Unusual barrel shaped strand!!

[jmd]

Hey all:

Enjoying my new membership to Pearl-Guide, you're a terrific resource!! Thought I'd take advantage and seek some help with this strand that has me a little baffled.

First, this is not your typical baroque strand of irregular pearls, rather its a fairly well matched set of barrel shaped pearls that seems to have a reasonably consistent form. On the other hand, no two pearls match exactly. While lumpy is not exactly a word I'd use with pearls either, these surfaces are not perfectly flat or regular, there seems to be a comparatively thick nacre coating that causes them to have a surface that is not perfectly even. There is no chipping of the nacre at the hole nor any evidence that they are bead nucleated. Largest pearl is about 12-13mm, and there are 12 pearls at 10MM or above, the remainder graduating to 5 MM. Given the thickness of the nacre, the surface is highly reflective. Color is a rich ivory with just the slightest pink overtones. I snapped them on both an invory background as well as a white paper towel. String clearly has some age on it, the clasp is currently a safety pin - very fashionable!! They are not knotted, guess you don't say unknotted.

Anyway, without rambling more - I am assuming they are freshwater, question is whether they were cultured to this shape and form, given their irregularity and nacre thickness? Or are are something entirely different that I am not recognizing? Would love to have some guess as to origin and possibly age as well. Any help you can provide would be appreciated.



Thanks Muchly,

Judy D

 

[GemGeek]

Very interesting. My first thought is, are you sure that they are pearls? - because the shapes are so unusual, but it could have just been sorted out for the shape. Can you take a sharper close-up? Very pretty - reminds me of pearly marshmallows.

 

[GemGeek]

It could be that barrel-shaped implants were used. You'd be surprised at some of the beads they use to culture.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Quirky! I've never seen any like them. Barrel shaped implants sounds like a good bet to me.

 

[newberry]

Interesting but I do like them

 

[Nora]

The shape reminds me of the barrel shaped corals we are familiar with and that may explains the attraction to these pearls.

 

[jshepherd]

That is a very interesting shape, but they aren't pearls, unfortunately.

 

[Caitlin]

I have never seen tapered pearls in any shape except round. The barrel shaped pearls would be all over the place, in many sizes, in gem shows if they cultured enough of them to make a tapered necklace. They must be good fakes though ; they have great luster. We have a thread on fake pearls in Other Stuff; there are some really gorgeous fake pearls out there and yours qualify as outstanding.

 

[GemGeek]

I agree. I would wear those because they are beautiful.

 

[jmd]

More questions and info

More questions and info

Thanks everyone for your responses. In the spirit of learning what you saw that I did not, and to satisfy my analysis gene can you please tell me what the clues were that these were not real? I am still trying to figure out as well what they might, as they definitely appear organic

What I saw/deduced:

- Shape doesn't look like any pearl I've ever seen, including a bunch of baroques. However, each pearl is somewhat different from the other pearls, definitely not mass produced whatever they are. Some of the smaller pearls almost appear carved to their shapes and there are strong angles on the smaller pearls. At the same time, the ends where they are strung are round, and looking top down appear to be a near round pearl. However, all the nacre is consist, which sorta debunks the carved theory.
- Tooth test was inconclusive for me. Smoother than my comparison string, but then the nacre (or whatever the coating is) is much thicker as well.
- Temperate - This strand was warmer than my baroque strand, enough to be clearly notable.
- Color - somewhat uniform, but the luster was high. When I photographed them, the overtone on some pearls was clearly a gold I couldn't obviously detect with my eye.
- Strung on silk, which is debraiding and appears to be somewhat aged, making me believe the strand was vintage.
- Weight - pretty consistent with a 9 - 10MM strand of baroques, although I did not weigh them, I am guess 30 grams or so, maybe more.

My theory - some type of shell bead or MOP that was perhaps hand hewn, accounting for the shape and polished?? But would love to hear your thoughts as well - I'll be ruminating on this till I figure something out. The good new is that I am not invested in this strand, so I will be happy to restring them and wear them for their natural beauty (at least I hope its natural!) even if they are fake, but my analysis gene is looking for closure. I am adding the best close up I could get as requested by GemGeek as well as a picture showing the gold overtones. Thanks again for your assistance!!

 

[Caitlin]

The beads look like sculpey shapes. polymer clay in a pink pearlescent finish. Fimo. perhaps something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Viva-Decor-1-...1373594511&sr=1-1&keywords=pearl+polymer+clay or this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000H6QRFO. The one below pink/gold is 50 bucks a bottle so it is probably a coating. on top of a regular hand made fimo barrel bead. I have played with enough sculpey to recognize the way the surface looks.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

I think you are right, Caitlin. It does look like polymer clay.

 

[GemGeek]

The luster doesn't look like real nacre. Great fake nacre. Pearly, but with no depth.

 

[pattye]

jmd,

Thanks much for stopping by and sharing your most interesting pearl-like necklace! Have fun wearing it!

 

[Caitlin]

Now that I know what it is, I love it!!!! If it were mine, I'd wear it. In fact, I may make one. I love plastic jewelry- sometimes That one is a winner. it had us going.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Premo Accents comes in Pearl: http://www.sculpey.com/products/clays/premo-accents

 

[Caitlin]

The jury is in! I want to make some beads like that. That clay is hot.

 

[jmd]

Thanks for the assistance everyone!! Since this was an antique market purchase I was skeptical from the start that it was real from the tooth test, and almost put it back, but the price was low, so it was one of those "What the heck" purchases. I'll treat it as a fun and funky look for casual and with jeans. Learned alot from this.

 

[Caitlin]

We all learned a lot. Like, "how do I get me some of that"? The thing is, it is a beautiful unique piece of art. Kind of deconstructed pearls or something. Lucky find! Let us know how it looks with some wear....