Category Archives: Pearlescencery

What’s happening in the workshop

Earring pairs..day three Hong Kong

Today was mostly about finding pairs for earrings and stuff like that. Pretty intense pearl studying, scrutinising and sorting. I started at my favourite tahitian and south sea supplier.

First stop was the pearls for a custom commission 14ct and gold south sea station necklace. I had already got the gold, which set the pearl budget so we needed to juggle conflicting criteria. Bag after bag of various shapes and qualities of pearls. Bigger, smaller, round, drop, dark, light. It took about an hour for me and helpful wholesale assistant to settle on these pearls.. two more than in the request but the two tiny end pearls were so delicious I hope our client agrees to keep them in.

station necklace

Nine gold south sea pearls for a carat gold station necklace

The pearls had to be graduated, mixed colours (no two same colour next to each other} great lustre and smooth surface and roundish to ovalish. It got to be a bit like playing a game of solitaire as we switched pearls in and out, until..it’s like ‘click’ that’s it!

The wholesaler didn’t have a huge stash of good rounds for earring pearls so I’ll look on Monday at the exhibition when it opens.

Then we moved on to Tahitians. I love poking in the big lot bags of not perfect pearls to find the ones which can be set to produce great items- for example, grade A baroques can be ugly lumps but there are also buttons which make amazing huge button earrings – you ust have to find them

Some of the lots have -probably – over a thousand pearls and going through the lot takes time. I usually tip some out into a tray and then scoop some into a scoop and inspect each. Possibles and probables get put top right. I’m looking for possible pendants and earrings. Once I’ve gone through the whole bag I’ll look more closely at the selected ones. First check is for lustre. If a pearl isn’t metallic it goes back in the bag. Then I look fo shape and colour for pendants..for earrings it’s colour, shape and size. So irritating when two pearls are a great match but there is more than half a mm difference in size. Grrrr

Many Tahitian pearls.

Many Tahitian pearls.

After several bas full I was a bit pearled-out. Not so much that while my invoice was being drawn up I didn’t have a delve in the vault there for their top of the range pearls.

Stunners!

White south sea pearls

White south sea pearls

Perfect round white south sea pearls. The one on top was their best in stock – about £10k.

top quality Tahitian pearl strandtop quality Tahitian pearl strand

top quality Tahitian pearl strand

This strand of beautifully matched green peacocks would be about £7k

Lots of Tahitian strands

Lots of Tahitian strands

And, finally, some more tahitians.

Later, another freshwater supplier: This supplier had some white bead nucleated pearls which are getting close to south sea pearls in terms of colour, surface satiny texture, lustre but not yet shape. Here I found some very pretty round Kasumi-ish/ripples with great colour and – finally – some freshwater natural colour and black pairs. Not enough of good quality to buy in bulk by weight so I once again selected and paired up. This puts the price up but when you don;t think that the majority of pearls are good enough or will make matches then you’re wasting time if you don’t do this. I’d have loads of orangy drops for example.

After all that I was defo pearled out with whirly whirly cartoon eyes. Tomorrow is a day off because the wholesalers are packing for their move to the exhibition. No-one likes doing that!

How far we have come! Hong Kong trip

Had a long and interesting discussion with one of my go-to wholesalers on where pearls are at and how far we have come in the last five years. Ming pearls are right up there with any other branded pearls as this photo of some mesmerising deep mauve to purple (not a trace of brown) 12-15mm round metallic strands show

ming pearls ming pearls

Stunning bead nucleated pearls

These huge bead nucleated pearls have stunningly rich colour, smooth surfaces and metallic lustre. As you can see from the photo , the colour is jaw-dropping

Bead nucleated pearls this big take three years to grow. One to a shell, and usually only one nucleation per shell. If the nucleation fails to prosper there may be some tiny keishi pearls which this wholesaler has exclusively and which we brought to you last september (don’t worry I have some more)

By contrast I also got some amazing white 8mm AAA metallic rounds..classic pearl strands. These are tissue nucleated so the outcome of each farming operation is much more unpredictable. One shell will have up to 32 or even 40 implants. At harvest, after maybe four or five years, a farmer might find himself with 40 completely different pearls..in terms of size, shape and colour.

There’s been a huge improvement even since I was last here last September. But when we remembered the pearls of five years ago. Metallics wer pretty rare and special then. Now I can turn my nose up at anything which isn’t ‘double shiny’ The wonderful, innovative and clever pearl farmers of china need a heartfelt cheer and hereby get it from me.

Today’s loot includes the strand draped over my hand, the classic white strands, perfect round pairs and some irregular-ish round-ish pairs in deep natural vibrant colours. Plus some ripples I couldn’t resist.

