This has been a great day, with lots of really fabulous pearls found.  After the disappointment of yesterday I decided to go to one of my favourite but much smaller suppliers. This office is usually chaotic, with piles of pearls, bags of pearls, boxes of pearls and random pearls piled up on any available surface with no logic or system.

Four staff members, and most of the work done by one tiny amazing woman, while the boss tends to wander randomly handing you hanks of pearls he rather suspects you might like.and people pop in and out, just visiting apparently.

I like it there because there is most certainly no hard sell technique in operation. They have great pearls if only you can find them. It’s the only pearl company where I can get those rosebud/granulated pearls.

So I got stuck right in and have scooped some lovely rounded granulated rosebuds in creamy white and natural colours. then moved to white big smooth and rounded potatoes with metallic lustre

At my next prowl around I found a large box of ripples..not super dark colours, medium tones with some lovely shades and a few which I’m going to call moonlight ripples, delicate pale rounds with a silver overtones which stops them simply looking wishy-washy or pallid. I would not want wishy washy or pallid.

Mass ripples

Then we moved on to smooth bead nucleated pearls. I’ve found some with great lustre and colour. Bead nucleated freshwater pearls, once very unusual, are becoming more and more common and available, in more sizes and qualities.

The boss wandered over. Most of the pearls he showed me were not what I wanted but this handful of undrilled metallic big natural colour rounds. A pair of delicate15mm golds looked right back at me. They were expensive. I mimed falling off my chair. the price came down. I go back on the chair but looked unhappy still and the price came down a bit more…this went on for a while until the pearls won and I caved. Wouldn’t you?

Delicate golds…wouldn’t you?

Sensing a weakness boss then produced a bag of different natural colour pearls…without even thinking I was making pairs. Would I like a card to put them on? Then round whites.A tray of whites. The variety of shades..creamy, rose, silver overtones and fractions of a mm variation in size.

I finished the day with a selection from a big box of 8mm natural coours drops – all metallic o course. I picked up a bag of similar blacks and tipped them out then..nah…all pearled out. I could do no more. I had done enough for the day.

Today has been a bit disappointing. I had hoped to be sourcing some exciting natural colours high quality akoya pearls but due to some misunderstanding the pearl farmer who I had hoped would be a new source came to meet me with white pearls.

I would have got some of them as they were great quality but they were in bundles and he was not prepared to break the bundles to allow me to select the very best strands for you, so I walked away with just a very very few undrilled loose 7mm natural colour rounds

natural colours akoya pearls

I felt very disappointed as the few pearls I’ve got are blue/grey, pale gold and even delicate pink. I think there are a couple of pairs possible for earrings and maybe a station necklace or bracelet…But I had hoped for strands…..

The plan is to get onto Hong Kong time as quickly as possible so that tomorrow morning I’ll be out, bright of eye, to start finding those metallic pearls.

Last year there was a real shortage of natural colour and black half drilled pearls, so good pearls for earrings are top of the list. Earrings are always popular because they make good presents.

Short entry today, no pearls!