Freshwater Beads—Things You Need to Know

Today, no one will ask why when people say “I love pearls”, I think, because many people are attracted by pearls’ beauty, elegance and luster. On today’s fashion jewelry market, almost all the pearl jewelry pieces are created with freshwater beads.

For thousands of years, pearls have been admired for their beauty and rarity all over the world. In some ancient countries, people believed that pearls were a symbol of the moon and had magical powers. It was said that in ancient times, knights wore pearls onto the battlefield believing the pearls’ magic would protect them. Many famous rulers were also fond of pearls.

Grade A Freshwater Pearl Strands

In ancient ages, all the pearls are natural sea pearls. They are the symbol of rich and states of the nobles and the rich. Today, almost all the pearl beads used in fashion jewelry are freshwater beads (cultured pearls). The difference between wild and cultured pearls focuses on whether the pearl is created spontaneously by nature (without human intervention) or with human aid. There are many different types of freshwater beads, such as South Sea Pearls, mabe pearls and so on. Freshwater pearls are grown in non-saline water, but the South Sea pearls and Tahitians are cultured in salt water. But unlike cultured saltwater pearls, freshwater pearls are not bead-nucleated and are therefore typically less round. Only two percent of all freshwater beads are round or near round. Though this number seems quite small, the abundance of freshwater pearl beads is much larger than other pearls types. The most common shapes of these beads are oval and button shaped.

Grade A Natural Freshwater Pearl Strands

On today’s fashion jewelry market, we can easily find many freshwater pearls. These freshwater beads are available in a wide range of colors, shapes and sizes. Originally these pearls were marketed as an inexpensive alternative to natural sea pearls. For this reason, jewelry makers traditionally used freshwater pearl beads for pieces that favored design over the gems themselves. However, since the 1990s, the freshwater beads have a large improvement in both quality and value; and then more and more freshwater pearls have been used in fashion jewelry making designs.

Many jewelry beads suppliers can offer freshwater pearl beads, some are retailers and the others are wholesalers. There are several main suppliers of freshwater beads, and China is the largest one. Many beads manufacturers in China have their own freshwater pearls farms or have a long and friendly cooperation with these farms. So, if you want to get cheap and quality freshwater beads, China is a good choice.

How to Distinguish Real Freshwater Pearls and Where to Buy

Pearl beads are always one of the favorites for women. They are not expensive as diamonds, but elegant enough. And on today’s fashion jewelry market, freshwater pearl beads are becoming more and more popular as they are natural but much cheaper than sea pearls. And the available quality of freshwater pearls is much larger than sea peals, for there are many bases for culturing pearls, especially in China.

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Freshwater pearl beads can be considered as a fabulous treasure that can be the most valuable asset for any woman. As they are cheap, wearing such pearl jewelry renders the women a totally new look without any pressure on budget. Why these beads are so popular with women and jewelry designers? Historically, freshwater pearl beads have been used for decoration for a long time. And there are a large number of historic characters whom you can spot wearing them. Their popularity has increased with the passage of time. These beads are versatile. They are widely used in necklace making, bracelet making, earrings making, rings making and many other decorations, like hair decoration. Although freshwater pearls are often somewhat less lustrous then saltwater counterparts, they appear in a wide variety of shapes and colors, and they tend to be less expensive than saltwater pearls. These beads are also quite durable, resisting chipping, wear, and degeneration.

Freshwater pearls are so popular, but how to distinguish if they are real? Here are some guidelines. The first is tooth test, rubbing the pearls lightly across upper front teeth. Real peals should feel gritty or sandy, fake pearls will feel smooth. The second, using a magnifying glass to check. The edges of the hole in real pearls are smooth and sharp, otherwise, they are fakes. Third, there are little minimal flaws on real peals’ surface. They are most likely fake pearls if they appear absolutely flawless.

 Freshwater Pearl Beads

In recent years, the Chinese have been able to take the art of culturing freshwater pearls to new levels. In the last decade the quality of pearls produced have become so high that many pearls in the top percentage of a harvest are nearly indistinguishable of their saltwater ones. There are several famous pearl farm bases in China, and many Chinese jewelry wholesalers or factories have their own pearl farms or have cooperation with those farms. Many jewelry retailers around the world also like to wholesale these pearls from China and sell them in their countries. If you want to save money, you can purchase these beads from Chinese wholesalers directly, and PandaHall as a leading China beads, findings and gems online market is a good choice. 

Purchase Freshwater Beads to Create Stunning Jewelry

Freshwater beads contain freshwater pearl beads and freshwater shell beads. For hundreds of years, the only people who wore pearls were royalty and nobles, and later, the fabulously wealthy who could afford them. Today, the good news is that you don’t have to spend a small fortune to get beautiful pearls to use in your bead-weaving and jewelry making projects.