Of course it doesn’t help when your supplier keeps putting strands upon strand of fabulous pearls under your nose

pearls

evil wholesaler tempts weak willed pearl buye

Plus I found some natural colour splatts for earrings (scary to drill without ruining them)

pearls

Natural colour metallic splatts for earrings

So where will freshwater pearls be in another five years? Given the progress in the last five it’s impossible to predict. But it will be fun finding out.

 

Road to Hong Kong ..Ho Hum

What do Hong Kong and Bing Crosby have in common? Well, me and some new fans of the crooner. A mention of the Kowloon district of Ho Hum got me singing the Road to Hong Kong song, which lead to websites, video of Crosby singing and general appreciation of his marvelous voice and an interruption in the pearl selecting.

Yesterday was the first day of pearl finding and it went very very well. One highlight was finding four pairs of metallic 12mm (yes 12mm) round, smooth metallic white pearls.

white round pearls

Stunning all nacre 12mm white metallic AAA rounds white pearls. Can you see that some are even more metallic than others?

This photo also gives a clue as to how I go about selecting as perfect as can be matches. First select the best of the pearls available and then see if any of those make pairs. You can see that here I have four possibles and one pair. Eventually I made four pairs. It helps to check sizes too. When you’re scrutinising so closely what looks like a massive sie difference turns out to be a fraction of a mm, and with a head in between the pearls hopefully people will appreciate the amazingness of an almost perfectly round matched pair with a fractional size differnence

nat

Happily there seem to be more good undrilled and half drilled natural colour and black pearls this time, so I’ve already scooped some.With this many available I didn’t attempt to make pairs, just picked out the shiniest. I can made pairs later.

It’s Chinese New Year here, and another highlight was coming across a happy yellow dragon in the street,  dancing to a heavy drum beat. No-one seems sure if it is a year of the goat or the ram but happy and prosperous year of the small milk giving mammal with horns to you all!

Now I’ve just got to get Ho hum…ho ho ho ho hum ‘ by Crosby out of my head!

What are Ming Pearls?

Ming pearls are simply one brand of bead nucleated freshwater pearls from China. Bead nuked pearls started to appear four years ago and can be divided into two main categories, depending on the quality of their nacre: either smooth or rippled. From this you can split the smooth into Edison (a brand from the pioneer of this type of pearl), Ming, (the second brand, not allied to any particular wholesaler) and generic bead nucleated pearls.

(Just to remind even more, until a few years ago freshwater pearls were usually all nacre, with pearl growth triggered by the insertion of just a sliver of mantle tissue into a host shell. It was only sea water pearls (South Sea, Tahitian, Akoya and a few freshwaters such as coin pearls) which had a bead template nucleus as well as that sliver of mantle tissue)

Edison pearls

These are Edison pearls

Ming pearls

These are Ming pearls

bead nucleated freshwater pearls

These are generic bead nucleated freshwater pearls

ripple pearls

And, finally, these are ripple pearls

The Ming pearl name tends to be applied to the better quality of generic bead nucleated pearls. It is more of a description of quality than a brand. (Edison is a brand, belonging to one pearl farmer/wholesaler. They tend to be the most expensive and can be the finest quality available in the world)

In general these new bead nuked pearls can be, like any pearls, terrible quality, with pitted, ringed, thin and lumpy nacre and washed out colour with chalky lustre. That’s probably what you’ll get if you bought from an unknown seller on any auction site. Quality (and, of course, price) runs up to metallic lustred 15mm perfectly round. flawlessly smooth surfaced pearls

golden pearl pair

A pair of perfectly round, smooth, metallic golden pearls

The pair of pearls in the above photo would pass as a top quality pair of South Seas any day – and are still very expensive, but not as expensive as south sea pearls.

So..what are Ming pearls? They are usually the better quality generic bead nucleated freshwater pearls,  but some people throw that description at any quality of such pearls. As a quality description it is really pretty meaningless. Calling a pearl a Ming pearl does not of itself guarantee any sort of quality.

February 5 2016 addendum

Contrary to what was just claimed on QVC Honora do not buy up the entire harvest of Ming pearls. Pearlescence has plenty of Ming pearls in stock and will probably buy many more in three weeks when we go pearl buying in Hong Kong. The Honora claim is simply not true,

 

Day…? Final reflections

Leave a Reply

Final reflections on this year’s buying trip. There are good pearls out there, but the only way to find them is undoubtedly to select them in person. With the best of relationships with a supplier, if you order, say, 10 strands of AAA white 8mm round pearls, that is what you will get, but you won’t get ten with metallic lustre. You’ll just get 10 strands from the AAA white 8mm bag or hank. Nor will you get pearls like that blue baroque Edison or the ripple gold south sea. They were both one-offs which I had to be there to scoop.

