Originally Posted by pearlpunk

i am slowly leaning towards 10.5 mm - 11 mm instead. i was comparing 11 mm and 12 mm south sea pearl some weeks back and i could not actually tell the difference. so maybe 10.5 - 11 mm pearls might reduce the weight significantly, hopefully.

i am in the process of waiting for several quotes now, and looking around at clasps before i make my decision.

will keep you all posted

Hi Pearlpunk,

I just wonder if it possible to get the pearls in 0,5 mm between instead of 1 mm, since the Chinese nowadays have 1 mm between sizes and in this big size it may be even harder to get enough pearls in the "right" size, I think it has to be a vendor who has lots and lots of fine pearls to choose from...

Since the question of graduation came up, what is a graduation nowadays? 1,5 mm between the different sizes of what? This question also goes to our Online sellers...

And it would be nice if Pure Pearls or some of our other vendors could give us a picture of a suitable clasp (both size and price) as I think the clasps we can buy are too small to make a triple strand drape nicely.

Originally Posted by pearlpunk

i have in fact proposed graduated triple strand ranging from 8 or 9 mm to 12 mm or larger, but

Wonder how does some put together a strongly graduated necklace these days ... That pearls come into retail as non-graduated hanks seems to make the proposition very impractical Imagining a set of hanks being unmade and pearls of suitable sizes picked and unmatched.. not a great picture But then, saltwater pearls still come strongly graduated. What gives?

PS. where 'graduated' means 5-6mm on a 16inch strand (say, 6mm to 12 etc.). Old fashioned.

Asking out of curiosity. It just occurred...

[knotty panda]

Originally Posted by jerin

And it would be nice if Pure Pearls or some of our other vendors could give us a picture of a suitable clasp (both size and price) as I think the clasps we can buy are too small to make a triple strand drape nicely.

Yes, indeed!

Originally Posted by Valeria101

But then, saltwater pearls still come strongly graduated. What gives?

I have often pondered that myself about why FWP don’t come strongly graduated. I love strong graduation. I think it is very feminine.

Originally Posted by pearlpunk

i thought people use square clasps for large triple strands and strung lower strands longer than each of the ones above them? wow, i never thought about these things... but merchants seemed to be responding positively to my large triple strand request so i suppose they know how to put one together without making it look awkward?

Square clasps for triple strands, yes. But this large? No. Standard square clasps are much too small for a necklace of this type. The clasp would be way too small to close and it wouldn’t be strong enough to support the pearls IMHO.

Originally Posted by pearlpunk

i have in fact proposed graduated triple strand ranging from 8 or 9 mm to 12 mm or larger. but some designer teams actually felt that equal size will look better. i had the inspiration of multiple strand graduated large pearls from a pic americanpearl.com has on their web (not for sale, but just one of those decorative promo pics on one's website). i don't normally like the graduated look. but this pic made me look twice! these ones were longer though, they fell on the lady's chest, somewhere between and slightly above her bossoms. so it is a different look all together. but very nice. but you can see, this one can be very EXPENSIVE too...

i am slowly leaning towards 10.5 mm - 11 mm instead. i was comparing 11 mm and 12 mm south sea pearl some weeks back and i could not actually tell the difference. so maybe 10.5 - 11 mm pearls might reduce the weight significantly, hopefully.

i am in the process of waiting for several quotes now, and looking around at clasps before i make my decision.

will keep you all posted

Design teams? You have design teams? Plural? Please! Let us know what they come up with. I’m crazy to know!

Originally Posted by pernula

Would having claps both at the back and in front help to keep the three rows in place? pernula

No, unfortunately, but spacer bars at the shoulders would.

Originally Posted by Valeria101

Isn't double knotting supposed to help large pearls drape?

Somehow, I can't make peace with the thought that 11-12mm triple strand is problematic.

However, no, I have never tried to wear one exactly as discussed here... which may well account for the lack of imagination for both problem and solution this time .

Precisely! There is no prototype for this. These new sizes will present new design challenges.

[pernula]

Originally Posted by pearlpunk

i had the inspiration of multiple strand graduated large pearls from a pic americanpearl.com has on their web (not for sale, but just one of those decorative promo pics on one's website). i don't normally like the graduated look. but this pic made me look twice! these ones were longer though, they fell on the lady's chest, somewhere between and slightly above her bossoms. so it is a different look all together. but very nice. but you can see, this one can be very EXPENSIVE too...

