dimpling? I notice they have much less variance than other kinds..
Just curious

 

[CathyKeshi]

Not silly at all, and a great question ... one I do not have the answer to, nor do I remember seeing this addressed in the course. Experts??? I have a big button White South Seas pearl, set in a ring. It is not an even button, but shaped more like a little top, sitting on it's high point, in the ring like a little space ship. I love it

 

[Shiby]

I keep looking at necklaces online and its so hard online because they all look so perfect blemish wise. I am used to looking for little things and I don't see them! I think Buttons are growing on me, they are really neat and seem to have so many good uses where a round wouldn't fit as well.

 

[Shiby]

Hopefully that works.. and entirely off topic but figured it was better than posting a new thread but.. Be still my heart!

 

[Marianne]

Ah, Bead Nukes that really wanted to be fish.. or tadpoles

 

[Shiby]

They need to be mine hahaha, I don't care what they wanted to be! They do kinda look like they wished real hard to be a betta fish though dont they haha

 

[pearlescence]

Believe me, when you are sorting through a 2litre box of them (ie thousands) to find maybe a couple of good pairs of good pearls, they are not a bit alike!

 

[Shiby]

Hahahah!
Well thats good to know because I've looked at a few and been like.. why are they the same throughout!?

 

[BWeaves]

I'm going to go out on a limb and make a guess about the button pearls having less dimpling.

I think that since button pearls are an "off round" shape that is not used for necklaces, that there are many more of them to choose from, so it's easier to pick the smoother ones. It's the same with perfectly round pearls, too. The smoother more perfect ones are picked for earrings and rings and pendants, and the not quite so perfect ones are part of necklace strands. I think if you were to see a necklace of button pearls, you would find quite a few with dimples and imperfections.

 

[Lugana]

Good question actually. I don't have a biological answer but probably it comes to economical one. Button pearls in very good and great quality are still cheap. I mean very cheap, if compared to round ones in same sizes. So probably there is no reason to try to sell blemished buttons? That is, they do exist, but we don't see them because they are used for something else (crushed and processed for other industries?).
Just a guess waiting for the experts.