I had all sizes and shapes of loose (that means individual not strands) half drilled pearls on the big list. They had been very short of supply last year and this year was not much better. I don’t think I found any blacks which I wanted to buy in any shape or size. And just a few natural colours. Given that loose pearls are invariably more expensive than pearls in strands you would think that decent pearls would be selected out for this, but it seems not.

Bead Nucleated freshwater pearls continue their march for pearl world domination, with non-Edison branded pearls now very close in quality to the originator of the method and with a rapidly expanding portfolio of sizes, colours and surfaces. I saw, not just ripples and smooth big pearls but more of the baby white Edisons (I still have some from last year), smaller coloureds, tiny round 5mm vibrant coloured ones I was told were keishi, and generally more and more ‘routine’ pearls with a bead instead of solid nacre. Are solid nacre freshwater pearls going to disappear or be so rare as to be highly prized a few years into the future?

Finally, we are pawing at the pearls from today once we have caught up with the order backlog (for which we massively apologise) and we will be posting new makes and pearls as soon as we can in a separate section (we have yet to think up a good name for it!) watch not this, but that space

 

 

Day seven….winding down

Leave a Reply

Winding down now, most of the pearls we wanted have been found. It’s been a good trip, Successful, with beautiful pearls. I think that everything which could be metallic is metallic. I’m already thinking up designs and work plans for one-off silver and goldsmithing.

Time for some reflections. There is still something of a shortage of medium sized natual colour and black rounds, drops and buttons for earrings with metallic lustre and good colour. Many of the pearls are washed out in colour.

There are very few souffles around. There were some strands and loose at the main souffle supplier but they were light and ho-hum in colour, allbeit with good lustre. I wonder if production is tailing off, reflecting falling demand. At the same time another supplier seems to have been trying to produce something similar – what were described to me as baroque bead nucleated pearls looked like souffles rather than regular baroques. They had a bead ( you could hear it rattling in some) but at the same time there was a dark brown organic stuff inside each pearl between bead and nacre. It was a dried out flaky substance. No information forthcoming on how the pearls were produced.

Bead nucleated is very much the thing. Solid nacre is almost becoming the exception. If you are wanting a sold nacre freshwater ‘classic’ white strand my advice would be to get it soon because solid nacre is going to get rarer – ask yourself….if you can produce round pearls with a bead and know most of your production will be round and at least AA wouldn’t you opt for that rather than hoping that the miracle of round and perfect AAA?

There are more and more bead nucleated natural colours and white big round pearls with smooth surfaces and great lustre. Prices are plummeting with most suppliers.  At the same time there are lots of very pallid ones out there. Mostly I don’t get them, but some had a blue/silver overtone and I’ll call them moonlight pearls. If you go for cool colours these may be the ripples for you.

From a personal business viewpoint, the main impression which has struck me is the difference in attitude to their customers between the big companies and the smaller ones. The big ones aren’t really interested in small companies and don’t want to deal with us – that was made very clear when four of us were left in the hands of an employee who had worked for the company for a week only while every other member of staff looked on. I’ll not be even looking at their stock in future And another big player had sacks of real rubbish and year old low end stock alongside their top grade freshwaters. There the folk who deal with us regularly are delightful but the managers are sour faced and never even look at you. Conversely, the smaller suppliers have the same stock, often cheaper, and know me and are pleased to see me. We compare photos of grandchildren and discuss all manner of issues (well, mostly pearl issues) Where would you go?

If you can’t be bothered to be pleasant why should I give you my money?

Day six….white metallics and a gold south sea ripple strand

Leave a Reply

Started the day by calling back to the first office to pay for (ouch) and collect my stash. I picked up some classic white metallic round strands…’double-double’ shiny AAA with matching pairs of half drilleds. A special request. Plus I was wearing a pair of big pink drops from here and succumbed to a few more pairs.

Having paid I quickly escaped before I could be tempted yet more. I went to the office of a big supplier, from whom I had bought in the past. But their behaviour last year and this means I won’t be going there again. Several staff members carefully ignored several customers and left us to one new employee who had been there under a week.  i found one paIr of souffle pearls and played with some 10mm natural colours AAA rounds but found no pairs.

These souffles were shiny but the colour was a bit weak.

These souffles were shiny but the colour was a bit weak.

