Metallic baroque FW oil slicks from Pearlzaustralia

[yssie]

Indoors comparisons:

 

[yssie]

Daylight - near a window whilst cloudy. I think this pic shows the difference best - in the old pic (with the flower) the PPP totally stood out, in the new lineup it's still the star but the others can hold their own!

The new lineup has a mix of pearls from Katbran, LucasPearl on Etsy, and UODORA on Etsy. No idea how any of them may have been treated.





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[yssie]

In sunlight:





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[yssie]

On the hand in shadow, switching strand order for comparisons:







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And with the phone, still in shadow -

 

[NY_Resonant]

So... Remember how I said "yeah nope that ain't happening"...



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I've got enough for two bracelet strands now... The lighter strand is more pink and less oil-slick-ey. The original PPP from Katbran is fourth from the ball clasp end (white arrow) - it's still the queen of the crew. Most strongly coloured, holds its colour best through all lighting environments. But the others are close enough that I'm (genuinely!!) done now

Such pretty colors!

I don’t think anybody who knows you @yssie believed you would be able to resist and stay at 1 pearl .

I actually like both strands equally. The darker certainly has more visual “punch” but I can see someone using the lighter strand more frequently.

 

[yssie]

Yessssss! Are the others from the etsy sellers you mentioned on another thread?

Yes! I didn't want to take over your thread so I dropped the new pics in here, I was going to tag you!

I will say that I ended up buying a bunch more pearls to get the oil slicks - so now I've got a box of leftovers. Kind of annoying, definitely wouldn't have done that had they not been so cost effective.

 

[yssie]

Such pretty colors!

I don’t think anybody who knows you @yssie believed you would be able to resist and stay at 1 pearl .

I actually like both strands equally. The darker certainly has more visual “punch” but I can see someone using the lighter strand more frequently.

The lighter strand is really pretty IRL with those baby pinks!! The colours are definitely more fickle though, overtone is beautiful in the right lighting but fades out really quickly as lighting conditions change. The darker pearls hold their overtones much better. I would love to understand why!!

If the explanation ended up being "well, they held the dye better" - I admit I wouldn't be completely surprised For me FW are just for fun. As pretty as they are (and they are! Really!!) - I can't take them super seriously. But I do love that FW quality is improving rather than declining like everything else!! Hopefully they stay accessible price-wise...

 

[Cinders]

Yes! I didn't want to take over your thread so I dropped the new pics in here, I was going to tag you!

I will say that I ended up buying a bunch more pearls to get the oil slicks - so now I've got a box of leftovers. Kind of annoying, definitely wouldn't have done that had they not been so cost effective.

I'm sure you'd easily find willing buyers for the leftover pearls.

 

[NY_Resonant]

The lighter strand is really pretty IRL with those baby pinks!! The colours are definitely more fickle though, overtone is beautiful in the right lighting but fades out really quickly as lighting conditions change. The darker pearls hold their overtones much better. I would love to understand why!!

If the explanation ended up being "well, they held the dye better" - I admit I wouldn't be completely surprised For me FW are just for fun. As pretty as they are (and they are! Really!!) - I can't take them super seriously. But I do love that FW quality is improving rather than declining like everything else!! Hopefully they stay accessible price-wise...

I do find the FW oils attractive and will eventually acquire some. I’ve never seen oil FW in person.

In late September, I was in China for my honeymoon and saw a few stores selling normal FW jewelry (and saw Edison’s too)... I know people say it‘s quality is improving but the ones that I saw (including ones worn by people) still has a way to go before it matches the beauty of Akoyas or Tahitians/WSS/GSS in my opinion. Their price is certainly much more affordable but they deserve to be much cheaper IMO…

 

[yssie]

I'm sure you'd easily find willing buyers for the leftover pearls.

Haha the problem is that I've harvested all the amazing ones so what's left is the #NiceButOrdinary Maybe one day I'll acquire enough randoms for a long strand!

I do find the FW oils attractive and will eventually acquire some. I’ve never seen oil FW in person.

In late September, I was in China for my honeymoon and saw a few stores selling normal FW jewelry (and saw Edison’s too)... I know people say it‘s quality is improving but the ones that I saw (including ones worn by people) still has a way to go before it matches the beauty of Akoyas or Tahitians/WSS/GSS in my opinion. Their price is certainly much more affordable but they deserve to be much cheaper IMO…

I've seen FW that are really lovely but I feel like on average it's harder to get consistency of quality and character with FW... I don't know if that's a product of pearl availability or of the pricepoint itself (like, lower price means people are just less nitpicky, and/or vendors aren't willing to do as much work sourcing given the lower payout)... Maybe both?

And every pearls vendor I've spoken with says there are always integrity concerns with FW. With akoya, WSS - you can trust information about treatments that you get from earlier in the supply chain; with FW the only thing you know for sure is that you're not getting full transparency. So who knows how those pearls will hold up.

Long-winded way of saying that I totally agree, they *should* be cheaper.

 

[Starstruck8]

The lighter strand is really pretty IRL with those baby pinks!! The colours are definitely more fickle though, overtone is beautiful in the right lighting but fades out really quickly as lighting conditions change. The darker pearls hold their overtones much better. I would love to understand why!!

