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What are shell pearls?

T

tzelin

Rough_Rock
Joined
Apr 26, 2011
Messages
42
Hi everyone!

Can anyone tell me what are shell pearls? Those that I have seen are round, smooth and comes in various colors (white, silver, gold, pink)? Are these natural? How are they formed?

Thanks.
 
Does this mean everyone else is as clueless as I am? :confused:
 
They are man made, fake pearls. They are called shell pearls because many are made of compressed FW mussel shell, whilst others are made of glass.
 
I suppose you could use them as costume jewelry..?
 
shell pearls are more correctly called "shell beads" and they are simply beads cut from thick shell - not necessarily from pearl producing mollusks either. They are cheap and have a certain appeal to some people but placed beside a real pearl there is no comparison.
 
Thank you for the replies! :))

I recently went to a local B&M store, and they were trying to pass off the "shell pearls" as golden South Seas. They look so plasticky! When I questioned further, they admitted that those were "shell pearls". The SA even informed that these 2 are essentially the same! What a rip-off! :angryfire:
 
tzelin|1310531097|2967808 said:
Thank you for the replies! :))

I recently went to a local B&M store, and they were trying to pass off the "shell pearls" as golden South Seas. They look so plasticky! When I questioned further, they admitted that those were "shell pearls". The SA even informed that these 2 are essentially the same! What a rip-off! :angryfire:
Click to expand...


That's terrible! :angryfire:
 
PearlsOfJoy|1310581962|2968201 said:
The SA even informed that these 2 are essentially the same! What a rip-off!
Click to expand...

wow, that is really saved
Click to expand...

I meant that is really sad, makes it harder for all the honest dealers.
 
tzelin|1310531097|2967808 said:
Thank you for the replies! :))

I recently went to a local B&M store, and they were trying to pass off the "shell pearls" as golden South Seas. They look so plasticky! When I questioned further, they admitted that those were "shell pearls". The SA even informed that these 2 are essentially the same! What a rip-off! :angryfire:
Click to expand...

This is upsetting when a sales person misrepresents jewelry or anything like this.

I can totally see my husband or my son buying a gift for his girlfriend listening to the sales associate and thinking they are buying something nice, only to find it is not what it is proposed to be.

It makes it hard to trust the next person you deal with.
 
Yes, I am really disappointed too. The store is actually quite famous locally. I saw some "emeralds" on display, too. But not sure whether they are real! :nono:
 
Hi!
There seems to be a lot of confusion about what Shell Pearls are and How they are made.
Shell pearls are not Fake! They Lab created pearls, made from the oyster's shell (Mother of Pearl) They are cut and shaped in round beads, (Not ground up shell) then they are covered with natural Nacre. That is what gives all pearls the beautiful glow.
These pearls are less expensive and more durable, but are made from natural materials. (shell and Nacre)

Freshwater pearls use a piece of shell and insert it into a live Mussel and grown in Freshwater. Then after time, the nacre is distributed around the seed pearl as it grows and that is what makes the Freshwater pearl.

The Akoya Pearl is done by starting with a seed pearl and inserted into a saltwater mussel and placed into saltwater, allowing the Nacre to coat the seed until pearl is formed. Saltwater is the process of the Akoya Pearl.

Another saltwater pearl is the South Sea Pearl and the Tahitian Pearl. Also are cultured as well as some are natural. CULTURING is the process of creating any pearl. These pearls start with a seed and inserted into a large Oyster. Usually the Blue Lip Oyster. The process is the same. Nacre covers the nucleus (seed) until harvest. Saltwater is the key to this pearl as well.

Just a note ....Roses growing in a field are Natural roses. Roses grown in a Hot House are Perfect roses! All Roses are beautiful!

All of the above pearls are Natural Materials, so choose the one you can afford! All Pearls are beautiful!


Linda
 
No shell pearls are fake, imitation pearls. Your rose analogy is wrong...you are comparing roses and roses (freshwater and akoya) rather than real roses and plastic ones stuck to the side of a soap packet.
Shell pearls, majorcan, mallorcan, Swarovski or whatever you want to call them/brand them pearls are factory made imitation pearls.
At best they are real fakes though I'm not sure what a fake fake pearl would be....I suppose a fake Swarovski pearl would be a fake fake!
 