I (and the other customers felt so dismayed we didn’t buy anything. Never iond. This company is, as far as I know, a main supplier for a big company so we small fry are not important.

Feeling glum I went finally to my favourite south sea supplier. Dark tahitians were muddy but I found some lush lighter multicoloured rounds and baroques.

lighter shades of tahitians were much more attractive than darks, which looked muddy

lighter shades of tahitians were much more attractive than darks, which looked muddy

Trays and trays of south sea pearls

Trays and trays of south sea pearls

And some fun gold south sea ripples. Just the one strand. These aren’t just baroques, they really are like ripples. In spite of poking though every tray of pearls I could not find any other similar stands

Is this the first ever gold south sea ripple strand?

Is this the first ever gold south sea ripple strand?

Finally, some big tahitian buttons which will make amazing earrings

 

 

Day five.. pearl finding

Leave a Reply
White mirror metallic rounds.

White mirror metallic rounds.

A busy day again, full of pearl finding. I picked up where I left off, working through the wants list of loose single and pairs. It took more than an hour to find ten perfect pairs of AAA white mirror metallic pearls. It is staggering how many variations are possible in what should be a simple task – after all, how much variety can there be? Well the answer, of course, is zillions. For perfect pairs the size, colour, overtone, lustre and mirror size and quality must all match perfectly.

Of course that is perfection. Later in the day Betty Sue King and I were sadly contemplating some big round bead nucleated ‘pairs’ most of which were sort of maybe something like.  Betty Sue is a leading American pearl supplier with a lifetime of knowledge and skill in the pearl world. I just sit there learning when she is in the room.

Before that though one of the highlights was a collection of nuggety ice cream coloured 10mmish undrilled mirror metallics. Not sure what I will do with them, but at the moment I’m thinking some pretty and feminine station bracelets with silver chain.

Once I had paid for the pearls at the morning supplier I moved on to a second. Poking around the shelves, I pounced on some big and colourful bead nucleated baroques. Some of them huge -30mm and more. They were bead nukes gone a bit wonky.

Huge baroque bead nucleated pearls

Huge baroque bead nucleated pearls

Variable in quality, never the less, there were some big colourful baroques for some dramatic earrings. There were two bags of those, and then one bag of pretty rubbish pearls in which was modestly sitting this huge true blue pearl

The pearl is a true blue, not a grey with a blue overtone. It is truly blue

The pearl is a true blue, not a grey with a blue overtone. It is truly blue

The wholesale staff member and I both gasped. You can see how how big the pearl is. There are a couple of fairly big flaws but ..oh that colour!

It’s now mine (of course!)

For the last hour I dashed off to the findings supplier and grabbed silver, vermeil and gold clasps, earrings, pendant fittings, rings, enhancers and so on.  Oddly the staff wanted to go home, so I left my basket. I’ll select some of the beautiful Italian-made and designed woven silver necklets

 

 

Day Four……lots of really fabulous pearls

Leave a Reply

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

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?

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.

Day Three…natural colours akoya pearls…not….

Leave a Reply

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

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…..

Day Two…..Phew……lots of pearls

Leave a Reply

A great day.Spent the whole day at my favourite supplier and we’ve made some serious inroads into the big ‘wants’ list.Lots of pearls.

9.30 in the morning. I’m already seated at the big table, and there are some huge dark ripples spread out before me. Life is good!

 

one ming and a soft gold strand

In the end I selected a beautiful AAA metallic strand of bead nucleated pearls, a strand of really big soft gold white ripples and a strand of huge dark ripples.

Next were bead nucleated singles. various sizes and I’ve got a collection of the most stunning colours with the most intensely metallic lustre you could ever want

Stunning drops

Stunning drops

 

Then I was shown some of the latest harvest of Ming bead nucleated pearls. Phew. Up to 17mm, pretty much clean with only faint blemishing and metallic lustre and rich colour. I couldn’t decide which to select (all three?) so asked Twitter. Within a few minutes my mobile was throwing out replies! Each strand had votes. Watch this space to see what I decided.

Thee huge dark bead nucleated strands with metallic lustre

Thee huge dark bead nucleated strands with metallic lustre

 

Moving right along, How do 13mm and 14mm white metallic drops sound to you?

White metallic drops

White metallic drops

 

Finally I was given the first showing of some totally new pearls. They are small, 5mm to about 9mm, but with intense colours and mirror metallic lustre. Anyone have any idea what these little beauties are

Mystery new pearls

Mystery new pearls

I resisted the impulse to immediately buy every one and found nine pairs – mostly smaller sizes, for earrings and some singles which will be set onto rings. No-one yet has got what they are!