About the freshwater pearl beads, they are the result of irritation in the soft tissue of a mollusk. Slimy water creatures aside, pearls are as beautiful and fascinating as any gemstone that many people have even seen, and certainly hold more allure for some people than other types of semi-precious beads. Freshwater pearl beads are now available in dozens of different shapes beyond the traditional round and off-round. Freshwater shell beads come in various shapes and are dyed in different colors too. No matter what kind of freshwater beads you would like to get, you will easily find them from a large jewelry beads wholesaler such as PandaHall.

Here I would like to share some simple but stunning, elegant jewelry designs of freshwater beads with you.

Natural Freshwater Pearl Beads Strands

Pearl Drop Earrings

This design is very suitable for beginners.

Materials: 2 white freshwater pearl beads; 2 silver beads; 2 closed oval links of chains; 2 sterling silver headpins; 2 earring hooks.

Steps: Slide each bead onto a headpin, and make a closed wire loop at the top. At the top of the last bead, using round nose pliers to create a loop in the wire, and slide the oval chain link onto the loop before closing the loop and fastening the beads to the link. Using your pliers to open the loop at the bottom of your earring hook and slide your link chain onto the earring. Close the loop and your earring is completed. Repeat for the second one. A pair of simple, but elegant freshwater pearl beads earrings are finished.

Glass Pearl Earrings, with Glass Beads and Brass Earring Hooks

Freshwater Shell Bracelets

Materials: 5 creamy freshwater shell flower beads (have two holes at edges); 10pcs rhinestone links; 1 iron lobster claw clasp; 1 strand of extended chain.

Steps: Adding rhinestone links on each hole of flower beads (10pcs rhinestone links for 5 flower beads). Attaching two rhinestone links from two individual flower beads on the lobster claw clasp and then linking other rhinestone links together to make a circle. The last step is to add the extended chain to the jump ring of lobster claw clasp. A elegant bracelet is finished. You can also use some jump rings to link the rhinestone links together.

Freshwater Shell Bracelets, Rhinestone

They are very stunning and elegant, but simple to make, right? You can also have a look at PandaHall’s Official Facebook if you would like to get more inspirations and ideas about jewelry making. Just purchase some jewelry beads and findings to make your own gorgeous jewelry.

Wholesale Quality Freshwater Beads from China

Today, according to the growing up of consciousness of protecting environment, more and more people prefer to wear freshwater beads jewelry. About the freshwater beads, they include freshwater pearl beads and freshwater shell beads.

Erose Freshwater Shell Beads Strands

Pearls are one of the earliest gemstones found by prehistoric man, most likely along the coastline ofIndia. They have been used for personal adornment and coveted by people throughout the globe for thousands of years. Ancient myths tell of pearls being formed when oysters opened their shells, rose to the water’s surface and were seeded by the early morning rays of sunlight and drops of dew. The high quality natural saltwater pearl beads are very beautiful and jewelry made by those beads has high collection value that is why so many people like wearing pearl beads jewelry and collecting them.

Shell Beads Strands, Square

And now, more and more people pay more attention to protect environment and biological chain, they put their eyes on cultured freshwater pearl beads. AndChinais the main base of producing quality freshwater beads. Many Chinese farmers are experts in culturing freshwater beads. Freshwater pearl beads are found or cultured in mussels or oysters in rivers, lakes or ponds and tend to be more irregular in shape and more varied in color than saltwater pearls. And just because their polytrope, the cultured freshwater pearl beads with similar shape, size and lustre are very expensive too. Freshwater pearl beads’ prices are lower than saltwater pearl beads which don’t necessarily mean low quality. In fact, some high quality freshwater pearls are very valuable.

Grade "A" Freshwater Pearl Strands

When people changed their source of getting pearl beads, they didn’t ignore the new source of shell beads. On today’s fashion jewelry market, more and more freshwater shell beads turn up, and their quantity and demands are growing speedily. No doubt that freshwater shell beads are found or cultured in rivers, lakes or ponds too. Apart from many natural freshwater shells inChina, she also has many large cultivated bases for freshwater shell. Seasoned workers can make those freshwater shells into jewelry beads in different shapes and sizes, and dye them in different colors. Made from cultured freshwater shell beads through cutting, drilling, polishing and dying process, those shell beads give a natural subtle luster. Some freshwater shell beads even are painted with many different beautiful pictures or patterns. Those fancy printing shell beads have a big effect in our daily life. They will give others a deep impression once you wear jewelry created with printing freshwater shell beads.

Grade "A" Freshwater Pearl Strands

If you want to wholesale freshwater beads, both freshwater pearl beads and freshwater shell beads, I would like to suggest you to wholesale them fromChina. Reasons are above. And I would like to recommend PandaHall.com—a leading China beads, findings and gems online wholesaler to you, for I have purchased from it for more than 7 years, and I was always satisfied with them—both its items and customer service. And will continue.