barbie biggs
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2007
- Messages
- 808
I did! And this time I can't say Octavia made me do it.
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. All psyched up and no place to hide. After reading Jeremy's last entry...You're in trouble now girl.
I did! And this time I can't say Octavia made me do it.
I've been quite strong and centered about things. Then I saw these and LOST IT. Just LOST IT...
Don't bother feeling guilty; you have contracted a serious case of pearlitis. It can't be helped, though it will slow down a bit as your collection grows.I'm trying not to feel guilty every time I make a pearl purchase.
Don't bother feeling guilty; you have contracted a serious case of pearlitis. It can't be helped, though it will slow down a bit as your collection grows.
This site has a huge support group for pearlitis.
What makes the metallic luster in freshwater? I don't know. It is a question I asked when we first started finding them a few years ago. It is not something that is typical. When Doug and I went to a second-stage factory in Weitang, we looked through lots that had not been processed yet, they were only separated by shape and size. Going through the giant baskets, we found a few pearls that were just amazing. They had that striking metallic luster, and it was not from processing. It was natural. I collected as many rounds as I could find, but it was only enough to make about one strand.
I don't think it is metals in the water. The metal issue was one company in Japan that was injecting metals into the pearl sacs of akoya. I think it is just a rare phenomenon, because the pearls we sifted through all came from the same harvest, but only one pearl out of every thousand or so had a strange, metallic luster.
If you do a search there has been extensive discussion about these two techniques. Polishing pretty much gets rid of surface particles, and luster treatment involves temperature treatments or chemicals to "tighten" nacre surface, which normally do not last as it alters the structure of the nacre.
If you do a search there has been extensive discussion about these two techniques. Polishing pretty much gets rid of surface particles, and luster treatment involves temperature treatments or chemicals to "tighten" nacre surface, which normally do not last as it alters the structure of the nacre.