If the explanation ended up being "well, they held the dye better" - I admit I wouldn't be completely surprised For me FW are just for fun. As pretty as they are (and they are! Really!!) - I can't take them super seriously. But I do love that FW quality is improving rather than declining like everything else!! Hopefully they stay accessible price-wise...

No, "held the dye better" won't work by itself - unless you think the dye fades reversibly in different lighting!

At least part of the answer is surely that very light colours cannot be strong (in the sense of having high chroma), even if they are highly saturated for their lightness. It is at least plausible that the darker colours are not simply darker, but the result of wider variation in reflectance across the spectrum.

Here is a very enlarged detail from one of your pictures:
You can see that for the same part of the lighting environment (identified by the 'hole' with lighter surroundings), the darker pearl really does reflect stronger colour. This is even clearer when the RGB values are scaled up proportionally as far as possible without clipping (see the samples at the right).

The rest of the story would be that the weaker colour variation of the lighter pearls would be more easily lost in variations of the brightness and colour of the lighting environment.

Of course, this is rough and ready and very speculative, and I don't have great confidence in it. You, with the pearls to hand, would be in a much better position than I to follow it up (by setups with particular parts of the lighting reflected by chosen parts of the pearls).

 

[yssie]

No, "held the dye better" won't work by itself - unless you think the dye fades reversibly in different lighting!

At least part of the answer is surely that very light colours cannot be strong (in the sense of having high chroma), even if they are highly saturated for their lightness. It is at least plausible that the darker colours are not simply darker, but the result of wider variation in reflectance across the spectrum.

Here is a very enlarged detail from one of your pictures:
You can see that for the same part of the lighting environment (identified by the 'hole' with lighter surroundings), the darker pearl really does reflect stronger colour. This is even clearer when the RGB values are scaled up proportionally as far as possible without clipping (see the samples at the right).

The rest of the story would be that the weaker colour variation of the lighter pearls would be more easily lost in variations of the brightness and colour of the lighting environment.

Of course, this is rough and ready and very speculative, and I don't have great confidence in it. You, with the pearls to hand, would be in a much better position than I to follow it up (by setups with particular parts of the lighting reflected by chosen parts of the pearls).

Agree with all of what this! It makes sense to me that max chroma can be higher in a darker-bodied pearl than a lighter-bodied pearl. A darker body doesn't guarantee more intense colour but it enables the possibility... (And I can say "darker body" without disclaimer because pearls really only get so dark without pretty obvious treatments)

Snagged this pic from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorfulness - exactly what you described!





Edit - few more pics from yesterday. Just trying to capture how different pearls responded to different non-daylight lighting environments, nothing exciting I'm afraid

 

[Starstruck8]

Agree with all of what this! It makes sense to me that max chroma can be higher in a darker-bodied pearl than a lighter-bodied pearl. A darker body doesn't guarantee more intense colour but it enables the possibility... (And I can say "darker body" without disclaimer because pearls really only get so dark without pretty obvious treatments)

Snagged this pic from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorfulness - exactly what you described!

Yes, that's exactly what I was suggesting, but stated more briefly and clearly.

I can't read much from the new pics - the highlights are clipped and the rest of the pearl surfaces are too dark to show much.

A possible experiment: Set up a softbox with lighting as even as possible and put the pearls you want to compare into it. Then make the lighting less even with pieces of cellophane, shading on the windows, flashlights or whatever. (I made a crude attempt at this - it's easier said than done...) Check out how the appearance of the pearls changes. See how uneven you can make the lighting before the pearls seem to lose their iridescence.

 

[dk168]

Inspired by this thread, a blue-lavender (peachy tones don't suit me) single strand or a double strand of rounds is on my Bling Wish List for 2024!

DK

 

[yssie]

Inspired by this thread, a blue-lavender (peachy tones don't suit me) single strand or a double strand of rounds is on my Bling Wish List for 2024!

DK

Girl, I'm on board with all of your pearls projects except more mismatched drops - you aren't allowed another multi-year search for drops

 

[yssie]

Yes, that's exactly what I was suggesting, but stated more briefly and clearly.

I can't read much from the new pics - the highlights are clipped and the rest of the pearl surfaces are too dark to show much.

A possible experiment: Set up a softbox with lighting as even as possible and put the pearls you want to compare into it. Then make the lighting less even with pieces of cellophane, shading on the windows, flashlights or whatever. (I made a crude attempt at this - it's easier said than done...) Check out how the appearance of the pearls changes. See how uneven you can make the lighting before the pearls seem to lose their iridescence.

Yeah, those pics don't show much of anything, I know. But the cat sat on my last "lightbox" (...skewers and printer paper, now broken skewers and crumpled printer paper) so I'll have to make another this weekend

 

[dk168]

Girl, I'm on board with all of your pearls projects except more mismatched drops - you aren't allowed another multi-year search for drops

When I was trawling her IG to check for blue-lavender pearls for inspiration, I saw some really nice teardrop shaped Tahitians and thought I could upgrade the pair I have.

DK

 

[yssie]

When I was trawling her IG to check for blue-lavender pearls for inspiration, I saw some really nice teardrop shaped Tahitians and thought I could upgrade the pair I have.

DK