What's this called?

[battah]

I recently purchased a necklace that alternates baroque pearls and coins. Most of the baroques have the same kind of markings and I'm curious as to what they would be called. I don't really care for them and am considering restringing the necklace and replacing the baroques, so I wanted to be sure to avoid buying similar ones. It almost looks like the nacre is sliced through on one side, where you can see what I assume is the nucleus. Most of the pearls are drilled through that so it's not that visible, but a few of them have it on the front of the pearl.

 

[CharmedOne]

It looks like the MOP bead is showing that was used as the nucleus to make the pearl. I'm not a fan of it showing either. I did restring my strand to remove them as well.

 

[GemGeek]

Sometimes unbeaded pearls turn out like that, too. Mussels must have a sense of humor.

 

[battah]

Thanks for the replies! I was wondering if that particular kind of flaw had a name. It almost looks like the pearl didn't completely detach from the mussel shell and was sliced off.

Anyway, I'm on the hunt for replacement pearls, since I'm really not digging the look. Intergem will be here in a few weeks, so I may wait til then and see if I can find something that looks good with the coins.

 

[GemGeek]

Intergem - sounds like fun. Do you have a resale license? I know that they had had an area cordoned off for resale only, but I'm not sure if that was just for a certain period of time.

 

[battah]

I don't, I'm just a new pearl lover I hope I don't get cordoned off from the good stuff! That would stink. I'm considering buying some stuff to make necklaces to sell, but it's just a thought. For now I'm mostly just shopping for myself.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

I've been to Intergem--it's true that unless you have a reseller's license, you will not be able to enter the separate area-- but they let me have a look around once, and it wasn't better stuff.
Intergem has a ton of stuff for ordinary beaders, fear not.

 

[GemGeek]

That's good to know!

 

[battah]

Thanks, good to know! I'm looking forward to checking it out

 

[GemGeek]

When you get odd pearls like that, it can be fun to put them in a baggie and hammer them to see what is inside. Sarah found a piece of leatherette inside a big coin pearl.

 

[battah]

Interesting! Haha that would be fun. I did that to a couple of old freshwater pearls I had (some of the pearls from the first stringing project I posted) - it was interesting to see the layers of nacre. Little onions!

Well, right now I'm waiting to see if the seller I bought it from will accept a return. Because if so, I can make something more to my liking for a lot less than the cost of the necklace... I'm sure someone will love it as it is.