"12mm and up" pearls ... where are you hiding now?

[CortezPearls]

Be carefull where you get the dolomite. Some Dolomite has a high lead count. Obviously not good. But I don't think you will have too much trouble. The whiter the cleaner. I saw some for sale on Ebay a month or ago I have some somewhere. But only a few. Very nice stuff.

Thank You for the Warning...will try to use a local supplier and have the goods analyzed by a lab before commiting myself to using lead tainted beads

Jeez! I grew up in a world afraid of being nuked to death...but these "Modern Days" are really more frightening: lead in everything, mercury in your tuna, mad cows and bird flu...

 

[Mikeyy]

Ok...found this info:
Why does Bironite not have as high a polish as mussel shell?
Mussel shell will take a high polish, as it is a very fine-grained material although it can have several types of physical defects. Bironite is composed of crystals about 1 mm across and it will sometimes have very fine pits near these junctions. We are still developing techniques to reduce this, but we believe that this is not important for pearl development provided that these fine pits are not sources of infection.
(Source: http://www.spc.int/coastfish/News/POIB/13/POIB13-6.htm)

And -just as Josh said- therein lies the problem: the pits, it is not good enough for high quality pearl production. What a pitty.
Guess this answers the "whatever happened to Bironite?" question...

I have been around this nuclei business many years. I have seen many ideas come along with great fanfare and then fizzle. I can tell you this. Those who use the top grade U.S. mussel shell have the best over all harvests.

 

[Sueki]

You're o.k., Douglas,
Most of the mad cows are here in the U.K. ....

 

[Mikeyy]

You're o.k., Douglas,
Most of the mad cows are here in the U.K. ....

You have "Mad Cow" We have "Florida"

 

[aggiep]

lol, you have Florida, we here where I am have warren Jeffs.

 

[crystalfly]

They are supposedly AAA grade??? What is the shape like? If they are claiming the strands are AAA-grade rounds I would prep a return label before they even arrive. It would cost a lot more than that to make either one of them. At those prices I would be shopping there

Which jewelry network?

The shapes (from what I could see on the TV) were round. The larger strand was normally $15000, however after watching the channel for several days, found that figure to be slashed by almost 50% when they would list the item...so say $7500. It wasnt selling so they put it on auction for 60 seconds starting at $2500.

The channel was 228 on DirecTV - I dont recall the name. Apparently, this segment/show of the channel was a pearl vendor who wanted to get rid of a lot of inventory (I guess it was the usual suspects selling their jewelry)!!

I havent received anything yet...but will keep you posted.

Thanks!!

 

[aggiep]

LOL, want a good laugh you should be here when hubby thinks I need to raise my blood pressure. That channel does the slashing as part of their game. They give you all sorts of hype, but most of it is so outlandish. They have sales people giving you verbal diarehha to entice you to buy. It's the same channel I bought the silver plated plastic watch with the poor quality freshwater pearls. Its the same as QVC.

 

[crystalfly]

LOL, want a good laugh you should be here when hubby thinks I need to raise my blood pressure. That channel does the slashing as part of their game. They give you all sorts of hype, but most of it is so outlandish. They have sales people giving you verbal diarehha to entice you to buy. It's the same channel I bought the silver plated plastic watch with the poor quality freshwater pearls. Its the same as QVC.

) To be honest, the only reason I purchased anything in the first place is because I wanted to see it in my hands AND only did so knowing there is a refund policy!! Yes, I agree that they really over do it with the crap they go on about. In fact, some of the presenters were down right annoying. That is why although they had said something is a certain amount, I automatically slashed it by 50% in my head and then determined if it was an OK deal based on that price. I have to say though, that a while back I purchased two pens from them that had real opal cabachons at the top (as accents) for $35 each and I'm super impressed by them. The pen quality is good (and I'm pretty picky!!) and then opal accents are lovely. They are about 4mm in diameter and just glow at the top of the pen. I was happy to pay $35 each. They were originally advertised as about $350 and I almost fell out of my chair laughing... then had apparently gone down to $175, then $85...and blah blah blah... I was content with $35.

But I agree with you... these presenters are a joke!

 

[pattye]

Its the same as QVC.

Ahem, QVC is just a little better than the jewelry channel!