My First Baroque Akoya Strand

[Sanippy]

Stunning! I love them.

 

[amti]

Those pearls are dripping with luster!!! Gorgeous!!!

 

[CrazyMissy]

Thanks everyone! But here's an interesting and rather awkward scenario...

During lunch time, I accompanied my friend to a local jewelry shop (not the high end ones) because she was looking for loose rubies. They were also selling pearls, although they seem to be akoya with really thin nacre and not-too-great freshwaters. While I was waiting in a corner, one senior salesperson approached me, and asked if I would be interested to upgrade my "not good fake pearls" to real pearls. Got saved by my friend who informed them that i am wearing a Japanese baroque akoya strand.

Uhm, why do they look fake? I didn't get to ask her, but it's just bugging me. Thoughts?

 

[LVLanghanke]

They were totally just trying to get you to buy something. Your pearls are gorgeous and there's no reason to assume they are fake upon looking at them. That person just had a crappy approach.

 

[Katbran]

OK - most salespeople don't know the slightest thing about pearls. Two examples - I sold a necklace to a very very high end client in Fla... i'm talking Bentley and Jet ... her baby diamond is 6ct. Her big one is 10 and hangs from a necklace of 1 ct stones. But she does like a good deal.. I have sold her a harvest strand in the past and she wanted a 'traveling' necklace. So I sent her some big gorgeous white baroque Freshies. When she wore them in to pick up her diamonds ( being cleaned) her Jeweler looked at the pearls ( I'm talking super high end Venice Jeweler) and said , highly offended that she bought from someone else, " Well I hope you didn't spend over 15000 for those !" They were like 500USD . This guy couldn't tell baroque freshwater from WSS. He owned the store.

One time in NYC I walked into Bergdorfs as I was staying just around the corner and went through the beautiful jewellery dept. They had a fabulous YoKo strand of WSS Tahitians and Edisons. Stunning. While I was looking at it the manager came up and asked if I'd like to try it on..I declined but said that I admired it. Yes he said , its beautiful, all South Sea pearls. Well.... pink Edisons... So not wanting them to misrepresent it, I said.. ' there are SS but the pink ones are Edisons... a freshwater pearl. 'No.. I'm sure they are all SS ... then looked at the tag... WSS GSS Tahitian. Yes he said..all South Sea. Well.. I said .. I'm telling you that the pink are freshwater and I think it's been mislabeled. You might want to check it out. 30 min later he found me in the handbag area and told me he'd called YoKo in the UK and they verified the Edison pearls...and he thanked me profusely for pointing out the error and saving them embarrassment It was an extremely expensive necklace.

So there you go.... experts selling jewellery don't necessarily know pearls. This sort of thing happens all the time... people telling me 'facts' about the pearl they are selling. So the fact that she'd probably never even seen baroque Akoya doesn't surprise me.

They are beautiful-they are real-the salesperson was ignorant

 

[BWeaves]

Those baroque akoyas just GLOW. They are gorgeous. When I got my baroque akoya strand recently, I was underwhelmed, until I put them on. When I look at them in my hand, I see the bumps and flaws. When I'm wearing them and look in the mirror, they blow my other pearls away.

Also, When I wear my natural white Hanadamas with my freshwater pearls, everyone assumes the Hanadamas are fake because they "look too good." At least no one is going to do a snatch and grab on them.

You have a drool worthy strand.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

I love your stories Katbran!

Last year we were in Greenwich CT and stopped into a high end jeweler to have a look. The salesman, a man in his late 20s/early 30s, showed me some pink Edisons and told me they were SSP. I told him they were Edisons and explained about in-body bead nucleated FWP. He looked puzzled, checked the tag, and acknowledged that I was right.

The fact is most jewelers don't carry a lot of pearls and aren't well-informed about them.

As for the "not good fake pearls" comment, it was a ploy to goad you into buying something, but also I think the salesman may actually not have known what he was looking at. Most baroque akoyas don't have the thick nacre yours have.

 

[LadyBratFace]

Oh wow! These are lovely!

These are so on my wish list!

 

[Abi]

Your Baroque akoya strand just glows with your skin tone! I enjoy reading the stories about jewelry shops.

 

[CrazyMissy]

thanks everyone, for the compliments and for the jewelry shop stories! gave me some assurance that yeah, nothing's wrong with it. thoughts that ran in my head were:

- maybe a pinked strand doesn't suit my skin type
- maybe they're too shiny, but since when was that a bad thing?
- am I not worthy of wearing a real pearl strand?!?

yes, neurotic me kicked in.

I wore them one more time yesterday since I knew I will be on my desk the entire day. The strand passed the desk test! It lands right above the desk!
And despite wearing a vivid print, the strand still stands out!

Ok, I am definitely keeping this one!

 

[pattye]

CM, yes, you are absolutely stunning in your new rope! Take a deep breath and realize few have seen cultured pearls so beautiful and lustrous, even jewelers.

Love the stories, Katbran and PD. Here's mine, about 12 years ago I sent my rare baroque Cortez Pearl strands to a reputable pearl appraiser, not identifying them initially, and saying I would call with their story once she'd looked them over. She had decided they must dyed akoya!

 

[JerseyPearl]

Pattye, I would love to see a photo of that strand...bet it is scrumptious!

 

[BWeaves]

Dyed akoyas? I'm dying.

 

[pattye]

Very sorry, too dark and rainy for pics today, hope for better tomorrow.

 

[Katbran]

Pattye ! That's hilarious !! But as ignorant as most jewellers are of pearls..I'd not be at all surprised if they had never heard of SoC!

 

[pattye]

The rest of the story:
(Sorry to hijack an akoya topic.) Right Katbran, not surprising SofC pearls weren't easily recognized 12+ years ago. When identified them as being from Sea of Cortez, the appraiser immediately said, "ah, pteria sterna, I should have used uv light to id" So here's a couple of photos. One strand is darker, 22 in and the other, 30 in, more of a taupe-gray. They clearly aren't gem quality; most are in the 7=9mm range, with subtle overtones. I treasure them!! They are not this blue, sorry, very gray days~

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Those are amazing, Pattye.

 

[Pareltje]

Amazing pearls, Pattye.

 

[BWeaves]

Pattye, if those were the pearls you were wearing last Ruckus, I thought they were blue akoyas until you said they were SOC. Either way, they are GORGEOUS.

 

[pattye]

Yes, BWeaves, the same pearls! And thank you, everyone, for your kind words! I'm wearing them in my avatar photo, too, with a special "white" Kamoka pendant.