Being dutiful I tried to move on to black drops but when I spread them out  I glanced at the clock…nearly 6pm! No wonder I was all pearled out for the day!

More tomorrow

 

 

Hong Kong 2014…day one

Leave a Reply

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!

Congratulations Michelle Keegan

Leave a Reply

By permission of Robin Kennedy Bare Media

Congratulations to Michelle Keegan, voted runner up sexiest person in the world and sexiest in the UK in the poll run every year by FHM magazine..and she wears pearls – Pearlescence anklet pearls. So delighted for her. What a launch for her career in the big world away from the cobbled streets of Wetherfield.

Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright

Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright

Behind securely closed doors: The London Assay Office

Leave a Reply

The London Assay office, where much of the gold, silver, platinum and palladium sold in the UK is hallmarked, lives on the third floor of the hall or headquarters of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, a stone’s throw from St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London.

Hall of The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths

Hall of The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths

I was fortunate to be one of the lucky few gold and silversmiths to be included in a party allowed in for a day to see the processes involved.

History

Hallmarking is the the oldest form of consumer protection in the UK, with Goldsmith’s  Guild getting its first royal charter from Edward III in 1327 (the guild HQ has been on the same site since 1339) . Now the guild, through the London Assay Office, is one of four independent

ceiling in main hall

The sumptuous ceiling in the main hall

organisations (also Birmingham, Sheffield and Edinburgh) which assay precious metals as required by the 1973 Hallmarking Act.

A hallmark is NOT a trademark. A hallmark is punched or lasered into the metal after the metal content is analysed and it is confirmed to be of a certain standard. Each hallmark tells you who made the piece or sent it for assay (the sponsor’s mark – Pearlescence’s is WMG in a cartouche shape)  what quality of what metal both in traditional and millesimal (figures) marks, which assay office and in what year.

The Assay office also conducts an annual examination of the coins manufactured by the Royal Mint (known as the Trial of the Pyx) and uses its huge collection of old silver items as a resource for the dating of suspect antiques. Two years ago the head of assay personally checked and hallmarked every gold and silver medal for the London Olympics.

Modern Hallmarking

It seems astonishing that every item sent in for assay is individually checked…but it is. A method dating back to Roman times, touch testing is the quickest and simplest.  Pearlescence’s silver ring was checked in a demonstration (no photos by me, unfortunately due to obvious security needs). In a method which ancient Romans and Egyptians would recognise and still be able to carry out, the piece is simply rubbed onto a highly polished tile of lydite until a 1cm by 2mm ish streak is made. Compare that with the streak made by a touch needle of known quality. check by a drop of acid on both. If they match you have identified the metal and its quality (in this case Sterling 925 silver)

The second ancient method is cupellation (which is a splendid word) and this method dates back to pre-Roman times. It is the most accurate. The gold sample is weighed very accurately then a known amount of silver is added in a process called inquartation. this mix is wrapped in lead foil and shaped into a ball, which is placed in a cupel. the cupel is put into a furnace for 20 minutes  and everything melts. everything except the pure gold and silver is absorbed into the cupel. Dissolve the silver in acid (parting) Weigh the remaining pure gold, subtract the known amount of silver and simple maths then gives the proportion of gold in the assay item. (accurate to one part per thousand)

hallmarking room.

This is the main hallmarking room. Very skilled

Finally there is the ultra modern x-ray fluorescence where an item is placed into a machine and bombarded with x-rays. The resulting spectrum identifies the metal and carat. Pearlescence tried this with some unknown gold made into a fused ring (9ct) and another ring made of silver wire and fused gold (interestingly the silver only came up to 800 proof with a lot of gold mixed in (so will be marked as silver), while the gold was over 18ct)

Once the items have passed assay they will be hallmarked. This, astonishingly, is still mostly done by hand. we had a go. It’s scary to try to put the London mark onto metal properly and cleanly. The brilliant folk in the photo above do it so well that even with the smallest punch you can still count the (three each side on the leopard’s face) vibrissae.

Alternately marks can be applied with a laser now or mechanically with a press for long runs of identical items

Hallmark being applied with a laser

Hallmark being applied with a laser

Top tip from the day – heartfelt plea from the assayers and markers…please do not pack each item into its own packet. We have instantly resolved to use those plastic compartment trays. Make your assayer love you!

An amazing day, I learned so much. And I even got a certificate!

certificate assay tour

Pearlescence got a certificate!

 

Nacre depth on bead nucleated freshwater pearls

Leave a Reply

There’s been a lot of debate recently about the nacre depth on bead nucleated freshwater pearls, along with concerns about the materials being used as the nucleus.

