Pearls for a friend.

[YC]

One of my oldest friend ( as in knowing her the longest ) celebrated her birthday recently and I gave her this strand for her BD present. It was quite a dilemna for me as I know that her taste in pearls is erm... classic or traditional ie round, flawless and lustrous and she has for a long time been biased against freshwater pearls ( I think it is probably due to the generally lousy quality FWP we see in some shops here). But the perfect South Sea/ Tahitian is out of our unofficial budget so I took a bit of risk and settled on a gorgeous (IMHO) strand of metallic white FW drops (8.0-8.5mm) I bought from Wendy. I must add that I am very impressed by the quality of those pearls!
I was rather sad to part with them and do not know if I did the right thing ( giving her pearls which I think do not fit her idea of the perfection). I just hope that she will like it at least half as much as I do. Some photos of the strand .....

 

[kylier]

Wow! Beautiful and classic. I worried about the same thing when I bought my sister in law some freshwater drops for Christmas. They were metallic and pretty, but I was worried pearl newbies would think not round equals cheap. Nope. The whole family (who knows zero about pearls) thought they were more expensive than they were, and just went gaga over them. The luster on those is beautiful and I think she'll be captivated by the pearls as well as your thoughtfulness. They were given to her by a dear friend, and that means a lot as well. You can also educate her a little on the fact that pearls come in all kinds of beautiful shapes and that smooth drops in white are pretty classic and freshwaters will last a very long time.

 

[pkinnew]

YC - I think she'll be thrilled with them! They are gorgeous and you did a great job selecting them! I would be proud to wear them not only because they are beautful but because someone who loved me gave them to me!

 

[Confection10]

They are really lustrous! Wendy has nice pearls; I have bought my Tahitians, misshapen Edisons and rosebuds from her

 

[YC]

Thank you Kylier,Pkinnew and Confection10. My friend was the one who introduced me to pearls years ago but because the B&M shop we used to frequent became so (ridiculously ) expensive in recent years, her interest in pearls kind of faded since there is no where we can admire the pearls and then bring them home. Her opinion of freshwater pearls is based on what we used to see several years ago (ie unimpressive) so to her, FWP are inferior cousins. I will ask her in a couple of weeks time to find out what she thinks about them after she has some to wear them.

 

[NacreLover]

We all worry about that when buying gifts' pearls or not. I gave two pairs of 8 way roller exotic 11mm
freshwater earrings as gifts. My SIL wears them with her golden SS pearls and she sees them as some of the best pearls she owns. Just what I was hoping.

 

[YC]

Nacre lover, 11mm round exotics... those are quite large for round fwp! I would be most delighted if I were receive them as gifts.

 

[bsomlo]

YC, that is an absolutely lovely strand and near enough to white rounds that I think the jump to loving drops will be very easy for her! Drops are such a pleasing shape and these are lustrous and smooth and just beautiful.

Let us know what she thinks!

 

[BDGirl]

Lucky friend.... Hope she adores her beautiful pearls! Such a nice gift!