This is legitimately my job, I string pearls 40 hours a week. I cannot help but overanalyze every piece of media that includes a pearl necklace. I have gone on long rants about Martha Wayne.
Okay, so necklaces are either knotted or straight strung. Straight strung doesn't have knots separating the pearls, so there is more tension on the pearls and it's bad for them over time, but it is cheaper and looks fine in short term. So yeah, most rich people knot their pearl necklaces. There is one exception: sometimes we have a super picky Karen-type that demands their necklace with really fucking expensive pearls be straight strung because they like the look better. Properly knotted necklaces have nearly invisible knots so this is just batshit demands, btw.
So, that leaves two options: either you chock this up to comics folks not knowing anything about pearl necklaces or, the funnier option being that Martha Wayne is just one of those people that makes the most unhinged demands to feel in control and powerful.
I'm just really pumped I found a post I could actually professionally weigh in on
You can also identify real pearls by weight, luster, temperature, hardness, and the shape of the drill hole.
- Real pears may scratch, but the surface doesn't peel. An old trick is to rub one against the flat of your front teeth and see if anything scrapes or peels off, or check for existing bald spots already there.
- Cheap fake pearls will often have excess surface coating that extrudes around the drill hole. The base bead is usually plain white plastic.
- Real pearls are fairly heavy compared to fake plastic pearls, and are cool to the touch like glazed ceramic or river stone.
- Many high-quality fakes WILL knot between pearls, do don't rely on that too heavily.
- Good pearl necklaces will often be strung with silk, in my experience, so if there's any exposed fiber near the clasp, check to see if it's fraying, or fused tight. Natural fibers don't heat-fuse, so if the end is melted solid like the tip of a shoelace, it's not silk. (Not a pearl fact but useful anyways.)
- Natural freshwater pearls or imperfect saltwater pearls aren't perfectly round like in cartoons. They're usually kinda nugget-shaped and wrinkly. Flawed or imperfect freshwater pearls are cheaper to harvest than producing convincing fake-imperfect freshwater pearls, so if the strand is full of blobby, chunky pearls, odds are it's real.
- That said, many freshwater pearls are dyed different colours, so be aware that they may still be coated with or soaked in synthetics.
- Most modern pearls are produced by inserting a round nucleus into they oyster, and the "pearl" is built around it. In the wild, round pearls are EXCEPTIONALLY rare.
- On top of that, all kinds of pearls are priced with color taken into account. Some of the most expensive pearls in the world are NOT white.
^^^^Also fuck yeah about the Martha Wayne scene, that made me SO mad. At most the thing would have lost maybe 1-2 pearls total, even IF the silk string broke, and I'm willing to be the clasp would have given out first.
(My money is on Bruce Wayne having a pearl necklace with a busted clasp somewhere, unprepared, and frankly I think that's far more compelling narrative imagery than perfect plastic marbles rolling around crime alley.)
*I'm a hobbyist, not a jeweler, so correct me if I'm wrong please!
*I’m a hobbyist,
not a jeweler, so correct
me if I’m wrong please!
Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.
I think there's different ways to look at it and depending on the narrative aspect that appeals to you, you can pick your option. Each has its own merits and demerits and different impact points and narrative values.
1. As @sashaforthewin stated above the comics folks didn't know about pearls and jewellery and went with what they felt was a dramatic scene. Absolutely fine, it is fiction afterall and sometimes facts need a little bending to give the dramatic impact you need.
2. (I'd seen someone else mention the next two points in a different post elsewhere and cannot for the life of me find it currently. If someone knows or finds it or if I find it I'll come back and give credit) Thomas had bought the fake pearls at a point when all of the Wayne money and fortune had been at an all time low and they'd had to sell off all the authentic pieces. He'd known Martha loved those original pearls and gotten her the fake set as a promise of a better future and for her to have something to wear that she enjoyed in the meantime. When the Wayne fortune swung back she did get the original set back, but Martha still enjoyed the fakes Thomas had gotten her because of sentimentality and love. (Yes I know the Waynes are old money - the oldest in Gotham - but I think old money families also have their ups and downs too it just doesn't get talked about unless there's more to the story)
3. It wasn't actually pearls that scattered, but bone and teeth fragments from Martha's body when she got shot. Bruce's traumatized mind swapped the image of the teeth and bone with pearls. That's what he mentions and remembers anytime someone asked him about it. The cops - specifically Gordon - didn't see why they should further traumatize the child so they let the story of the pearls spread instead of saying that most of Martha Wayne's face had disintegrated with the bullet.
4. Bruce had painstakingly collected his allowance and gone to buy Martha a gift for either mother's day or a birthday or something. He didn't realise that what he'd bought were fake pearls but she loved them and wore them most chances she got.