Rather fortuitously while we were making up some necklaces recently and enlarging the drill holes so the silk can be doubled back and hidden two pearls split neatly in half.

One was a white 12.6mm Ming  – metallic lustre with rainbow overtones and the other was a prototype small Edison white round of 9.5mm and rippled creamier nacre (If you don’t know the two pearl brand names don’t worry, just ignore).

Nacre depth is a real problem with saltwater Akoya pearls. Some pearls spend such a short time being grown that you can see the bead through the nacre (this is known as blinking because the pearls appear to blink when rolled back and forth). Thin nacre is one of the reasons why we have not carried an extensive stock of Akoya pearls up to now – although having found a couple of suppliers who guarantee decent nacre we will be stocking them more in future)

Tahitian and South Sea pearls are always grown on an inserted bead

But bead nucleation has exploded onto freshwater pearls in just the last few years. With large grower to wholesaler Grace pearl leading the way Chinese pearl farmers are producing huge round pearls from a schegeli/cumingii hybrid in the most amazing range of colours, some pastel and some deep, such as deep purples, as well as rippled surfaced pearls, nicknamed ripple pearls, with shimmering play of colours and often an effect like gold leaf has been added in patches.

ripple pearls

Classic ripple pearls – pink, lavender, blues, and the gorgeous gold leaf overlay effect

Anyway, here is the result of the two broken pearls…

bead nucleated pearls- nacre depth

broken white bead nucleated pearls

You can clearly see the beads and the layer of nacre. In the smaller pearl the nacre is just 0.6mm thick (minimum depth for a Tahitian pearl is 0.8mm over 80% of the pearl surface) so that would be a fail, while the larger pearl has a happy 1.23mm of nacre. Plenty.

 

 

 

Michelle Keegan loves her Pearlescence anklet

Leave a Reply

It must be nearly two years ago now that we supplied a simple white pearl anklet to Michelle Keegan’s stylist for a photoshoot with a holiday look.

Michelle loved the anklet so of course we gave it to her. And if you want proof that she really does love the anklet here it is out in Dubai on the beach with her and her fiance Mark Wright this week

Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright

Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright

And later on the beach (photo from The Sun

michelle dubaiMichelle is leaving top UK soap Coronation Street in May. It was her enthusiasm for this anklet which triggered the making of the whole Beach Collection – which she named.

Beach Collection items are specifically designed to be all the jewellery you need to take on holiday. Either simple pearls or pearls on leather. And they look great on men or women.

added March 30…The anklet is still sending postcards – Today’s Star Sunday calls it ‘delicate’ !

Buy one like Michelle’s here

Sleepy koala and cuddly squirrel unique pearl brooches

Leave a Reply

Towards the end of the last buying trip to Hong Kong I spent a couple of hours poking through some smaller but very beautiful bead nucleated flameballs and baroques. I’ve yet to finish drilling the flameballs I collected for a necklace for myself (I need some hours from somewhere) but I did get to make two of these pearls into brooches last week.

Right from the start my imagination saw this pearl as a sleepy koala bear stretched out on a branch..one leg hanging down and head pillowed on branch and arms.

The lustre on this pearl is incredible, liquid metallic pearl white with rainbow overtones.

Sleepy koala pearl

Sleepy koala

The second pearl will sit up on its own but is still now a brooch…I thought at first it was a cuddly furry rabbit or teddy bear, but have decided it’s a sitting on his haunches cuddly squirrel, with his tail curled to the side. Again amazing lustre and texture and a rainbow of overtones.

Squirrel pearl

Squirrel pearl

To make each of these unique pearls into brooches we spent some time filing a deep and precise groove into the backs of the pearls, which exactly fits the base bar of the sterling silver brooch finding, which is glued into the slot to make the brooch.

 

The Blue Tahitian Pearl in its New Home

Leave a Reply

You may remember the blue tahitian pearl which I wangled during the last Hong Kong buying trip….

Blue Tahitian pearl

Blue Tahitian pearl

Well, We just heard from its new owner who has made it into a beautiful pendant on a handmade silver chain necklace. Here it is

blue tahitian pearl

Blue tahitian pearl pendant and silver handmade chain necklace

blue tahitian pearl

Front view

Maker retired jeweller Dennis (who made this for his daughter) told us: ‘First I made a handmade chain, a slimmed down version of an antique pocket watch chain, with a matching adjustment section. It is finished with a small freshwater pearl as a charm. On the other end is a hook fastener in similar style.

