[akday]

I have a natural double strand pearl necklace and in all of my searching have not been able to find a reputable jeweler who knows pearls and can do my appraisal... any recommendations?
P.s. will post pictures as soon as I can figure out how!

[akday]

okay, I think I got it figured out

[Caitlin]

There is an appraisor who is often mentioned on this forum, Sharon ?. Jeremy and Pattye both use her. But you'll have to wait until someome else answers to get her full name. She is in Idaho or some place like that.

Have you had them certified as natural? Those photos are a little small, but it does look promising.

Could you perchance post a close up? And I would love to hear the story about it.

I just wanted to add- We get so few pictures of natural pearls here...... I am a big natural pearl lover and love to see other pictures.

[akday]

Thanks Caitlin. I will try to get a close up, they are so hard to photograph! The pearls were my mother's, and I believe previously my grandmother's, unfortunatly the story got a little forgotten after all these years. They were certified as natural and although I've seen the paperwork before, after my mother passed away so much stuff was misplaced and I haven't found it again so they have a date with GIA as soon as I get a call back about how to make payment (i.e. amount). I tried to take them to a local jeweler here in NC but he was not the brightest bulb so there is no way I was leaving them with him. Any idea about how long the GIA NY lab takes for turn around?

[PearlFinderCharles]

I was just there...It takes 10 days from the time you drop em off to em.
I hope that helps ya !

Charles

[Valeria101]

Wow for the clasp! And the pearls look awesome Glad to see them here.

[DrTKStern]

Originally Posted by PearlFinderCharles

I was just there...It takes 10 days from the time you drop em off to em.
I hope that helps ya !

Charles

GIA in New York and San Diego (Carlsbad) both took more than two months to certify recent batches of natural ocean pearls for me. They were concerned that someone has invented a new culturing technique, but eventually they concluded they were natural.

[GemGeek]

Originally Posted by DrTKStern

GIA in New York and San Diego (Carlsbad) both took more than two months to certify recent batches of natural ocean pearls for me. They were concerned that someone has invented a new culturing technique, but eventually they concluded they were natural.

That's very interesting. Their careful attention should make you feel even better about your certification being thorough and not a quick perusal. It is unusual for a large batch of naturals to come along.

I noticed you were having trouble putting up photos. Can you add a hidden page to your website and post the link here? I often put vacation photos up on my website on a page that is not linked to the other pages, or has a hidden link.

[DrTKStern]

I tried to upload, but file is 4MB and may be too large. Is it visible anywhere?

[DrTKStern]

Thanks for posting, Caitlin. I'm due to take a Photo Shop class on December 1; but for now I have no clue how to crop as the camera does 12 megapixels or something. Please put up the other two photos I sent you; and I promise I won't ask you to do it again. Tom

[akday]

I have placed NUMEROUS calls to GIA and have left messages, no one seems inclined to return my call. I don't live in NY so I couldn't just walk in there, I have to mail them. How do I figure out how much the certification will cost? There are so many diferent qualifying factors on the price it's hard to figure out what is applicable and what isn't. TIA