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How fascinating! Thanks for sharing this photo.

really a beautiful specimen!

Ditto on recommending you visit Kari Pearls site, she deals a lot with single abalone specimen pearls and has a lot of knowledge about them. Ditto also on lowering your expectations on the price you could realize on this pearl, beautiful though it is, it will just not bring the price mentioned...

Can you snoop around in her jewelry to see the sizes of what she already owns, or the ones she wears the most often? That might give an idea in general as to what she would prefer in size. We all tend to be creatures of habit.

Check out the history of the mississippi River pearls, or Tennessee fresnwater pearls , they used to supply material to pearl farms overseas. See also the forum section on books, many of those have the history of pearl farming with descriptions of the various types of nucleus and why some...

Well I got brave and messaged the seller to at least tell her that ALL abalone shells have those holes and they are NOT for pearls to peek out of. I guess maybe in the center of the shell those long things might be very shallow blister long pearls? Maybe that is what she is referring to as...

I guess I should be responsible and message the seller why her abalone has holes in it. Did you see any pearls in that shell? I sure did not. Just the holes. And I thought I paid too much at 25 dollars for an abalone shell. Maybe I should glue a few pearls in it and give this a try myself...

Am I missing something here, an ebay listing for a rare abalone shell with the pearls peeking out. She says it has all those lovely pearl holes around the sides. Here is the link

If these were mine, I would not want to pay a high fee for the certification, especially when there is not overwhelming evidence or opinion that they are natural. Natural Tennessee freshwaters are rare and valuable in large sizes, but the high prices are only available if you know the actual...

Wow Pearl Dreams, I forgot that important point, the oyster has to "feel" the intruder to trigger the production of nacre!

John LaT's daughter Gina might be able to give you some information, see the posting by Pattye above for their website link. You can view a catalog of some of her historic Tennessee freshwater pearls there. It is a really lovely set, and I have seen other sets with real gold and the use of...

Update, today I was with a certified GIA pearls specialist who is huge in the pearl industry (sorry, don't like to call names without permission), and had them take a look at these Tahitian pearls. Opinion is that they are not coated, definitely Tahitians, some very good quality, some lesser...

Ok I have spent a lot of time googling the web on this issue, and here are my humble conclusions: Do the have a brain, NO. period, everyone agrees on this part. Do they feel pain? NO probably not, although no one can say they really know for certain. I'll go with NO on this one also. But...

Ebay is an American owned company doing business in the USA and as such has to follow any federal laws. I think there is a Federal Trade Commission law that requires anyone selling items that cross state lines (or to another country as well) to have to follow certain interstate commerce laws...

Thanks Cyril, very interesting little creatures, these pearl producers. Sorry if I hijacked this thread a little towards the science, but this is what I love about this forum, there is so much knowledge to share with others.

Thanks Cyril,biology/science was not one of my favorites in school. So why then do they anesthesize the oysters, I thought anesthetic only acts on a brain?

Wow, just took a look at her necklace, what an imaginative design! I love the stones capturing all the various overtones of that pearl, it is beautiful.

Ok Pearl Dreams, granted no brain, but something definitely controls their behaviour that at least resembles a "feeling", such as how they will close their shells or open depending on environment, etc. For instance when they are removed from the water and set a while, they do react to their...

And having no knowledge on this at all, but a thought that the poor little creature might be much happier having something small inserted that at least it might recognize genetically instead of a larger round ball of mother of pearl or other substance. Not that it is going to be happy with any...

Sheila, your pearls are beautiful. I hope you will keep them and wear them, love the clasp. I am not one of the experts as to whether these are natural or not, the time frame when these were acquired and their being so well matched would make me guess they are cultured , and very good ones at...