CFWP the Chameleon of Pearls

[Caitlin]

An Opinion by Caitlin Williams

I wonder why so many experts do not see the intrinsic value of cultured freshwater Pearls (CFWP). Of course, they can look like the most flagrant circus decorations, when grown in odd shapes and dyed circus colors, but they are the chameleons of jewels, they can take on any characteristics the customers want.

For instance, there is a huge desire for fashion jewelry, which is not really ?costume? jewelry in the old sense, it is far more tasteful, and CFW pearls fill that slot especially well. The slightly potato-y shaped pearls in discreet natural colors and white, are often highly lustrous and are priced to wear to the office, where they look appropriate and tasteful either in strands alone, or mixed with other beads. You can quickly build a quite a collection of these at current prices.

Then of course, you have the very round ones, which begin to move into the jewelry stores as a modest alternative for cultured marine pearls. This is the pearl most sellers on this forum specialize in.

But does the general public know that CFWP can get as large as SouthSea and Tahitians? They take to peacock dyes especially well and thus look really fabulous. One can buy best quality CFWP in these sizes through some sellers on this forum and I'd advise people to get them!.

But, before that, I learned this from my favorite CFWP dyed black necklace. It is made from 12+mm commercial grade pearls I bought for $10. They are a lovely silver/blue toned color. I just strung them up, battered skins and all, and wore them around because they match my hair (silver) and eyes (blue) and thus look good with most of my wardrobe. They are in the abalone tone range (not paua) I got such a flood of love for them from people- and I have been trying to get more big, battered pearls ever since.

Now the reason I am telling you this, is many people, even some jewelers, ask if they are Tahitians almost every time I wear them. I am so HAPPY to set them straight and tell them they are FW and Solid Nacre and yada, yada.

I did not intend to deceive anyone with them, as people who might want to do if they wear zirconia, (though if people knew the truth about diamonds, the Mystique and the prices would pop and diamonds would be worth less than good zirconia -factoid courtesy of ZESPA)

I was just wearing my cheapo CFWP with my t shirts and people reacted to them like they were fine gems! I even had a lady come up to me at the ballet-someone I didn?t even know, and say, ?Your pearls are absolutely beautiful- Tahitians?? I even show as many people as I can, the cracks and places where the outer layers of nacre are missing, and I get responses like, ?It gives them character?, ?They really look natural?. I now regard comments like these as selling points!

I have been commenting on this phenomenon to this forum, since I first got the pearls. To a roaring silence, I might add. This doesn?t seem like useful information?

Since then I have also looked at least ? dozen cheapo ($ 250-1000) Tahitian strands that were ugly. The $1,000 one looked like goat droppings in its color, and had inclusions that looked like pieces of hay and I am not exaggerating. The one for $250 at the Gem Show was also pathetic lackluster black. The ones in between were also ugly, with tails and an obvious bead inside.

Even crappy beat-up, dented, and dyed CFWP are prettier than that!

As I pointed out in another thread: low cost in the highly subsidized Chinese CFW pearl is not an indication of its intrinsic value; it is an indication it is a good investment.

This is the necklace- I tried to correct for the green bias

 

[The Pearl Outlet]

Talking about what you can do with freshwater pearls...

I recently came across some enhanced freshwater pearls that I thought were quite spectacular. Here are the photos:

Blue Freshwater Earrings
Green Freshwater Earrings
Pink Freshwater Earrings

I think freshwater pearls are an extremely valuable part of our industry, and will become more so over the next couple of years. As a business, we've increased the number of freshwater items we sell dramatically in the last two years, and the demand has grown exponentially. I do agree with others however that calling nearly all other types of cultured pearls "pearl plated beads" does do a disservice to the industry.

 

[Caitlin]

Tee Hee! Please note, I did not not introduce that highly charged keyword into this thread! Though I did compare lousy Tahitians with commercial grade CFWP and think the latter come out better.

 

[Caitlin]

I like the green ones, very subtle.
You posted before I edited and put in a picture of my highly touted crappy commercial grade black/dyed CFW.....

 

[Caitlin]

Quote Annadk
?

