Choker is As Pictured. Real Freshwater Pearls. Needed to Finish Closing Crimp Beads!
Yesterday, I received the Handmade 18 k Gold Plated and Freshwater Pearl Choker for Women sold by The Ivy Taili Store on Amazon. It was advertised as coming in a beautiful box but instead came in a pretty pouch that is made from soft, cushioned, pink, cloth. I think I like the pouch better than a jewelry box anyway, because you can easily fit the pouch in your jewelery box or travel bag, when often times you can't fit the box in either.  The choker is as pictured with 9 freshwater pearls in the front of necklace connected to a gold plated chain. I know when looking to buy a pearl jewelry,  especially when it is relatively inexpensive, a person may ask if the pearls are real. The Freshwater Pearls on THIS Choker are REAL Freshwater Pearls, you can rub them against your teeth and feel/hear the grittiness if the pearls.  (FYI: It used to be you would only get pearls from mollusks, mostly oysters who naturally got a bit of sand, food or other irritant inside the oyster and caused the oyster to secrete layers of nacre around the irritant, creating a pearl. This meant not every oyster or other type of mollusk had a pearl in it so pearls were rarer and more expensive. Today we have Mussels, another type of mollusk, which is raised in freshwater Mollusks farms. On these farms instead of waiting for something naturally to irritate the mollusks and start the creation of a pearl, the farmers put an irritant in each mollusk. Freshwater Pearls created this way are known as Freshwater Cultured Pearls. Freshwater Cultured Pearls are more widely available and thus more inexpensive than "natural" Freshwater Pearls and are used more and more in jewelry made today).<br />I really liked the look on choker and tried it on. While it was on, I started rubbing my hand up and down it and noticed something sharp on the right side of the choker by where the pearls are connected to the gold plated chain. I took the choker off to inspect it and I felt on the left side of the choker, in the same area, something sharp. Upon further inspection I noticed the plastic stringing line (similar to a fine fishing line) that the pearls are strung on, was strung through the crimp cover/ crimp bead that was connected to the gold chain. The stringing line was then tied and cut and the crimp bead/ crimp cover was closed over the knotted stringing line but not all the way. Because the crimp beads were not fully closed over the ends of the knotted line, the sharp ends of the line were sticking out. So I got out the long nose pliers, I used in jewellery making, and carefully put the end of line back into the left crimp bead and the used the long nose pliers to close the crimp bead all the way and repeated the steps on the right side. No More Sharp Edges!!<br />The chain is gold plated over steel. It looks pretty and shining now but only time will tell if the plating will discolored or flake over time. I am a little concern the plating might not last because it says in the From the Brand Section: " Please Avoid Wear It When Sweating, Bathing, Or Sleeping." It also says " Please Avoid ContactIng With Wax, Alkali, Blench, Correction Fluid, and other Corrosive Substances". I have learned from experience that if the maker is warning you not to wear jewelry when "sweating" and coming in contact with certain substances there is a good chance something is wrong with the base metal used to make the jewelry or the plating. Only time will tell. I will wear the choker for several weeks in a row and will update the review when I find out if the plating lasts or not. (Update: I wore the necklace for a week and the gold plating held up. No discolration on the necklace or my skin and no flaking off plating. The second or third time I took the necklace off though, the jump ring that holds rectangular piece that goes in the lobster clasp, fell off. Took my long nose jewelry pliers and put it back on again with no trouble.)
Rating: 4 stars