A few questions regarding freshwater pearl nacre

[Mostawesomecoffee]

I've been trying to teach myself the basics of pearls, so please forgive me if this is a very basic question. It's my understanding that freshwater pearls from china are grown with implanted mantle tissue, and not with an implanted shell bead. If true, it seems that the implanted mantle would be of such little volume as to make the pearl essentially all nacre. I have heard that many Chinese freshwater pearls ARE in fact all nacre.

Are there Chinese freshwater pearls that have a shell nucleus?

Another question, relating to the first:

If there are two cultured pearls that are identical, and 8 mm in diameter (for use as an example size), would one be worth more if one were all nacre, and the other had a small nucleus (lets say 5mm) of shell? I can see how in principle, the full-nacre pearl would be worth more. However, it seems with a nacre layer of 3mm, it might not make any difference, given the thickness.

thanks.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

The majority of freshwater pearls on the market have only the mantle tissue nucleus. You don't see very many of these above 11-12 mm or so when they are round. They are pretty much nacre all the way through.

However, in recent years there have been some FWP being implanted with beads. The pearls being produced this way are larger ones, some of which are now competing with South Sea Pearls. I haven't seen smaller FWP that were implanted with round beads. What would be the point? Rather, they are using the technology to produce FWP in sizes larger than you would see in all-nacre pearls. At least, this is what I've seen. I am only a consumer.

The high end ones with a smooth surface I've seen marketed with the name "Edison" pearls. Less expensive ones have a ripply surface and are commonly called "ripple pearls". You can see these on various seller's websites-- see Edisons on Pearl Paradise, for instance, and ripple pearls on Catherine Cardellini's website.

 

[pearlescence]

There are some smaller Edison pearls around - 8mm whites. That is a big market so being able to produce white 8mm round pearls makes good sense. The quality is not perfect (or it wasn't last year when I got some strands) but for a great budget buy you are getting a good work-a-day strand at in fact less than for all nacre. Apart from Edison brand a lot of bead nucleated pearls are sold under the Ming brand by wholesalers who aren't the one who started the bead process
Ripples vary enormously in quality, as do the bead nucleated pearls generally. I've seen plenty of beautiful pearls but I have also seen some really poor ones, which I would never put into stock - with huge gaps in nacre, for example, or blinking (that's where the nacre simply hasn't covered the bead). (There were several wholesale bags of truly cack Edison 8mm pearls at the Edison company last september. I went through the sacks (maybe about a thousand strands) to find about five saleable strands)
As with most things pearl related, you do tend to get what you pay for, there are no secret bargains on eBay or Alibaba etc.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Thanks for that information, Wendy. I hadn't seen the 8mm white ones. I see some larger ones on your website as well.

I've been seeing the large, poor quality ripples at T. J. Maxx in recent months. Big gaps in nacre...not attractive in my opinion.

 

[pearlescence]

I've seek cracked and blinking ripples and other bead nuked pearls on many websites, even in some places which surprised me. They should not make it to temp strands let alone into finished pieces.

 

[Caitlin]

I bought a very cheap strand of those ones with gaping holes ...$30 for size 16-14mm. because the nacre was so colorful and they were HUGE. When I got them, I dabbed the gaps (and the ugly proteinaceous parts) with nail polish pale shades of pink, blue and turquoise. I had to tell people I did it because it isn't very noticeable with all the color in the pearls. a lot of fun for the money. If I had really wanted to do it up, I could have used sculpey to fill the worst gaps and painted the sculpey.

Now I am totally a hobbiest and could never afford the good quality 14-16mm nucleated pearls so I love this- and as I do not need to dress to impress with this strand, it is sheer fun.

 

[GemGeek]

Sculpey! What a great idea!

 

[Caitlin]

Yeah, nail polish and sculpey. You gotta remember- I am a theater person and made costumes for decades. I can make anything look authentic from several feet away.

I didn't want to make them look fakey fake like with magenta and bright purple, I just downplayed the flaws. Like makeup for pearls, LOL

It is worth it for a gobsmacker like that one, for under $$$100's. Those are some great pearls for d?class? folks like myself. If I could get more like those I would. Kether took that strand- I had to go look for it, to take a photo,

 

[Caitlin]

Yeah, nail polish and sculpey. You gotta remember- I am a theater person and made costumes for decades. I can make anything look authentic from several feet away.

I didn't want to make them look fakey fake like with magenta and bright purple, I just downplayed the flaws. Like makeup for pearls, LOL

It is worth it for a gobsmacker like that one, for under $$$100's. Those are some great pearls for d?class? folks like myself. If I could get more like those I would. Kether took that strand- I had to go look for it, to take a photo,

 

[Mostawesomecoffee]

As for me mentioning a size of 8mm, this is only for the sake of argument. The heart of my question is:

If there are two pearls with sufficiently thick nacre (2.5 to 3 mm), does the nucleus material affect value? If you had two such identical (cultured) pearls, and one had a shell nucleus while the other was pure nacre, would they be valued at the same price? thanks.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Let's think of what makes one pearl more valuable than another.

All other things being equal:
• higher luster > lower luster
• clean surface > blemished surface
• round shape pearls > not-round pearls
• larger pearls > smaller ones

What the bead nucleus adds is roundness. Freshwater pearls without a bead tend not to be fully round ; some are only very slightly off round, and they may appear to be round when worn at normal viewing distances, but usually they are not completely round. For some buyers, roundness is very important.

But if I had to choose between a more lustrous pearl that is slightly off round and a less lustrous pearl that is fully round, I would choose the more lustrous pearl.

Now, if there were two strands of fwp that were equally lustrous, equally clean and same size, I think it's safe to say that most buyers would go for the rounder one.

 

[Mostawesomecoffee]

thanks, that's what I was looking for.