Metallic Edison Peal Smash for Those Who Enjoy a Good Pearl Smash

[Gemandpearlover]

I'm new so let me know if these type of posts are not in the spirit of this forum and I will stop posting them. The OCD in me needed to know if these metallic Edisons were worth stringing. I took two that I believed had thin nacre and smashed them. I am not going to lie- I have enjoyed breaking things since I was a wee kid.

According to my not so scientific methods (I compared the nacre thickness to a 1.2mm filter needle and the metrics on a wrapper of a a medical bio-occlusive dressing) the nacre is roughly .0.8 to 1.2 mm thick.

And now the picture.




The good news is that now that I am done buying learner pearls I have reached out to a recommended and respected forum member and will be buying a couple strands of metallic white FW pearls from her. So no need to smash pearls because I trust that she is great.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Cool! Thanks for sharing the findings of your experiment!

As far as I'm concerned this sort of post is precisely what this forum is about.

 

[pattye]

Well done, Gemandpearlover, thank you very much!

 

[CricketBug]

Interesting to see the inside of pearl, the "hollow" side. I always wondered if the inside was beautiful like the outside. Not so much, evidently.

 

[BWeaves]

That's pretty thick nacre. Very interesting. My natural white Hanadamas only have .45 mm of nacre according to the certificate.

 

[Gemandpearlover]

Thank you Pattye, Pearl Dreams, BWeaves and CricketBug.

CricketBug my pictures aren't that great but the bead looks like mother of pearl. It has a lovely rainbow play of color when held to light.

 

[Marianne]

Smash away, girl. We love science here

 

[GemGeek]

Caitlin would be very pleased.

 

[Red]

I bet the inside would be pretty if it were polished up. Even better if tiny gemstones were glued in.

 

[Abi]

This is a perfect post for pearl guide! Thank you for sharing

 

[JerseyPearl]

Such a wonderful post! I love the sacrifice in the name of science...and your remaining pearls are lovely.

 

[CricketBug]

CricketBug my pictures aren't that great but the bead looks like mother of pearl. It has a lovely rainbow play of color when held to light.

I was particularly curious about the hollow part of the “shell”, although it’s interesting to note the MOP-like bead, too.

 

[CricketBug]

I bet the inside would be pretty if it were polished up. Even better if tiny gemstones were glued in.

Hah! Definitely like the tiny sparklies idea!

 

[lisa c]

Alrighty, then. Wince.

 

[BWeaves]

Well, the nuclei are usually made from mussel shells, so I wouldn't be too surprised if they have a mother of pearl look to them.

 

[amti]

How cool and fun! Almost reminds me of a nut!

 

[ericw]

Gemandpearlover, thank you for this brave experiment!
Just a point: the nacre of this kind of nice pearls is often thick, but not metallic in all the thickness, just a few layers separated by more or less pale colour nacre.
I think these pearls are produced by farmers watching carefully the right moment to harvest, especially about water temperature, or/and a chemical factor (?).
Then, pearls show a metallic surface of thin conchyoline effect as the last layer mussel has made before harvesting.

 

[Gemandpearlover]

Gemandpearlover, thank you for this brave experiment!
Just a point: the nacre of this kind of nice pearls is often thick, but not metallic in all the thickness, just a few layers separated by more or less pale colour nacre.
I think these pearls are produced by farmers watching carefully the right moment to harvest, especially about water temperature, or/and a chemical factor (?).
Then, pearls show a metallic surface of thin conchyoline effect as the last layer mussel has made before harvesting.

Yes- the thin metallic nacre is exactly what I noticed on the pearls that I replaced. I at first thought all the nacre was very thin and I was seeing the bead because of missing nacre on those pearls. But like you explained- it was the metallic nacre that was thin. Might be pretty pearls today and not so pretty pearls in the future.

 

[Katbran]

I love science that includes hitting things with a hammer ! Well done !

 

[ericw]

Maybe you are right, Gemandpearlover, it's truly a question of day to harvest.
I don't know how quickly the mussel produces conchyoline on its pearl, but perhaps even less than one day for such a thin layer to do this special enamel effect.
More conchyoline would turn the pearl in strange tones of lavender/brown yellow, like many freshwater flameballs sold now.