Natural Paua Pearls

Tough question... The largest ones would be easier to love in a design suitable for their shapes than stand-alones.

One vote for #3. (could be just because I can imagine a use for it more readily right now)

A larger image and some idea of the size of the pearls would probably get more votes ;)

bluessi2.png
 
Valeria101 said:
Tough question... The largest ones would be easier to love in a design suitable for their shapes than stand-alones.

One vote for #3. (could be just because I can imagine a use for it more readily right now)

A larger image and some idea of the size of the pearls would probably get more votes ;)

bluessi2.png
Click to expand...

Hi, Valeria, thank you for numbering. I'm still trying to figure out how to use the computer. I don't know how to enlarge the images though I have measurement so you'll have idea.

#2 is about 5cm (about 2 inches)

I like #3 has magnificent color which does not show well on this photo.
If I were a jeweler, I'd love to make parot pin or something with #3.

Thank you for the vote.
 
Amrita said:
Valeria, thanks for putting those numbers in the picture making it easy to point out the pearl of choice! I vote for # 2 because I can see it in my mind as a beautiful dragonfly pendant with gold! :)
Click to expand...

Hi, Amarita, thank you for vote.
My favorite is #2 as well. We have dragonfly like this color in Japan. Good idea!
 
Valeria101 said:
One vote for #3.
Click to expand...
Two votes for #3. It has a silky lustre in addition to complex and deep coloration, with minimal apparent surface conchiolin. If the other side is close, it's a wonderful pearl. Considering that Paua pricing per carat at source is unrelated to grading and that freeforms are priced lower than conicals and teeth, I'd consider that pearl even without a plan. At what appears to be 50mm x 25mm x 8mm it should be around 10 carats, so $4,000 or so ($8,000 retail), similar to a perfect SS round or drop in the 13-17mm range. I find myself waffling widely on pricing and value issues for Paua, but well-selected individual pearls can certainly make a case!
 
I could see a very cool pendant with #2 or #3 - but paua pearls sure aren't a poor mans game are they :O
 
Paua Pearls

Paua Pearls

Paua make one of the most vibrant and beautiful of natural pearls as do Green abalone from Southern California and Mexico. The two species produce such a similar combination of color that one can rarely tell the difference. The price on the two species varies depending on source but pearls over 400/ct retail should be of both fine quality and attractive shape. Horn shaped pearls in this price range are rare or overpriced. Any abalone pearl with symmetry is a rarety. Those over 5cts exhibiting beautiful color and luster with symmetrical shape can command prices of up to 2000/ct retail. Commonly they are priced between 400 and 1000 per ct.
The reason that so few small pearls come from green abalone have more to do with processing than production. Many Abalone plants employ low wage labor to process the abalone. If these workers are slow they are fired. This leaves time sufficient for finding larger pearls but not small. Many of the Paua pearls posted on this site have come from a specific source where the owner of the plant has a stake in the pearls. This of course allows sufficient time to find everything
Best Regards.
Jeremy
 
Jnorris said:
Paua make one of the most vibrant and beautiful of natural pearls as do Green abalone from Southern California and Mexico. The two species produce such a similar combination of color that one can rarely tell the difference. The price on the two species varies depending on source but pearls over 400/ct retail should be of both fine quality and attractive shape. Horn shaped pearls in this price range are rare or overpriced. Any abalone pearl with symmetry is a rarety. Those over 5cts exhibiting beautiful color and luster with symmetrical shape can command prices of up to 2000/ct retail. Commonly they are priced between 400 and 1000 per ct.
The reason that so few small pearls come from green abalone have more to do with processing than production. Many Abalone plants employ low wage labor to process the abalone. If these workers are slow they are fired. This leaves time sufficient for finding larger pearls but not small. Many of the Paua pearls posted on this site have come from a specific source where the owner of the plant has a stake in the pearls. This of course allows sufficient time to find everything
Click to expand...
Jeremy,

Thanks for a post too dense with commentary to highlight. I've consistently called for symmetry (as in: what do we do with La Catalina?). Your comments also serve to reinforce the uniqueness of the Paua situation in the Chathams, in that similar recovery processes are not being practiced elsewhere.