I tried to find what you described but couldn't locate it. Is that in the shop by model section of americanpearl.com? Out of all the pictures in that section, I like the 10-11mm graduated multicolor triple strand the best. Mixing Tahitian, Australian and Indonesian SS, and CFWP looks really nice.

Pearl Paradise has a single strand version (larger, at 11-13 mm, and without CFWP) of that. Wonder whether baroque Tahitian and baroque CFWP would look nice together. I have some extra baroque CFWP from PP. Could some of the merchants on line let me know whether I would be able to buy loose baroque Tahitian? I am totally going sidetrack, sorry.

I hope you find what you look for. Did the merchants who are giving you quotes indicate whether it is returnable or exchangeable?

Best wishes,
pernula

[jshepherd]

Originally Posted by Valeria101

Wonder how does some put together a strongly graduated necklace these days ... That pearls come into retail as non-graduated hanks seems to make the proposition very impractical Imagining a set of hanks being unmade and pearls of suitable sizes picked and unmatched.. not a great picture But then, saltwater pearls still come strongly graduated. What gives?

PS. where 'graduated' means 5-6mm on a 16inch strand (say, 6mm to 12 etc.). Old fashioned.

Asking out of curiosity. It just occurred...

Interesting... I am going to try my hand at a few graduated strands today.

[Caitlin]

What do you think of this one? I took apart the potpourri strand and this is one of the strands that came out of it. a graduated pink/lavender came out of it too.

[knotty panda]

Jeremy: Thank you for taking time from your already overburdened schedule to do this little experiment! Is there any information on the forum regarding the clasp which was used in your museum-quality SSP piece? Thanks!

Originally Posted by Caitlin Williams

What do you think of this one? I took apart the potpourri strand...

Lovely play of color ... and perfect. What else to say?

Any chance to see them together with the colored ones you mention?

Nice, Caitlin! Love those graduated strands!

Jeremy, can't wait to see pics! I think graduated from about 7-12 mm would look wonderful! Maybe even a double or triple strand!!!

Perle

[jshepherd]

It actually came out pretty well. I will have Natalie shoot a picture of them soon.

I made 4 matching strands that graduate from 6-10mm. Those of you who match can probably figure out why I wound up with exactly 4 of them. I used loose-pearl grade freshwater, but not freshadama. It took about an hour, so average of 15 minutes per strand. Not too bad...

Originally Posted by jshepherd

It actually came out pretty well. I will have Natalie shoot a picture of them soon. [...] I made 4 matching strands that graduate from 6-10mm.

... which means... she could also try on three (or all) together... to make a case for a multiple strand of graduated VS not, right?

[Caitlin]

I want to make it clear that the pearls I used to make up my graduated strands are Jeremy's pearls from the potpouri strand I made last Spring.

I took this photo in full sun and it shows color variations not seen in more subdued lighting.

Here are the two to which I referred above. There are some eggy ones. those are from Fuji Voll Pacific Perls. No website.

[Caitlin]

Here is the potpourri strand. All but 3 of the four black pearls are from Jeremy, some loose some strung. One akoya teaser is in there. there was one black pearl so I added the other three for balance.

[knotty panda]

There you have it folks! Another problem solved by pearl-math, pearl-forum! LOL. I don't know how deep pearlpunk's pockets are, but a standard clasp would be much cheaper than a custom clasp. The graduation Jeremy used would allow use of a standard clasp and still include the knock-em-dead size pearlpunk wants and pearls can be added at the back to accommodate the drape (if necessary). Our work here is done!

I can't wait to see that strong graduation. 5MM? Wow!

P.S.: Note to Mr. Mixon. If you had used pearls as an example in Algebra instead of train speeds, maybe I wouldn't have flunked!

[jshepherd]

Well, here they are. The center pearl on each is between 10.0 and 10.2mm. The ends are between 6.0 and 6.5mm.

I used four matching strands of loose-pearl grade to create them: one 6-7mm, one 7-8mm, one 8-9mm, and one 9-10mm. I clipped the strands, laid them out, and selected individuals from the smallest strand; the first, the fourth, the eighth, until reaching the center. This was followed with the 7-8mm strand in the same fashion, then the 8-9mm, and finally the 9-10mm. I chose a single pearl from loose stock for the center.
The next strand required the first, the third, the sixth, and so on. I was able to do this two more times to come up with four strands of approximately 57 pearls each.