[purepearls]

Here are several pictures of workers sorting pearls by quality, color, and size, as well as, matching and stringing hanks of pearls.

[purepearls]

In this picture, the worker is stringing the matched hanks of pearls.

[purepearls]

She is sorting pearls for quality, color, and size.

[drea]

Hi Amanda,
great pictures, were these taken on one of your buying trips?

[knotty panda]

Can someone give these gals some light? Everyone laughs at me and says I need to knot in a bowling alley! That is arduous work and blinding. Somehow I always thought the sizing was sorted by a grate, such as a coin sorter, but the actual color and quality was done by sight. Considering how much work goes into pearls, they really are quite a bargain.

[purepearls]

The lighting they work under is actually really bright, though the camera picks up most of the background darkness due to the angle of the shots.

[Satine De La Courcel]

Hi Amanda,

Awesome photos!

Cheers

[Mandy]

I wonder how long they each spend on every pearl? Or each batch of pearls? Few seconds? Half a minute? Granted with practice they'd learn to determine what to look for and whatnot but I am a bit curious.

[barbie biggs]

I wonder what the average age of the sorters is? Eyes tend to have much sharper sight when younger and to loose that definition incrementally, over time. What those women in the pictures are doing requires real clarity. I am in awe. And they do this all day.

barbie

[jshepherd]

I believe the minimum age is 17, and most sorters and matchers are in their early 20's.

Earlier in the year I traveled with author Stephen Bloom to the same area where Amanda shot that photo (akoya producing areas). Stephen interviewed several women working at a few factories. One was a student, another one was working until the summer when she planned to get married, and another was working toward opening her own jewelry business. They were all very ambitious, actually.

The rooms where they work are very temperature controlled, unlike other places in the factory. The room itself is not too bright, but the light under which they work is intense. Some factories utilize natural indirect light as well for matching, and all use it for grading.

The hours are very similar to what we would expect here, except lunch breaks are often two hours long, as they go home for lunch. This is not the case in freshwater pearl factories which employ a much larger number of worker. These usually all have an on-site cafeteria.

[salem]

You know, I am not sure if this has been asked before, but I haven't seen it. What kind of training do these girls undergo? I have seen a few videos that mention rather extensive training, but always in passing. From the speed I have seen sorting done, it must be almost instantaneous deteriminations. But I just wonder how each sorter is determined to adequately judge. And does one sorter sort all determining factors? I mean, are the pearls just all jumbled together and in an instant one sorter is able to jude luster, size, shape etc? Or is there a system, for example first they get sorted by size, then by shape then by luster, etc with a different sorter for each area? It is something I would love to watch in great detail someday. It just fascinates me.

[purepearls]

These ladies are very well-trained and as they get more accustomed to it, they get an eye for detail and are able to sort through them pretty quickly. They have stations where some sort for quality, size, and color, while others line them up on beading boards and string them into temporary hanks.