What is Freshwater Pearl?
Freshwater pearls have a history of thousands of years and have been popular with women for a long time.
Freshwater pearls are mainly produced in lakes and ponds in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, mainly in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Hunan, Hubei and other places in China.
Freshwater pearls are nuclear-free cultured pearls, which are all composed of nacreous substances secreted by mother shells. The common size of freshwater pearls is 5-8mm, and the number of freshwater pearls above 9mm begins to drop sharply.
Because freshwater pearls are nuclear-free, they will be affected by more external factors during their growth. There are a lot of irregularly shaped pearls, including round, oval, bread, rice, and abnormity, among which round pearls account for less than 5% of the total output of pearls.
Freshwater pearls are rich in color, generally white, fleshy, pink, purple, orange and other natural colors, and the surface of the pearl is smooth and the luster is soft, which is very in line with the temperament of women.
The characteristics of freshwater pearl are summarized as follows: pure natural growth, small overall diameter, rich color, soft luster and irregular shape.
How to choose freshwater pearls?
Freshwater pearls are generally selected through the size, luster, shape and flaw of the pearls. The bigger, the brighter, the rounder and the less defects, the higher the price. Under the condition of limited budget, it is recommended to select according to the order of luster, size, shape and flaw, for the following reasons:
1. Luster: Pearls can enhance a person's temperament and make people more dazzling in the crowd. It must depend on the luster of pearls. Pearls without luster are like stones even if they are big.Freshwater pearl luster is mainly white light, white transparent pink light, aurora white transparent pink light, and some special color matching, different luster, price is also very different.
(Luster judgment tips: non-professionals can judge the strength of pearl luster by looking at the reflection of the human figure on the surface of the pearl. Generally, the pearl is divided into weak luster, medium luster, strong luster, and first level strong luster. When judging, the pearl can be taken away from the strong luster source to see the reflection of the human figure, and the level of pearl luster can be corresponding to the phenomenon of blurred and invisible human figure, visible human figure, visible facial features, and clear facial features)
2. Size: The larger the pearl is, the higher the value is. Because the longer the breeding time is, the higher the probability of disease or death of the mother shell will be, and the higher the requirement of its own bearing capacity will be. So the larger the diameter of the pearl is, the rarer the output is, and the higher the price is.
3. Shape: Freshwater pearls can be divided into round, near-round (short round, extra thick tetrahedral light), flat pearl, drop-shaped, baroque.It is an ancient saying that the rounder the pearl is, the rarer the pearl is, and the higher the value is. But the shape of the pearl is usually distinguishable at a close distance, so relatively speaking, the shape is placed in the third place.
4. Flaw: Natural freshwater pearls are different from synthetic artificial pearls. Every pearl with perfect round luster is very rare. The pearl defects are divided into pits, threads, watermarks, flower skins, flower spots, etc.Almost all pearls are defective, and the flawless pearls account for less than 3% of their total output. Flawless refers to pearls that can be made into jewelry when they are visible to the naked eye, rather than through magnifying instruments. Flaw can be observed only at close distance. Therefore, in the case of limited budget, it is not recommended to pay too much attention to defects.
Are cultured pearls natural pearls?
Many friends and customers have asked me this question. Cultivated pearls are natural pearls, just as eggs produced by farm chickens are also natural.
Why do many people say freshwater pearls are not valuable?
Some people said, "Freshwater pearls are weighed by catty and are not worth money". Every time I see such ignorant people's serious nonsense, I feel helpless. Freshwater pearls are indeed weighed by catties when they are wholesale in a unified manner. This problem needs to be extended (unified wholesale: when a batch of pearls are just taken out, no selection and classification is made, pearls with different size and quality are all together, and all are wholesale transactions - as shown in the figure above). 60% of the pearls can only be ground into pearl powder, The remaining pearls need to go through dozens of manual processes (the labor cost of pearl classification is far beyond your imagination). The bright, round and flawless pearls are really tens of thousands of times, so the value of good pearls is still very high. It is indeed normal for a high-quality freshwater pearl to be worth thousands or even tens of thousands.
Is freshwater pearl better or seawater pearl?
This comparison is meaningless and not absolute. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Besides, everyone has different opinions and preferences, so there is no conclusion. On the whole, seawater pearls are better than freshwater pearls; Compared with freshwater pearls of similar quality, seawater pearls are much more expensive than freshwater pearls, but don't forget that seawater pearls are nuclear-cultured pearls, while freshwater pearls are nuclear-free; The quality of top freshwater pearls is no worse than that of seawater pearls, but by contrast, top freshwater pearls are more scarce.
