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Caitlin
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2004
- Messages
- 8,502
"Off round" means a bigger deviation than 5% to me. Pearllunar sells off round. Their colors are often as good as Jeremy's, but they are much further off round than Jeremys. They advertised one strand that matches my lavender freshie- as "very round" What they meant was "very eggy".
I said the dark, dark lavender is the rare color, though I do think there are fewer lavender than peach. In an order from member Mandyshan lfrom China last year. I asked for 10 strands of 6-7mm dark lavender as she had in her picture and 20 of the 5-6mm in the same color. I got about 6 strands that were as dark as Jeremy's, Then I got 10 peach colored! The rest were light lavender.
Lesson learned: All pearl dealers parse their pearls, but the Chinese do it more than Jeremy does........
In the old days, The royals would have gotten ALL the natural perls anywhere near round (including the 5% off-rounds) as well as the largest of the baroques, and the rest of the court got the less round ones and/or the smaller ones.
We are dealing with pearls very like the ancient natural pearls. Round is simply not as round as the cultured pearls many eyes have been taught to see as a must.
The solution is to cultivate an "eye" for natural shapes in pearls. Personally I detest the marching, machine gun, sameness of round pearls. If I wanted that look, faux pearls have it in spades and most folk can't even tell the fakes from the cultured PPB's. They have to do the "tooth test" or they are fooled. No such problem with freshwaters!!!
The slightly off round shapes are a dead giveaway you are getting solid nacre pearls made in the shell, and not pearls made out of the shell- as in MoP bead-nucleation.
I said the dark, dark lavender is the rare color, though I do think there are fewer lavender than peach. In an order from member Mandyshan lfrom China last year. I asked for 10 strands of 6-7mm dark lavender as she had in her picture and 20 of the 5-6mm in the same color. I got about 6 strands that were as dark as Jeremy's, Then I got 10 peach colored! The rest were light lavender.
Lesson learned: All pearl dealers parse their pearls, but the Chinese do it more than Jeremy does........
In the old days, The royals would have gotten ALL the natural perls anywhere near round (including the 5% off-rounds) as well as the largest of the baroques, and the rest of the court got the less round ones and/or the smaller ones.
We are dealing with pearls very like the ancient natural pearls. Round is simply not as round as the cultured pearls many eyes have been taught to see as a must.
The solution is to cultivate an "eye" for natural shapes in pearls. Personally I detest the marching, machine gun, sameness of round pearls. If I wanted that look, faux pearls have it in spades and most folk can't even tell the fakes from the cultured PPB's. They have to do the "tooth test" or they are fooled. No such problem with freshwaters!!!
The slightly off round shapes are a dead giveaway you are getting solid nacre pearls made in the shell, and not pearls made out of the shell- as in MoP bead-nucleation.
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Casey.R
Guest
I have no problem with off rounds generally. I'm not after something that looks just like akoyas either. I love all my baroques pearls and one of my favorite strands ever are my oval exotics. They are perfect at being oval exotics if that makes any sense. But with the freshadamas I wanted rounder looking pearls than I got.It doesn't mean I want all the pearls in my pearl wardrobe to be perfectly round. There was just a little too much variation in shape (for me) and it was obvious to my eyes at least. With the freshadamas your paying for great pearls so I want something that wows me.
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Valeria101
Guest
If only everyone would think the same!
I think some of the pro-off-round comments I made on your topics and Caitlin's above, are also motivated by the broader lack of understanding... not by your position. I could not agree more with your last post! [understanding pearls shouldn't have much to do with being ...understanding towards imprecise advertising, does it
] Looking forward to your next purple strand!
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Valeria101
Guest
'101' ? It took a second to figure out who that might be!
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Casey.R
Guest
I am too Valeria
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Ashley
Guest
Caitlin,
I do believe that you hit the nail right on the head when you were speaking earlier about slightly off-round shapes. The fact is that no matter which collection you decide upon (Freshadama, Elite, Presidential etc.), they are all considered Gem-Quality Freshwater pearls and as such will have natural variations in tone, shape and size. As lovers of organic gems (and for me, all gems!) to appreciate that variation is to love Nature As She Is...
I do believe that you hit the nail right on the head when you were speaking earlier about slightly off-round shapes. The fact is that no matter which collection you decide upon (Freshadama, Elite, Presidential etc.), they are all considered Gem-Quality Freshwater pearls and as such will have natural variations in tone, shape and size. As lovers of organic gems (and for me, all gems!) to appreciate that variation is to love Nature As She Is...
J
jerin
Guest
Still - if I pay premiumm prices compared to all other Freshwater pearls, I think it is fair to expect MORE OF ROUNDNESS, SIZE, LUSTER - in short MORE of everything, at least in my opinion!
Raisondetre
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2007
- Messages
- 941
I do agree that paying premium means you have higher expectations. I don't think Freshadamas or any of the loose sourced pearls would fall short on size, and I have certainly not seen a problem with luster. In terms of surface, there have been a few minor complaints about blemishes. Some were strands that did not make freshadama standards, and the problems were promptly corrected. I think there was a pair of earrings with a visible pit a long time ago. There would be a few in the strand, but not for earring quality - at least not on the non-mounted surface. There was no problem with that exchange. For shape, my strand definitely exceeds the 5% deviation. A few pearls are slightly off-round towards the end of the strand, but it does not qualify as egg-shaped, and it is only evident on close inspection, meaning standing at 3 feet away it looks perfectly round. It even looks round next to an Akoya strand. I like that as a reminder it's pure nacre. Overtones are however very personal. You either like it or you don't, and we all have different expectations. However, the online vendors here have been so good about exchanging or straight returns I find that I am more confident dealing with them than say a brick and mortar store with a discounted item that is non-returnable by virtue of the discount. (Yes, still smarting over the dyed freshwater, I guess I probably didn't overpay by that much seeing wholesale here isn't cheap.)
Bottomline, if you don't like what you see, you can always exchange or return it. The discounts offered online are generous enough to offset any postage. But do take that into account prior to ordering. If you would rather pay more to get a strand you can see in person, that's great as long as you realize what you're paying for. Having run a small business I don't pay for advertising and retail space just out of principle, even though I know it's hard for brick and mortar stores.
Bottomline, if you don't like what you see, you can always exchange or return it. The discounts offered online are generous enough to offset any postage. But do take that into account prior to ordering. If you would rather pay more to get a strand you can see in person, that's great as long as you realize what you're paying for. Having run a small business I don't pay for advertising and retail space just out of principle, even though I know it's hard for brick and mortar stores.
happy pearl
Member
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2008
- Messages
- 13
Casey - I am new to pearls and am interested in Freshdama. I am curious about how you like your exchange.
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