Small Freshwater Pearl Beads are extremely popular right now. We pearl under 4mm as "small". They are much more difficult to develop the pearls, so the price per strand is higher.
Small pearls can be used for smaller, more delicate designs or as spacer beads for larger pearl pieces. You will also find them used for bead applique on evening bags or bridal dresses.
Small pearls have very small holes: Thread size for most small pearls on is usually #2; ultra-small pearls may need #1 or an even smaller thread size. Use Beadalon .012" or thinner if you prefer stranded wire products.
The pearls are a nice dark gold color with rose and yellow highlights. Pearl diameters (undrilled dimension) are very uniform at 2mm; pearls range 2.5-3mm on the drilled length.
These smaller rice pearls are an interesting shade of Olivine Green with bronzy highlights and very good luster. Pearls are very uniformly sized at 2.7 to 2.9mm widths; pearl lengths vary from 4 to 5.5mm.
These tiny button pearls are a very close color match to a Preciosa Crystal bead color called Pink Sapphire. We think that is an excellent name for this pink color with strong overtones of sapphire blue.
Very small button pearls have been selected for their very uniform sizes and shapes. Color is Creamy White.
Quantity
Price
1 9
$12.00
10 49
$10.20
50 +
$8.40
Quantity:
How Many Small Pearls on a Strand?
The numbers in this table are approximate and will vary between strands.
Pearl size (average)
How many Pearls on a Strand
3mm
133
3.5mm
114
4mm
100
4.5mm
89
5mm
80
5.5mm
73
6mm
67
6.5mm
61
7mm
57
7.5mm
53
8mm
50
8.5mm
47
9mm
44
10mm
40
11mm
36
Pearl buying tips:
Freshwater pearls are temporarily strung and sold by the strand. Strands are usually 15.5-16" long (40 cm).
Pearls are a natural product and some styles and colors will be available only in limited amounts. Though we try to buy pearls that can be re-stocked, some styles may not be available again. So, we suggest you purchase all the strands that you need for a particular
project at the same time.
Our pearls are priced based on their overall quality. Higher priced pearls will be more consistent in color and shape and have better luster. Small pearls also will be higher in price (more labor to prepare the strands) as will very large pearls (more rare and they take longer to culture).
The freshwater pearls we sell at abeadstore.com and PearlBeadSale.com are all cultured pearls; for more information about the pearl culturing process
please see the All About Pearls page on our wholesale website PearlBeadSale.com.
For more tips and information about selecting and buying Freshwater Pearls, please visit Pearl Buying Tips. .