Hi Kevin
Thanks for minimalizing my comments to a grain of salt!
Someone
very recently reported on this forum that their high quality Mikimoto akoyas wore down to the bead in 7 years. The strands I inherited from my mother-in-law a couple of years ago had many worn to the bead pearls on it. Someone on this forum bought an akoya from eBay and it had worn down surfaces where you could see the bead.
It was the mother in law pearls that started me on the grand pearl quest that brought me here.
I do think you and others on this forum have the best akoyas around, but the consumer does need to know that they wear out, if worn regularly.
When I first got here, no one here knew about. or sold. the best gem quality cultured freshwater pearls (CFWP) on this site. I was told many times that CFWP were inferior and junk, which is why I began to refer to myself as "just a lowly beader" becuase I like them best.
Then Jeremy went searching for the best of the best freshwaters and found the ones with luster that beat the akoyas, though it is a different luster, ones with water and orient, for which he adopted the term "Freshadamas". Remember the poll where he posted both types of pearl. More people chose the Freshadamas as the akoyas, because they picked for luster. Below is a copy of the picture.
This top of the line, very rare, CFWP stands up to any test of quality when compared to the old fashioned, wild gathered, natural pearls which haven't been gathered for the past 100 years due to centuries of overfishing.
Nevertheless, as I said before, akoyas remain popular. Maybe this is because they have been hyped by the akoya industry for the last 70 years, and they were the only game in town for decades.
While I do not argue with the popularity of the akoya pearl, I do like to argue that CWFP are longlasting and a great investment.
So Michael, which is the hanadama and which is the freshadama? Btoh are examples of the best quality of their respective kinds of pearls.
Here is the original poll. You will note slightly more people picked the akoya as the Freshadama.