The long links were made by stretching large O-rings

The bell for the pendant is like the calix of a mini-aubergine and the whole is a bit like regalia, but it is going overseas, where they are not shy about a bit of power dressing.’

Thank you for letting us know what you made Dennis – we send these pearls out into the world and we do wonder how they fare.

How are pearls measured?

Leave a Reply

Can you please clarify regarding dimensions offered on pearl drops? Is this for the drop? If so what is the width

-Iwona

Pearls are always measured at 90 degrees (at right angles) to the drill hole if there is one, so for a drop pearl the measurement is indeed the width.

Ah-ha I hear you say. What about undrilled pearls?  Well, my best answer would be that with round pearls you can’t tell and for anything else it is where the drill hole will be if there was one, if that makes sense.

Pearls are usually measured with accurate calipers.  We use these neat and very accurate electronic ones when measuring pearls for uploading to the website

We measure everything in metric- it’s easier and more accurate. Even when pearl strand lengths are given in inches pearls are measured in mm. That isn’t logical but it is what happens!!

When pearls are being measured en masse to be made into strands or in lots of one specific size they are usually sieved. It took me a while to work out what the pervasive and distinctive rattly noise of pearl sieving was when I first heard it. But it is very accurate too as a way of measuring pearls.

calipers

calipers

but purely mechanical ones are fine too and are most often used in Hong Kong and China.

Our measurements are accurate to fractions of a millimeter, which is pretty small , but you need to be aware that pearls are organic and will vary a little between strands.

(Many auction etc sellers just copy over the wholesalers size description but these can be inaccurate by a mm or more.)

A Special Find….Lake Biwa Pearls

Leave a Reply

Lake Biwa near Kyoto in Japan was the home once of a thriving freshwater pearl industry.Nowadays the name is often slapped onto thin stick pearls (erroneously)

I have a regular customer/correspondant, Andrew. He teaches classes in Rasa Shastra -making medicines using, amongst other things, powdered pearls.  Which is where Pearlescence comes in, obviously. We supply him regularly with both pearl powder from drilling and whole pearls for crushing.

Now a week or so ago I got an excited email from Andrew while he was in Japan, up near Kyoto. Would I be interested in some pearls which apparently were genuine Lake Biwa pearls. Lake Biwa was the centre of the Japanese freshwater pearl industry almost 100  years ago but the farms closed as the lake got hopelessly polluted, too dirty for its own species of freshwater mussel to survive.

Andrew had found the proverbial little old shop which, in a dusty corner, had some pearls which were said to be genuine Biwas.

recently the term Biwa has been slapped onto stick pearls. Stick pearls were produced but mainly production was of small, lustrous freeform pearls. Now these pearls have a slighly silky lustre. Andrew could get no clear paperwork provenance, but these certainly don’t have the look of Chinese freshwaters or of European river pearls. Their lustre is noticeably silky and they have a very clean surface, albeit not particularly regular. Sizes range between 6mm (not many) down to 1mm. they’re white with a rainbow orient.

biwa pearls

Biwa pearls

Now please note I am not saying for certain that these are Biwa pearls, just that there is a strong likelihood.

(I’m not going to drill the 1mm ones either)

Which silk to use to string Japanese Cultured pearls?

Leave a Reply

I need some advice regarding pearl stringing please. I have been asked to string some Japanese Cultured pearls purchased by a friend several years ago.

I need guidance regarding silk size and possible colour. the pearls are not white but a creamy beige. Should I be looking for a close colour match or just use white silk?

-June

Which silk colour?

White stringing silk is not brilliant white. It  is made especially for pearls so it is a gentle white with a touch of cream, so it will be fine with akoya pearls. realistically brilliant white silk would soon get slightly discoloured anyway.

What size?

As for what size…that depends on what method of stringing you are planning to use, and how large the holes are in the pearls. There are about as many different methods of stringing pearls as I’ve had the proverbial hot dinners. (this is how we do it here at Pearlescence http://www.pearlescence.co.uk/extra_info_pages.php/pages_id/5  )

Many Japanese akoya pearls – especially early strands (sometimes called 3.5 momme strands because that is what they weighed in the old pearl weight system) – only had the first and last few pearls knotted anyway.

