| Dear Friends of the Akoya:
Thanks. I feel much more cheerful about my trip to Phuket. Somehow, knowing that glass nucleated pearls have proven to be a failure historically makes me feel confident and happy about rejecting any glass nucleated pearls. I intuited that glass and nacre might be incompatible. I have trouble understanding why Giant Sea Clam would not be compatible with freshwater nacre. Hey, it's all Calcium Carbonate, right? You say that the expansion and contraction rate of Giant Sea Clam beads and that of freshwater nacre is not identical. I believe you. But where was this tested and how? Forget the fact that the poor Giant Sea Clam is on the endangered species list, it's the composition of the GSC v the composition of freshwater nacre that interests me. I understand that if the two materials contract and expand at different rates, cracking, splitting, and chipping will follow. But aren't the materials very very similar? |