Gold pearls having lines

[gracecjy]

Hi, i just recently bought this .... but does a pearl with a line across the whole pearl normal?
These are supposed to be gold SSP . From a local supplier

 

[BWeaves]

That looks really odd to me. I mean, there are circled pearls, but they don't look like that. That's a very straight line. And you would expect both pearls to be well matched, and one with a line is not. Can you return them?

 

[CathyKeshi]

I agree with BWeaves ... a perfectly straight line all the way around a "pearl" is not at all usual; I'd be very very very suspicious!

 

[JerseyPearl]

It almost looks as if there is a straight line crack on the nacre.

 

[pattye]

Do you have a loupe so you can have a close up look at this line?

 

[gracecjy]

No i don't have a loupe.but do have small magnifying glass.....i contacted the lady who sold them to me....and said that they are called subcutaneous circles. But i can't find any infor regarding this term. She is quite lovely and i dont want to offend her, as she had changed the earhooks from 9 k to 18 k for me as i have allergies . I know that she works for pearl farms as a job.....i found her website online as i think she is just starting out making her own jewelry and have displayed some pendants n earrings in the local shop. What i should have done is to ask her to show them to me before buying online... so that is my bad.but i have never encountered a pearl that looks like this before......

 

[Pearl Dreams]

I'd ask to return or exchange them, personally. Changing ear hooks is not a difficult task, and if she has another pair of pearls like those, she could easily transfer the 18K hooks to the new pearls.

It's not a personal issue that should cause her to feel hurt. It's a matter of her being professional when something goes wrong with an order, and correcting the problem to the satisfaction of her customer. There is no better time to learn that skill than when she is first starting out.

 

[BWeaves]

I agree. If she really is a nice lady, then she will swap the pearls for ones without flaws. Changing ear hooks is not like resizing a ring. There's almost no effort involved in swapping ear hooks, so there is no effort in swapping for pearls that match and don't have flaws.

How she handles this transaction should tell you whether you'll ever trust her to buy from her again.

 

[amti]

She may not think it is anything but to most of us, it is a flaw and a very obvious one. She should swap it out because it is the right thing to do. I have seen very small lines on nacre where the nacre is very thick, but it looks nothing like the line around your pearl. That looks like a scratch or a crack (although I've never seen a pearl crack like that). Did she say it was a real SSP or was it called a shell SSP? Anything with the word shell is not a real pearl.

 

[JerseyPearl]

amti, I have never seen a crack like that either, however, that was my first reaction.

I feel it's very important, especially when purchasing pearls on line, to ask for photos of the actual pearls you will receive. Buyers should inquire about flaws, what kind (pin prick, scratch, etc) and where on the pearl they are located. Ask for pictures of the flaws, as well as photos of the pearl under different lighting conditions. I would ask to examine other pairs (and I agree with the others, swapping out ear wires is really not a big deal). I would hesitate trying to match the one good pearl, because that may be more of a challenge than looking at a completely different pair.

 

[GemGeek]

This kind of flaw happens rarely, but is natural. She should have disclosed it because it's fairly visible. Don't be shy about asking for unflawed pearls.

 

[Red]

This kind of flaw happens rarely, but is natural. She should have disclosed it because it's fairly visible. Don't be shy about asking for unflawed pearls.

Thanks for weighing in, GemGeek. I was thinking that this was just another odd marking that can appear in a pearl, but I am not an expert. I personally find it less obtrusive than a lot of other types of flaws.