[john675]

Thanks for the photos - great fun seeing your shopping expeditions!

Mike, interesting observation. I am looking forward to seeing the Grade 2/3 nuclei in comparison. It makes sense (regarding not needing a white nucleus when the pearls are dark). I learned something new today.
John

[jshepherd]

The following is a photo of a cut pearl. You can see the brownish striation at the top of the nucleus.

It is a golden South Sea pearl.

[Mervione]

The nacre seems very thick to me.

[jshepherd]

Yes, the nacre is very good. But what I am trying to show with the photo is what a nucleus will look like when it is second or third grade. It will not be stark white.

[Hanaleimom]

Originally Posted by jshepherd

The following is a photo of a cut pearl. You can see the brownish striation at the top of the nucleus.

It is a golden South Sea pearl.

Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for posting the picture.

Mikeyy, same to you too.

Like waimeamomi says, I feel sad. I've re-read the reference material again regarding "pearl nucleus manufacturing" on the left side of the page and understand what Mikeyy was showing now.

[smetzler]

Originally Posted by jshepherd

The following is a photo of a cut pearl. It is a golden South Sea pearl.

Jeremy, if you have more 3mm+-nacred SS Golds you are planning to chop up, no doubt Pearl-Guiders would be willing to alternatively dispose. Remember, we're not wallowing in vaults of those things here!

(Or did you create two superior Mabés?)

[GemGeek]

Originally Posted by smetzler

(Or did you create two superior Mabés?)

Right, Steve -- I'd call those golden button earrings!

[pattye]

Well, Gang,as they say, "watch the donut, not the hole!"

[callire]

Wow, the first necklace you posted is LOVELY! Thank you so much for posting pics!

[Josh]

Hi gang,
Sorry to be out of if for some time now but I'm back for a few days before running off again.
Mikeyy you nailed it. That broken pearl is giant clam for sure. In my sixteen years of experience drilling pearls I have never had one break that was not giant clam. Another interesting thing that that photo revealed is the borderline nacre coating. Judging by the size of the drill hole the pearl looks to be an 8 or 8.5mm. If you need .8mm to legally export a pearl...
I'm not throwing mud at the Pearl Market people and their farming. They also buy from other farmers (me included). The industry clearly needs better control over what nuclei are used and what gets exported.
We use MOP nuclei from Pinctada margartifera AND maxima. It's tough to get the bigger sizes from our black lips but the Maxima doesn't really seem to have a limit to the size. We have some 18mm beads on stock. A proper nuclei, whether made of MOP or freshwater mussel will not explode a pearl like the one in the photo. Pearls without thick nacre can split along stratification lines but they won't explode like the one in the photo. Does any one disagree?

[Hanaleimom]

Josh,

The pearl was about 13mm. Drill hole was large to slide into leather cord. I think it's the perception created by the picture and the camera angle. I did not measure the nacre thickness; but remembered that it was somewhere around 1mm radius approximately just by looking after it was exploded. I tried calculating the actual nacre thickness (2nd picture seems to be a better representation of the pearl straight on) by using the ratio method: screen's nacre to the screen's whole diameter of the pearl then apply to the 13mm to solve for unknow nacre thickness. It turned out to be about .8mm or so. I think it is a close approximation by this calculation.

I also saw this video from PDT's website: http://www.perlesdetahiti.net/site/en/1663.html
(Les aventuriers de la perle noire). Or go to Main site>Showroom>Video. It's in French. The whole video is about 1 hour long, lots of interview with Robert Wan. Too bad there is no forward button. Towards the end of the video, I'd say 45 minutes, there are some scenes at the research laboratories. My French is pretty rusty now, so I couldn't understand most of it. They had footage of a few farms' pearls cut in half, one was Garfon or something like that. I saw mostly white nuclei. Who knows, it could be Miss. mussels and the brown striations could be very faint and I did not see it. I wrote to PDT asking about that footage; and whether they can tell me what kind of nucleus it is. That was a week ago. With the recent shake up, I don't know if or when I will get an answer.

[Mikeyy]

Originally Posted by Hanaleimom

Josh,

The pearl was about 13mm. Drill hole was large to slide into leather cord. I think it's the perception created by the picture and the camera angle. I did not measure the nacre thickness; but remembered that it was somewhere around 1mm radius approximately just by looking after it was exploded. I tried calculating the actual nacre thickness (2nd picture seems to be a better representation of the pearl straight on) by using the ratio method: screen's nacre to the screen's whole diameter of the pearl then apply to the 13mm to solve for unknow nacre thickness. It turned out to be about .8mm or so. I think it is a close approximation by this calculation.

