waimeamomi
Natural Pearl
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2008
- Messages
- 1,238
I received my first shipment of Kamoka pearls yesterday direct from Josh. It has been a near epic process, and I have learned much since I started back in May. First I learned that Josh traveled all summer to some pretty wild places, so I really didn't seriously start until August when he returned. Then I had the ordering learning curve to take on. Josh was a patient teacher and after many, many questions and me trying to figure things out (I really need people to draw me pictures) I figured out how to break up the order, based on his minimums and my budget. Phew. Just when I had it figured out the Sept. harvest pictures came out, and I had to go back to the drawing board due to Sept. harvest lust on my part. Then the govt. announced the export tax relief (I know that's not the correct term) from Oct. to the end of the year, so the shipment was pushed back to Oct. Next came the drilling issue - something I just sort of passed up in my mind. I was hesitant to have them drilled here, so another addition to the order. From there it was trying to figure out how to get the pearls from one island chain to another, something you'd think would be easy, and Josh worked very hard to avoid the very high cost of Fed Ex which also meant they had to go through Tennessee (??). Our surfer delivery was delayed once by big waves (keeping him in Tahiti) and then cancelled when he decided it was too much responsibility to carry the pearls (on an airplane, not a surfboard). Next we tried another method, but Josh found he could ship to Europe using it, but not Hawaii (USA - Homeland Security). Finally they had to go Fed Ex, where after a slight delay for me to fill out importers paper work (I'm official, at least to Fed Ex), they arrived yesterday.
I had my doubts as to whether it was worth it, and maybe it was better to go through a middle man after all, but now that I have seen them, I am positive this is the way I wanted to do it. May not be much cheaper, but having the choices and variety make it worth it to me. I wanted to post the whole pile, but of course my batteries were dead, and while they charged I went ahead and sorted. I have to get on these right away, because Christmas is coming!!! (for some lucky people) I have to decide how to handle them all, and right now my thought is use some for pieces and put some on the web site as is. Of course I want to keep them all and hold them, wear them and sleep with them! They still smell like the ocean, and you can see on some pics, that I haven't even wiped off the drill dust. Here are some shots, and I'll probably do more later. Hard to shoot these darn things because they are so shiny (oh too bad
), and of course I was wearing a red shirt today. On some of the shots it is not my red shirt, but my hands that are showing in the pearls. They are really amazing. 9mm circles and semi-baroques, 8 -11mm rounds and near rounds, and a slew of keishis. Still small potatoes, but for me the Big Time!!!!! I just looked at the downloaded pictures, and they lose so much color when they are reduced. They are much more colorful and less grey (especially those baroques). Anyway, the first shot is some baroques, the 2nd and 3rd are 2 different tones of circle, and the last 2 are the rounds/near rounds. They have more variety than what shows in the pics, but you get the idea!
So now I have them and have to get to work. I told my husband, next time it would be easier to just go get them. I'm still working on that angle. I also got to converse with Josh a lot, once through Skype where we got a brief glance at each other's island, and each other. Have you noticed they don't wear shirts in Tahiti? The men anyway.
I had my doubts as to whether it was worth it, and maybe it was better to go through a middle man after all, but now that I have seen them, I am positive this is the way I wanted to do it. May not be much cheaper, but having the choices and variety make it worth it to me. I wanted to post the whole pile, but of course my batteries were dead, and while they charged I went ahead and sorted. I have to get on these right away, because Christmas is coming!!! (for some lucky people) I have to decide how to handle them all, and right now my thought is use some for pieces and put some on the web site as is. Of course I want to keep them all and hold them, wear them and sleep with them! They still smell like the ocean, and you can see on some pics, that I haven't even wiped off the drill dust. Here are some shots, and I'll probably do more later. Hard to shoot these darn things because they are so shiny (oh too bad
), and of course I was wearing a red shirt today. On some of the shots it is not my red shirt, but my hands that are showing in the pearls. They are really amazing. 9mm circles and semi-baroques, 8 -11mm rounds and near rounds, and a slew of keishis. Still small potatoes, but for me the Big Time!!!!! I just looked at the downloaded pictures, and they lose so much color when they are reduced. They are much more colorful and less grey (especially those baroques). Anyway, the first shot is some baroques, the 2nd and 3rd are 2 different tones of circle, and the last 2 are the rounds/near rounds. They have more variety than what shows in the pics, but you get the idea! So now I have them and have to get to work. I told my husband, next time it would be easier to just go get them. I'm still working on that angle. I also got to converse with Josh a lot, once through Skype where we got a brief glance at each other's island, and each other. Have you noticed they don't wear shirts in Tahiti? The men anyway.
