- Joined
- Nov 1, 2007
- Messages
- 4,729
Sharp luster!
What a great gift!
I wish I had your eye. What a great find! Your friend is sure to love them.
Thank You. My best friend is always thrilled with gifts of pearls. She is truly an amazing woman who deserves nice things but rarely buys things for herself.
Thank you for the nice compliment. I was told once before I had a good pearl eye which comes in handy when buying from Etsy and buying pre-loved. I will share my secrets.
Save the picture of the item you are considering. Magnify the picture so you can see flaws. De-saturate the color and contrast by at least 20% in case the seller has enhanced the picture. That may be the color and luster of a gemstone or pearl strand at its worst. Now increase the contrast to look for any flaws that may have been hidden in the original photo. Now you have a pretty good idea of the best/worst case scenario of what you may receive.
Also- when buying pre-loved think about your pearl pics. In my experience most of my pics have shown lovely lavender pearls to appear as grey, and lovely pinks to appear as beige. I adjust color/midtones on a seller's pictures to get the background to what I think it should be, and then I see what is probably the real color of the pearls.
My bestie and family is coming over for St. Patrick's Day dinner. I have finished the necklace for her. I included two pictures because I have found that dyed black pearls can appear flat and black at times. I don't know if the dying process is getting better, or if dyed, bead nucleated pearls respond to the dye differently. But my eyes and the second picture shows the pearls at their "flattest" color and I think they still look beautiful.
My bestie and family is coming over for St. Patrick's Day dinner. I have finished the necklace for her. I included two pictures because I have found that dyed black pearls can appear flat and black at times. I don't know if the dying process is getting better, or if dyed, bead nucleated pearls respond to the dye differently. But my eyes and the second picture shows the pearls at their "flattest" color and I think they still look beautiful.