Not sure if this will be as interesting as the real pearl photos.. but for the real pearl "geeks" out there... (it took some time for us to find some one in Hong Kong who could scan these slides to digital form) .. but here are some x-ray photos of the sort of Chinese in-body nucleated fresh water
pearls that have been discussed in this thread.
The Chinese pearl producers are using the exact same method as have been used in Japan's Lake Biwa and Lake Kasumi for some time. They are nucleating with pre drilled nuclei. At the time of seeding they "spear" both the fully drilled nucleus and a small bit of mantle tissue on a very thin sort of awl tool and deposit both into the body, at which point the graft will grow into a pearl sac. This is the best method known to keep the nuclei from separating from the mantle tissue. So when you look at these pearls strands in x-ray, you will see that there are two intersecting lines. One is the drill hole from before the pearl was made and the other after harvest and processing.
Mr. Yanase, one of a handful of active Japanese fresh water pearl producers today credits Haruo Sakai with inventing this adaptation of ocean pearl nucleating technique that has given rise to the vast quantities of bead nucleated fresh water pearls available today.
Mr. Sakai was a pearl farmer in Lake Biwa and at one point was designated a living national treasure of Japan. He was famous for teaching many other pearl farmers in Lake Biwa how to nucleate mussels. Mr. Sakai actually patented this method in Japan.
We x-rayed these "Chinese Kasumi" pearls fully expecting to find that it was his method still alive and well today.
More photos of the actual pearls I have been finding here coming soon... also probably my favorite find on this trip... hundreds of old Voll family photos many of them documenting the pearl trade in New York, Phillipines, Japan and China dating from 1948! We are still feeding these through the slide scanner.. it's a very rewarding evening project for me!