Making CFWP to look like baroque tahitians is pointless. Tahitians are considered more "hip"-- a number of male celebrities have recently been sporting tahitian pearls. They provide an organic alternative to the "bling" of diamonds in male jewelry and are quickly gaining ground as a new fashion trend. In Europe, it is even more common for men to wear tahitian pearl jewelry.

CFWP mean nothing to men.In regards to their durability, I trust Terry's tests completely. They were also a joke: a bead-nucleated pearl does not make the pearl weak or brittle.
Fact of the matter is Tahitians were introduced later into the pearl business and are the "hot" pearl. In order to combine a "hot/new" item like a mens pearl bracelet, one needs the "it" pearl.

?
Hi Anna
I thought this comment bears repeating over here in this thread. You summed up your opinion brilliantly, in most of the comment. You live in LA and know the Hollywood culture well and are qualified to make your remarks.

However, the two statements I enlarged are dogmatic statements (characterized by assertion of unproved or unprovable principles) more than opinions, and most probably, untrue statements. You may wish to support them with evidence, or yield on those two points.

?Making CFWP to look like baroque tahitians is pointless?.

I am wondering what you mean by that? CFWP grow however they want, you can?t MAKE them look like baroque Tahitians. Baroque Tahitians look like they have a bead inside- most people today probably don?t even know what a natural Tahitian baroque looks like-

• Is your argument that dying them makes them look like Tahitians, and therefore, dying them is pointless?
• Or perhaps you really think it is, or should be, unethical to dye large Freshwater pearls black?
• MY point is not that CFWP are knockoffs of Tahitians, but can be Big Pearls in their own right! People do not KNOW that CFWP can grow as big as a lot of Tahitians and SS pearls, so they think they are Tahitians when they see them. When one tells them what they are, they are amazed and awed!

CFWP mean nothing to men.

• Well, then, you marketers and purveyers need to get busy. How long ago did Tahitians ?mean nothing? to men?

I also wonder what the definition of ?hip? is nowadays??..I?d like to debate you on that point too.

Here is my opinion:

• CFWP are far more hip and edgy than Tahitians.
• They are the new, new guy on the scene and need to make their reputation and build Mystique.
• They are the true trend of the future, the avant garde.
• I think they are the Bruce Lee of Pearls for manliness!
• Hip artists who set trends rarely go with snob appeal- they usually go against it.
• Snob appeal comes along when it moves into mainstream markets.
• Snob appeal is a marketing ploy to manipulate the desire for acquisition; it is not a value.
• By the time a Hollywood celebrity wears something, it is mainstream--- and mainstream cannot, by definition, be hip.

 

[Caitlin]

I started another thread very similarly extolling CFWP last year. I just fell in love with CFWP before I ever came here. For me, they are the "cheap fix" for natural pearls.

While I haven't begrudged anyone else their preferences, but I love to argue for mine and I detect a hint of snobbery toward them because they aren't pricey enough. That brings out my high school debating skills.

Well, I too hope to have a good supply of really fab CFWP by the time they "hit".

Oh well, and befitting an old fogey like me, I drive a Saturn too. I am big on value and nothing delivers value like a pretty little solid nacre pearl.

I wish the bead nucleated folks had not developed their "eye" on cultured marine pearls, because such pearls remind me of beauty queens and movie stars with their implants and expensive dye jobs and cosmetic fixes. Actually some degree of cosmetics is inevitable, unless Jeremy keeps up the good work and/or we shift attitudes toward nucleating and processing.

But I think implants are not for me, or my pearls.......

 

[pierrettedE]

Tee hee Well well, I've been silently [mostly] reading this forum for over a year, asorbing and enjoying all your outllooks!

As a jeweller, I find myself thinking of 'pearl plated beads' whenever I get the visit of a customer with a 10-yr old akoya strand that needs restringing!

pierrette

 

[Bodecia]

Hi Caitlin,

I love your black CFWP necklace. Looks great to me, even the lumps and bumps look good.