If the pearls at each end have the same size hole as all the others then, unless you are planning to enlarge those holes to 1mm you’ll need size 3 which will allow you to double back and hide your ends. If you can enlarge the holes or they are already 1mm you can go up to size 4 (which is the size we always use)

Size 3 silk

Size 3 silk

(http://www.pearlescence.co.uk/product_info.php/cPath/93_41_48_148/products_id/773 )

Do you have some French wire or gimp to cover the silk as it attaches to the clasp? The tiny metal coils protect the silk from wearing and give a professional finish?

french wire

french wire

( http://www.pearlescence.co.uk/index.php/cPath/93_41_115 )

Before you take the necklace apart it is a good idea to clean the pearls and check the clasp, btw. And do make sure you keep the original order – very easy to mix up the pearls so it all goes horribly wrong

Ripple Pearls Get Their Own Section in the Website

Leave a Reply

It isn’t really very earth shattering news, but we’ve made it easier for pearl lovers to find the gorgeous ripple pearls on the Pearlescence Website (here) .

Nerida Harris of Australian pearl trade supplier Pearl Perfection and I spotted the first of the ripple pearls to appear on a vendor’s stand at the Hong Kong Gem show in September 2010. There was one hank, buried under many other white pearls and the rage of the time, souffle pearls (whatever happened to them?) Just the one hank of eight strands of these huge, rippled surfaced pearls of obviously natural colours which looked as if they had had gold leaf appiled to parts of their surface.

ripple pearls

Classic ripple pearls – pink, lavender, blues, and the gorgeous gold leaf overlay effect

Nerida took four and I took four.I can remember we looked at eachother and said ‘oooh’ They sold within a few days of going on our websites.

We got more next time we were each in Hong Kong. I found some huge white ones which I only realised when I got home and looked again at them looked remarkably like white south sea pearls

white ripple pearls

White ripple pearls. Some have the same satin lustre as south sea pearls for a fraction of the price.

Rpple pearls have proved so popular now that I decided that they need to be easier to find on the website and merit their own section – so it is here

The pearls are bead nucleated and are usually between 10mm and 16mm in size.

There are lots of places on the ripple bandwagon now – and when I was in Hong Kong last September they were certainly more plentiful. But there were an awful lot of really second rate pearls around, with poor colour and massive blemishing. Just not good enough for Pearlescence. The sort of pearls which end up on eBay or with sellers who don’t go to Hong Kong or mainland China to select each and every strand themself.

There is no such thing as AAAA grade, especially for grade A pearls

Leave a Reply

This post is going to be a bit of a rant. Because there is no such thing as grade AAAA pearls – especially when the pearls are grade A.

silly pearl grades

The Jewellery Channel says this is grade AAAA

Flicking through the channels I saw that a selling channel was having a pearl day. I happened on this necklace for £30 plus shipping. It is described at grade AAAA and does seem to have reasonable lustre. But even on screen and now with the photo I can see rings and the pearls are no-where near round. The depressing thing is that 500 of these things have sold, and that means that 500 people will believe that these really are top quality pearls.

Close up - not round

Close up – not round

I caught another channel a few days ago and the presenter there said freshwater pearls grew because a bit of sand or coral got into the oyster. Also they are selling what must be short grown akoya, because decent akoya cost more trade than their retail. (and I checked with a big buyer, so it isn’t just economy of scale). The nacre must be wafer thin.

Another sells dyed potato pearls as the finest of the harvest (noooooooooooo)

This isn’t business rivalry speaking, it is annoyance at the flood of cack pearls and cack information which these channels spew forth, and since they have huge audiences, this rubbish will be believed as correct and true. That’s simply annoying

And here finally, is a tahitian and platinum ring for £30,

Tahitian black!

Tahitian black!

Except, of course, it is, I suspect a ‘tahitian black’ freshwater pearl (It certainly looks like a freshwater pearl) and it is platinum plated on silver.

I thought eBay was bad enough for pearls….

 

Blue Tahitian Pearl. So Pretty

Leave a Reply

I’m still working through all the pearl stock I got in Hong Kong but one pearl stands out. I’m posting it here simply because a blue Tahitian pearl is so rare and so pretty.
I had to negotiate hard with the wholesaler to persuade him to break a large lot of pearls to sell just this one pearl but after nearly an hour of on and off work he caved and sold just the one pearl to me.

Blue Tahitian pearl

Blue Tahitian pearl

Wholesalers don’t like to take specimen pearls ouf of lots because the value of the lot as a whole drops if you cherry pick the really good ones.
This pearl is round to the eye but off round in fact (15.3mm by 14.3mm) and a delicious royal blue/Microsoft blue. With a metallic lustre and only minute flaws, it’s a beauty and I’ve only ever seen one other Tahitian so blue – and 100% natural colour.

Blue Tahitian pearl

Blue Tahitian pearl

blue tahitianAt the moment I’m just enjoying the pearl and not making any decisions on what to do with it, partly because whatever I do will need to be something special.

I’ll take suggestions and designs and the pearl is for sale on the website as is.