Another pearl question...

[Beans]

I posted not too long ago about some pearl hoop earrings and you were so very helpful. I do appreciate it very much.

I have another piece, a baroque pearl bracelet with a 10k gold clasp. The lustre is not quite matching the pearl hoops but they do have a nice iridescence (orient?). The thing is, I don't know if there's an easy way to tell freshwater pearls from Akoya pearls. I read that Akoya baroque pearls aren't so common so based on that, I'm making an uneducated guess these are freshwater pearls. As well, on a youtube video, a woman pointed out that freshwater have a satiny sheen and are all nacre.

I took the photos with the pearl earrings for comparison's sake. There's one pearl that I pointed out with an arrow that has a flat circle on both sides. This side is the more prominent one. Not sure how much detail you can see or if that gives any clue. I can see faint rings and while the photos don't pick it up, that pearl (along with others) has more lustre than the others.

 

[perlas]

The bracelet looks freshwater to me. A lot of Freshwater Pearls tend to have a flat side. The rings also occur more in FWPs instead of akoyas.

 

[pattye]

Beans, thank you for the good photos. Yes, these appear to be freshwater pearls. You can see that they are less round, more egg shaped than the earring pearls. They would have been nucleated with a small piece of mantle tissue (no bead like akoya) which causes them to be less round. The rings are also characteristic of freshwater pearls, when compared with akoya.

 

[Beans]

Awesome! The rings being characteristic of freshwater pearls and the flat sides is a great tidbit of knowledge.

Thanks so much!

Michelle

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Yes, freshwaters.

Freshwaters can have high luster (what we call metallic freshwaters) but generally their luster is softer than that of akoyas, it's true.

 

[GemGeek]

Now you just need a pendant or a necklace to go with!