I also saw this video from PDT's website: http://www.perlesdetahiti.net/site/en/1663.html
(Les aventuriers de la perle noire). Or go to Main site>Showroom>Video. It's in French. The whole video is about 1 hour long, lots of interview with Robert Wan. Too bad there is no forward button. Towards the end of the video, I'd say 45 minutes, there are some scenes at the research laboratories. My French is pretty rusty now, so I couldn't understand most of it. They had footage of a few farms' pearls cut in half, one was Garfon or something like that. I saw mostly white nuclei. Who knows, it could be Miss. mussels and the brown striations could be very faint and I did not see it. I wrote to PDT asking about that footage; and whether they can tell me what kind of nucleus it is. That was a week ago. With the recent shake up, I don't know if or when I will get an answer.

I don't speak french so 45 minutes is a while. But I did see the nuclei that they appear to be implanting early in the film. Its yellow because it is a "Biocoated" nuclei. This coating of antibiotics is used in Tahitian farms to ward off infections and mortality. Its impossible to tell after this process which are which. You really have to see the naked bead.

[Josh]

Hi Cathy,
Funny what a huge marketing job has been done for R. Wan by our pearl promotion board that is paid for by taxes on everyone's pearls. Anyway, that's not what we were talking about it is it?
If I were king, I would allow for less severe thickness controls on pearls over 11mm. As oysters get older the growth slows down and pearls, like the one that split, can often have borderline nacre on the nucleus. Imagine being a farmer and having your 15mm 'A' grade round that has .7mm on the nucleus get ground up into powder at export controls.

[Hanaleimom]

Hi everyone,

I just received an answer from PDT from my inquiry (see post #41).

I am cutting and pasting it here:

----- Original Message -----
From: lo cedrik <mailto:cedrik.lo@perli.gov.pf>
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: TALFER anne-sandrine <mailto:anne-sandrine.talfer@perli.gov.pf> ; Leilani <mailto:gie@perlesdetahiti.net>
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 10:15 AM
Subject: your email 27 july

Dear Mr xxxxxx,

As you said, most of nucleus used in Tahitian pearl farms are from Mississippi fresh water mussel shell. But, all nucleus from Mississippi mussel have not the light brown striation on white. That depends of the quality of the nucleus, top quality nucleus are white, low quality nucleus have more brown striation. As we don't need white nucleus for our pearl compare to akoya pearl for exemple, most of the nucleus you will find here will have brown striation.
There is other nucleus from fresh water mussel from China that looks like Mississippi mussels too.

Our research shown that good quality nucleus enhance the quality of the pearl so some pearl farmer decided to improve the quality of their nucleus. Thus, you will find more white looking nucleus today.

Therefore, other kind of nucleus exist but are not allowed to be used for tahitian culture pearl such as giant clam nucleus or bironite.

We have specified what are the nucleus caracteristic for tahitian culture pearl.

I hope that I answered to your question

sincerely yours

Cédrik LO


Cédrik LO (PhD)
Head of Dpt Research & development
Pearl culture agency
Tel : 689-50.00.05 / Fax 689-43.81.59



> Email Address: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Email Format: Html
> Professional: No
>
> Country: United States
>
>
>
> Hi,
> Can you please tell me more about the types of nucleus normally used in
> most Tahitian pearl farms? My general knowledge is that the Mississippi
> fresh water mussel shell is used (which has light brown striations on
> white). However, I saw opaque white nucleus in the following movie
> (about 45 minutes long) http://www.perlesdetahiti.net/site/en/1663.html <http://www.perlesdetahiti.net/site/en/1663.html> .
>
> This part is near the end of the video, where the Laboratory research
> showed various pearls cut in half. They were from Manihi, and possibly
> Gempearls, etc ( I cannot read the writing well) etc. The pearls I saw
> have dark nacre and the nucleus are opaque white (ceramic-looking). What
> kind of mother of pearl is used to make that white nucleus?
>
> Thank you,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


EDITED: Just a note here, I am not justifying TPM's type of nucleus in the Hawaii picture. I just want to share the information I received regarding the PDT video. Thanks.

[pattye]

Cathy,

Thanks very much for following up and posting this info.