I checked out their website carefully. They will be at the Radisson Hotel in Tucson in February for the Tucson Gem Show,which happens to be the largest gem show in the world. They are one of the first booths I plan on visiting.
I believe they are among the most expensive in the world, even their very baroques, because they will produce only about 6,000 pearls or so this year. I will find out what a strand would cost at various pricing levels, though I think they will probably sell one by one.
They are growing fast and apparently have found a less traumatic method of nucleating that allows a very high percent of oyster survival, so I expect a gradual increase in numbers and maybe a little decrease in price.
Since this is a Mexican university & gov't joint effort, I am sure there will be printed literature I can pick up at that time. I will tell them about this forum if they haven't noticed by then and I hope to report back to this here about the Mexican pearls
.
One thing I think is interesting is many Mexican pearls come from the rainbow lipped oyster which is a unique species from other oyster varieties- a
pteria oyster. The pearls apparently have the best luster in the world and are very rainbow-like in a mysterious way. The black lipped oyster also lives in Mexican waters, so I will try to learn what distinguishes the pearls from each.
There are a few pictures on their site if readers click through on the above link.