I have introduced per carat source pricing in this thread to provide a frame of reference for forum members who might be seeing groupings of abalone pearls for the first time. Your $2,000/carat will keep me 'picking cherries' for some time to come!
 
Denise,

Welcome and nice to 'see' you here on Pearl-Guide!

Photo #4 with the strange creature would be welcome on another recent thread here called 'Abalone Gone Buggy.' #2 looks like an unusually high number of small free forms in one shell. #3 horn shape appears to be a blister?
 
Thoughts? I'll venture some guesses. The first one looks to me to be a cultured blister. It looks just too perfect to be natural. The second looks to me to be, perhaps, some of the more or less imbedded-in-the-shell solid pearls that I've read about having been found in some abalones down under. I believe I've read of them occurring both in New Zealand and in at least one bay in Australia. If I'm right, then they are solid and associated with a parasite burrowing in the shell. It also looks to me as though at least one of them could be a blister. The third one I have very little idea what to make of. It looks like one of the "horn" or "tooth" pearls found in abalones, but, as Smetzler mentioned, seems to be attached to the shell. If I were to venture a guess about the fourth one. I would say that it might be the result of a toredo clam that never got very well glued down by the conchiolin that the abalones seem to pile on them to cement them in place and stop them from continuing to bore. Perhaps it repeatedly kept boring through the nacre and getting covered repeatedly with nacre by the abalone when it did. Maybe. ...or not . . . ? I have one that looks like the neck, head and beak of an Ibis, but, though quite long, it's not a "traveling" pattern like yours and Was located up under the lip that runs along the side with the breathing holes. Do we win a prize if we have the right answers?:cool: An abalone pearl would seem appropriate--just a small one, maybe? :D

J. Marcus
http://wwwflyrodjewelry.com/home.html
 
Forum Prize.jpg

Well Done J. Marcus (This is your Prize) A Natural Pearl
Trout Fly
Answers are:
1 A natural formed Round Blister (The most perfect we have seen)
2 This is a weather incident.
Exterior forces have damaged the foot of the Paua allowing particles
to gather underneath the meat to form pearls.
3. Conical. Once again caused by shell damage where the membrane
between the roe and the exterior has been damage and the roe
sack has been exposed and therefore covered with Nachre.
4. Foreign body - We think Crab claw. Got stuck and nachre covered.

It is reassuring to us the interest in Natural Pearl. We believe for
every million that is cultured one natural pearl is formed making
ours valuable each day.
 
That was fascinating! And I couldn't even begin to guess------if that isn't the most adorable trout fly ever, I don't know what is!!!! A perfect prize!

Pattye
so many pearls, so little time
 
Good show, JMarcus. And a fabulous lesson from NZ Natural Pearls.
 
The prize!

The prize!

I thought that the fine folks at New Zealand Natural Pearl were making a particularly good joke when they posted the picture of the delightful "Pearl Head Nymph" trout fly. Imagine my surprize when I received an email from them letting me know that it is on it's way here by mail!! Especially since I managed to get all four of the pictures wrong! Well--I'm a life long fly fisher and tyer and will treasure this fly always! How very appropriate. I just wanted for all the P. G. forum folks to know of the good-humored generosity of the people at New Zealand Natural Pearl as well as express my gratitude to them on the forum.

J. Marcus
http://www.flyrodjewelry.com/home.html
 
Last edited:
Well Done J. Marcus (This is your Prize) A Natural Pearl
Trout Fly
Click to expand...

I love it! I can picture a perfect "egg sucking leech" now with a lavender FWP for the "egg" with one of those monster NZ browns on the end now.

Any other flies to show us?
 
The Best Ever Thread of Naturals

The Best Ever Thread of Naturals

Natural Thread.jpg
This is a THREAD of natural abalone pearls from New Zealand.
You can see it is not finished may take another few years
but it is gorgeous. Hope you all enjoy, our pleasure.
Denise
 
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