I came across these pearls being called SS pearls which at 8.5 to 9 they can't be and also being called Tihitian - I guess that means Tahitian but not quite or maybe not

Are these Chinese Saltwater pearls. As you can see one has the top cut off so it is easy to see the much dreaded bead or the bead that one wants to see depending on ones views. But what are they, are they Chinese or Tahitian? Or something else. They do have quite a good lustre or at least I think so. I have seen Tahitian this small that are genuine Tahitians but an aquaitenance of mine in Tahiti said they look like Chinese saltwater pearls.

Would be great to get the PF views.

Bodecia

 

[Bodecia]

Sorry, must have done something wrong trying to upload the photo. So here it comes, I hope.

Bodecia

 

[jshepherd]

I would suspect them to be Japanese saltwater. They definitely look like Akoya, and the size is too large for Chinese.

 

[Bodecia]

Thanks Jeremy,

They are fairly big for Japanese akoya pearls aren't they. I thought of it but didn't put Japanese in because of their size. Should have asked too are these dyed? The inside nacre on the cut off one looks somewhat the same colour as the outside nacre of the pearl. It is hard to see that pearl clearly. Is it just a good dyeing job? Or would they naturally be that colour going by the cut one, of course.

Bodecia

 

[jshepherd]

I would say Japanese simply because Chinese Akoya production larger than 8mm is very rare. Nearly all production falls in the 4-7.5mm range. Japan, however, has a larger part of its production in the 8-9mm range (this is the only size range in which they can really compete).

The color could be natural, it is difficult to determine from the picture. I cannot see any dye concentrations or finger prints from that resolution.

The 3/4 pearl at the top is very typical for processed pearls in Japan. In fact, an important value factor when assessing Akoya pearl earrings is whether or not they are whole or 3/4. The 3/4 have simply been cut, always to removed an ugly flaw.

 

[Bodecia]

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks. Very informative. My friend in Tahiti thought Chinese only because she had bought similar from China and directed me to a site selling similar but they were around 7 mm.

Bodecia

 

[kindon]

pearl!

pearl!

I would suspect them to be Japanese saltwater,because the size is too large for Chinese freshwater pearl!

edited by Caitlin to remove advertisement. The opinion written above is fine; the ads are not ok anywhere on thsi form. Listing your website and email in your signature is ok.

 

[Richard W. Wise]

Caitlin,
I think the short answer to your orignal question is that Chinese FWP have begun to get a lot of respect.

I first reported their presence in a 1991 GemWise column in National Jeweler. 1999 seems to have been the year that the market began to really pay attention.

On my recent trip I noted the use of fine CFW in strands in a number of finer jewelry stores in Cape Town, Rio and London. A lot of mixed strands of Tahitian/Freshwater in evidence in trendier pieces.

 

[Caitlin]

Hi Richard
I agree that the trend seems to be changing. There is a layer of top quality CFWP, the top.01 or maybe even .001 % that are absolutely gem quality , but the prices are still less than the equivalent quality in sea pearls.

That is why I think they are such a good investment at this time. I expect the top quality CFWP will rise in price eventually to equal their seaborn brethen.

In a couple of generations, many of the best new CFWP in the best collections which include old naturals, will be appraised as 19th century natural freshwaters because no honest expert will be able to tell the difference after a few restringings and remixes happen.

 

[sleight]

I'm posting a pix of these CFWP just for comparison's sake. A friend picked them up for me in Tucson. They are 11-12mm and significantly more than Caitlin's $10! They were $180!!! Don't you love your strand a little more now Caitlin?!

 

[Caitlin]

Hi Sleight
You did very well! I paid $10.00 in 2004 for ones with pits and cracks. This year I found one with 12mm white. the pearls have various problems on shape some have circle. I paid $15 for that and it is nowhere as beautiful as yours. Then I got another one with huge klonks but really off round and with patchy luster, in white, for $40. I really go for the cheap stuff.

I swore I would go for quality over quantity this year and I will. I promise I will. Starting tomorrow!

I plan on stringing the new klonks up and taking a photo soon, but I am working on another project.

 

[Zoe Celeste]

Miss you, mom ❤

(I was researching CFWPs on Google, and this thread was on top... can't help but be grateful for this platform, and that I can still read her words [even the perhaps controversial ones], and it's like she is still here for a moment...)

Sorry if this is inappropriate, I just felt the urge to reply to it

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Honestly, I miss her on the forum.