Hi From Canada
I fell in love with the variety of pearls available at the Tucson Gem Show in Feb. and want to use pearls in my Art Jewellery. I have been using The Earth Bazaar and Rings and Things for my wholesale pearls, findings and such and would like to know if anyone can suggest similar or better sites for the same. I also would like to know addresses of pearl farms in China, Japan, Or US? I am just starting my business and would appreciate any information. I am trying to educate myself over the internet about pearls and have found some great sites like the one that brought me here. I hope to learn a lot from this forum!
Thanks
Motherspearls.

[Caitlin]

Hi Motherspearls.

Welcome to this forum. I am another jewelry maker who hangs out here. My resale license is called Grandmother's Pearls! I live near Tucson and reported extensively to this forum on this past year's gem show. Glad you were there!

I collected cards from 50-100 pearl dealers at that show, but there were less than a dozen I found appropriate for my taste in pearls and the best prices. What was your experience from the show like? Which companies did you like?

You mention Rings and Things as a company you buy from online. They were at the Tucson Gem show. I checked out their website because I buy a fair amount online. They have a good selection at good prices. I would buy from them and added it to my favorites list.

Earth's Bazarr had a pretty site, but they disable the right click function so you can't open new pages in new windows and that stunted my action. I think they are high priced compared to Rings and Things.

I also visit Fire Mountain and have bought from them. I have their catalog which is massive.

None of the sites catering to beaders- including Fire Mountain- have really great freshwater pearls. None of the ones mentioned above have round/off/round pearls, for instance. That was what you could find at the gem show- and in every color!

There are folks on this site who can help you find a Chinese Company, but what I am finding is they want to sell a kilo of any one size and color. That from 23-43 strands! Unless you are a bead store, that is an awful lot. A number of members of this site go to China or deal directly with Chinese companies.

So far, for 1-10 strands, which is what I like, the shows seem to be the best choice for variety and low prices.
Best wishes
Caitlin

[Caitlin]

This morning I noiced you asked about Pearl farms in the US as well as China etc.

American Shell Company/US Pearl of Big Sandy TN, run by Jim Peach sr and his jr.. He only has an email address: pearlpeche@aol.com, not a website. they were also at the Gem Show. this year in 2 locations. They harvest mussel shells from the Mississippi river valley basin for the shell trade and find natural American freshwater pearls in some of the shells. Most of these are very odd shaped, very few roundish. They have built up quite a collection over the years and have a lot of rare pearls and singletons. I mentioned them just yesterday in a post reviewing the LV show (I think.)

American Pearl Company of Nashville TN. www.americanpearlcompany.com
This is a also a family owned and operated business with 2 generations of the Latendresse family. They actually have a pearl farm in the US and grow mussel shell bead nucleated- fw pearls in Tennessee! They also have quite a collection of pearls and they have grown to include pearls from all over the world. They have 19 pearl exhibits in the Natural History of the Pearl show that has been mentioned in the news section of this site.

Neither one of these companies is a bargain pricewise compared to China, but you'll find unusual and fabulous pearls. Get on American Pearls' mailing list if you like color postcards of gorgeous pearls!

Originally Posted by Caitlin Williams

...American Pearl Company of Nashville TN. www.americanpearlcompany.com
This is a also a family owned and operated business with 2 generations of the Latendresse family. They actually have a pearl farm in the US and grow mussel shell bead nucleated- fw pearls in Tennessee!

Just an update on American Pearl Co:

After John Latendresse died, the family sold the shell business (Tennessee Shell Co) to a Japanese company, who lowered the wages so much that most of the divers left the business.

They sold the pearl farm to Bob Keast of Birdsong resort who owned the land around the farm. Bob supplies American Pearl Co with pearls from the farm, and keeps the farm going by having daily tours, a museum, and retail sales counter where they sell some of the pearls they harvest. Latendresse's wife and daughters now only operate the American Pearl jewelry company.

The high prices of the US freshwater pearl is in direct proportion to the cost of production, with labor being a large percentage of the cost. The quality is also very high, however, the highest quality Chinese fw pearls rival the quality of the TN pearls.

This farm is in the Kentucky lake in Tennessee, and one reason for the high quality is the clean water with plenty of nutrients.

This summer I visited the farm, and also visited James Peach at his resort. Peach shut down his farm about 4 years ago because with the high cost of growing in the US, he couldn't compete with the Chinese fw pearl industry.

His shell business has also slowed down, probably because of what the Japanese have done after buying the Latendress shell operation. I recently hooked Peach up with a China prospect who buys a lot of shells and makes nuclei to sell all over the world.

We are always willing to wholesale some of our products if someone contacts us, and by next year we hope to open a wholesale only web site. We don't carry a huge variety, but we carry high quality pearls that are great for jewelry making.

Bill

Originally Posted by motherspearls

Hi From Canada
I fell in love with the variety of pearls available at the Tucson Gem Show in Feb. and want to use pearls in my Art Jewellery. I have been using The Earth Bazaar and Rings and Things for my wholesale pearls, findings and such and would like to know if anyone can suggest similar or better sites for the same. I also would like to know addresses of pearl farms in China, Japan, Or US? I am just starting my business and would appreciate any information. I am trying to educate myself over the internet about pearls and have found some great sites like the one that brought me here. I hope to learn a lot from this forum!
Thanks
Motherspearls.

Hi, I am in China and can visit some freshwater pearl farms. Tell me what you are looking for.

hello, I am a chinese girl,24 years old. And I am very familiar with chinses pearl market. I think I can be your chinese purchaser and can help you find the pearl which is in low price and high quality. If you would like me to be you friend , I also very glad to be.welcome mail to me,my mail is : pearlol@hotmail.com

Hi motherspearls,

I've been living in Suzhou, China for a bit over a year now (originally from Chicago) and am just starting a business selling FWPs from this area. In my research this week, I came across this site - I can't believe all the great information! Saw your post today and wanted to let you know that I have developed some relationships with a few pearl farmers over the past year and have access to many different shapes/sizes/colors of pearls. I'm not sure exactly what it is that you are looking for, or if the prices that I can offer would be competitive with the vendors at the shows in Canada and the U.S., but if you'd like to send me a private message with more detail and any questions you might have, we could start from there. I'd be happy to get some quotes and see if we could work something out that would be reasonable for both of us.

Either way, good luck with your quest!

Best regards,

Meech

Hi Motherspearls,

Welcome to the site! you will love it here! Lucky you to go to the Tuscon show!!!! Some Day I will attend! Welcome!!!


Ash