The followup:
We needed to go to "the city" today to pick up an ottoman I had special ordered ages ago (and kinda forgotten about
).
While there, I went to a fairly upscale B&M jeweler to look at Tahitians "in person." They had three strands of Mikis in three different overtones, luckily enough!
The ones that, by FAR, looked the best with my coloring were the ones with the silver overtone. So, after I order my Akoya earrings
, I'm going to start saving my coins for a Tahitian stud and pendant set in the silver.
I also looked at earrring sizes while there, although the biggest they had were 10mm. They made me realize that 10-11mm would be plenty big for earstuds-- I guess I have pretty small ears :-).
I also looked at Miki Akoya studs-- they had a full selection of grades, from Miki A through AAA. The AAA were beautiful, but the 8mm were more $$ than my 1.2 ct diamond studs were
. I probably should post this in a different thread, but how can I expect Pearl Paradise, et al Akoyas will compare to Mikis? Will their AAA be as nice or nicer than the Miki A or A+ quality?? Or do I have to get Hanadamas for that?
Thanks bunches-- you all have been most helpful so far
.
--Robin C.