I agree completely with Pearlescence. Shell pearls should not even legally be called pearls. Saying something is South Sea Shell pearls is truly fraudulent. :angryfire: They are a pearlized color bead. They have a place in fashion jewelry. It's the misrepresentation that infuriates me. They are imitation, fake, faux pearls. The inner material can vary, from a mother of pearl bead, glass, plastic and who knows what. The outer covering can be applied in many different ways.

At the high end of the budget are the Majorica Pearls, which are glass and dipped and multi-layered with a resin material made of fish scales. They are made in Spain, and are the only imitation pearls I know of that the government has given permission to be called "Majorica Pearls." Majorica Pearls have been around a long time, and are not inexpensive; they are still available; some women choose to travel with them instead of their more valuable pearl jewelry.

Some high end designers use imitation pearls in their statement jewelry; Chanel did, and wore them mixed with her cultured and natural pearls.

I'll get down from my soapbox now~
 
loangirl1|1390700083|3601218 said:
Hi!
There seems to be a lot of confusion about what Shell Pearls are and How they are made.
Shell pearls are not Fake! They Lab created pearls, made from the oyster's shell (Mother of Pearl) They are cut and shaped in round beads, (Not ground up shell) then they are covered with natural Nacre....
Click to expand...

Shell pearls, as well as all other imitation pearls are made in factories, not labs. They consist of a bead coated to look like a pearl.

The bead may be made of plastic (low end imitation pearls), ordinary glass (most imitation pearls), opaline glass (Majorica), lead glass/crystal (Swarovski) or shell (shell pearls), but in each case, the coating is man-made--- not nacre. It merely imitates the appearance of nacre.
 
When I read the post about shell pearls should not be considered as fakes/imitations, I rolled my eyes, and thought the other PGers would come along and correct the misconception, and I was right.

Saved me getting onto my soap box! :naughty:

DK :))
 
I once encountered someone who insisted her Majorcan pearls were real pearls, she'd been to the factory and seen them being made.
#sigh
Or there was the other person who looked at a display of our finished jewellery and sniffed to her friend 'of course I have real cultured pearls at home' #deepsigh

Can I squeeze onto your soapbox for a mo' Pattye. My huge hate (apart from wish pearls) is the word faux..which is a weasel word which seeks to hide the fact that something is a fake by using the french translation to hide the fact.
 
Shell pearls are not fake pearls, glass pearls are fake pearls, shell pearls are made from the shell of the mollisc, whether it's reconstituted or taken from the shell, it's not a cultured pearl. but they are a type of pearl in their own right, and you wouldn't get the vast amount of colours and sizes from an cultured pearl that you do with a shell pearl,

they may be man made lab created but they are not fake like glass or plastic pearls,

but sales people should tell you that they are shell pearls and not cultured pearls, i think they all have their place in jewellery, but they are a lot cheaper to purchase then cultured pearls and that should be reflected in the price a retailer sells the jewellery made out of them for.

there are a fast amount of different type of shell pearls from printed shell to the south sea shell, it all depends on where the shell comes from to how it's named,

Shell pearls are still genuine though, because they are not made from manmade materials, fake pearls are made from man made materials,
 
If they are made in a factory on an assembly line with machines and chemicals and processes there is no way they can be called anything but imitation or fake pearls.
Just because one of the components was once a shell does not change that.
Not making clear to a customer that they are fake is a subterfuge and ascribing to the word shell what you want it to mean not what the unknowledgeable customer understands.
There's altogether too much jewellery speak to hide reality when it comes to pearls to make them what they are not.
 
WOW! More posts drug up from the past. I take it you must sell Shell pearls to have such a position on them. Since they are made by man not a mollusk or oyster they are Faux pearls just as glass or plastic pearls are. Just because they have a shell nucleus doesn't make them real or genuine anything. It would be kind to call them simulated pearls, which they are.
 
Shell pearls are fake pearls - there is no question about it. I am surprised (read shocked) to see that there are a couple of post trying to mislead people by their strange logic. They are beads made in factories by humans and machines, and not by mollusks or oysters. :nono:
 
Even calling them faux and not fake or imitation is an attempt to glamorise the fake fake fake fake fake
 
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