Lake Biwa Pearls

I ordered the white ones and I am still waiting (rather impatiently as I am anxious to see them). It seems that there is a rather long delay from the time that things are ordered and when they ship. I ordered on the 21st and they did not ship until the 26th. I had a similar experience with Pearl Paradise. Is it the case that they do not string the necklace until after it is ordered? That is the only explanation that I can think of.
When they show up I will try to take some pictures. I still haven't figured out what "occasion" to create to give them to my wife. I am open to suggestions on that count if anyone wants to offer.

--Stephen
 
flycatcher said:
I still haven't figured out what "occasion" to create to give them to my wife. I am open to suggestions on that count if anyone wants to offer.
Click to expand...

End of Summer Blowout?
End of the Economy Blowout?
Necklace to best reflect Labor Day outdoor grilling flames?
Spontaneous, thoughtful, unusual vintage gift day?

Wheee!!! She'll be thrilled no matter what!!!
CarolK
 
They do have this on the sale page:


Note: Due to sales volume, please allow 2 to 3 extra days for us to ship sale items.

Add a weekend in there and you have the time between your order and the shipping of the item. When I called in my order I asked if they were already strung and Terry said "yes."
 
Hi Everybody,

Sorry for the long delay in responding. I've been hiking in the mountains for the last week with no cell phone, no computer, etc...

I'll try to respond to all the questions here at once.

What is the scoop on the color of the Biwa pearls? Were there some strands more lavender? Did you over photoshop to get the color? Seems like some of us at least, agree that the photo was very different in tone than what we received, although we are over all very pleased with the pearls.
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I think my biwa's are chameleons! They were sliver gray when I put them on in daylight, but when I took them off at night under my regular lamp they were a lovely silvery lavender!
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The strands obviously did range some in color from silver to lavender and in-between. When dealing with natural colors like this, you always have a range. If anything, the photo was under-photoshopped. If anyone wants to part with their Biwa strand because of the color, we'll waive any restocking fee. We currently have a waiting list for those who missed out on these, and there is no possibility of ever getting more of them.

Does the paperwork specify natural color as well? I'm wondering because the certificate I received doesn't specify these are natural color.
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Normally, we denote when something is NOT a natural color. If anyone would like new paperwork specifically stating that the color is natural, PM me with your order number and the request.

It seems that there is a rather long delay from the time that things are ordered and when they ship. I ordered on the 21st and they did not ship until the 26th. I had a similar experience with Pearl Paradise. Is it the case that they do not string the necklace until after it is ordered?
Click to expand...

As someone already noted, for sales, we specifically state on the sale page the following:

Note: Due to sales volume, please allow 2 to 3 extra days for us to ship sale items.

We don't ship on weekends, thus the order shipped out 3 business days later. For items NOT on one of our sales, we normally ship within 1 business day or less. And yes, nearly everything is strung or finished AFTER an order is placed and yes, we still get most non-sale orders out within 1 business day or less.

If anyone still hasn't received their order from the sale, give us a call! 866-673-3036

Did I miss anything?
 
Thanks, Terry-- yes, I was wondering if the documentation you saw when you bought the pearls said the colors were natural (asking this because apparently some Biwas were irradiated to get the silvery gray colors.)

Or is it the case that that older documentation would have followed the same rule of only mentioning dyeing when it is present?

Thanks...
 
The Pearl Outlet said:
Hi Everybody,

We don't ship on weekends, thus the order shipped out 3 business days later. For items NOT on one of our sales, we normally ship within 1 business day or less. And yes, nearly everything is strung or finished AFTER an order is placed and yes, we still get most non-sale orders out within 1 business day or less.
Click to expand...

Thanks Terry. I had not seen the bit on the page about the 2-3 days due to volume etc. iIt also doesn't help that our spam filter apparently threw the "order shipped" email away without even telling me about it so all I got was the "item ordered" email. I was not too worried about the order as I was sure it would arrive. Was just wondering about the process. Note to self: Read the page in it's entirety before you ask a silly question.

Carol,

I think I might go with the "Spontaneous, thoughtful, unusual vintage gift" thing. It is always good to get her something "just because".

--Stephen
 
Okay, I'm obviously the slow one. I know there have been discussions of Biwa pearls. And I see "biwa" pearls on ebay. What is special about biwas? Is there a thread somewhere that I could read?
 
The biwa pearls on ebay are not the true lake biwa pearls. It has become a generally accepted descriptive term for the long flatish tissue nucleated freshwater pearls.
 
Thanks, Terry-- yes, I was wondering if the documentation you saw when you bought the pearls said the colors were natural (asking this because apparently some Biwas were irradiated to get the silvery gray colors.)
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Yes, I went back to my source and reverified that they were natural in color, not dyed.
 
I finally got a few good pictures of my Lake Biwa pearls. I ordered the white ones and was not disappointed. They are quite dainty and very pretty. I wish I could upload the full resolution pictures as they look much nicer.

--Stephen
 

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Strack says (page 416):

"Pearls from Lake Biwa rarely possess the neutral, light hues of Japanese Akoya cultured pearls. They are, like natural freshwater pearls, either strikingly white or have pastel tones to distinct fancy colours."

But then she also mentions bleaching later on the page and that the reason "might have been that white pearls were valued higher in Japan until a few decades ago."

So, the whiteness could be natural.
Or not.
 
I kinda have a question about the white ones. We all know that the colour are natural, but are the white ones bleached?
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Normally bleaching isn't a listed treatment so there isn't any way to find out for certain with these.
 
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