Marianne, I went back to the bead show again today (bet you all knew a new pearl addict would not stay away!), and had a chance to talk at length with the vendor. The photo of what I was calling keshi is a little deceptive, it does make them look like the little pancake shapes that are nucleated, but he said the ones I bought were not and are definitely keshi. They are actually fairly thin and many of them corn flake curved. He did also have the ones that are nucleated. The big long oval looking ones to the left of the keshi in the photo are also deceptive, looking like sticks but they are actually quite fat and also non-nucleated, they have quite a few holes and things going on on some of them, and these are the ones his supplier said are new and have not been named, so they must be different than sticks, which he also had. I will try to do better photos of those two varieties for further observation.
And I have learned a very good lesson at the show as well. this vendor had nearly 100% pearls, all straight from China or Hong Kong, he himself Anerican of Chinese birth, all his pearls mostly B grade on his rounds, some A's, but he knew pearls better than anyone else at the show. He said he quit carrying the higher grades as he does mostly shows and sells to beaders, and they don't want to pay the price for anything above an A if they are stringing to resell, and if they do want the higher grades, he felt they would not buy from him anyway. He had a very good point. So many sellers on ebay and other sites from China have hurt the reputation of the honest good sellers that actually represent their pearls properly. That was why I got a fabulous deal on the Akoya baroques, he said he used to get nearly ten times wat he charged me for them, but now with so many pearls of lower grades being so cheap, no one wants to pay him what they are worth. He said he has lost a lot of money in the past carrying the more expensive pearls. I was impressed with his knowledge, he knew exactly which ones were dyed, which ones were non-nucleated, which ones were natural shades; many other vendors there had much less knowledge about what they were selling. All they knew is they had freshwater pearls and that was that. A friend of mine who has worked for our largest local beading store for many many years knew this dealer well and steered to to him and I was so glad. Will post more photos this evening of round two, probably boring to all the experts on this forum, but it is my "first stash" of pearl beads for stringing so I am feeling a little gleeful (and very broke)
Daddys Little Pearl.
