Australian akoya pearls - any good?

LorenLL

LorenLL

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I've came upon a GIA article written in 2017 talking about akoya pearl farming in Eastern Australia, mainly Broken Bay:
Akoya Cultured Pearl Farming in Eastern Australia

According to the article the pearls do not undergo the same process done on their Japanese counterparts; in addition, the nacre is much thicker, 0.8mm vs 0.2-0.3mm of Japanese akoyas.

Based on a brief search on Google the farm mentioned in the report also has an online store of their own, and judging by some of the product photos, their pearls do look different from the Japanese pearls, with a solid, creamy body colour and silky lustre instead of the latter's pure white/pink colour and mirror-like lustre.

That said, I've never seen an Australian akoya in person, and there are not much information other than the GIA article and the pearl farm website. Does anyone own or have seen Australian akoya pearls? Are the pearls similar to what was shown in the website? In addition, what's your opinion on them?

Edit: updated the link of the GIA article
 
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Oh I had to go look them up, I had not seen them before. It’s very interesting that have akoya in Australia. The pictures do look beautiful but I have not seen any in person.
 
Like they are growing the Akoya oyster in Australian waters? I’m not sure it would look any different unless there’s some special kind of pollution or something in the water that changes how the animal makes the pearl
 
Ladykyva said:
Like they are growing the Akoya oyster in Australian waters? I’m not sure it would look any different unless there’s some special kind of pollution or something in the water that changes how the animal makes the pearl
Click to expand...
Since the article was written in 2017, it could be assumed that akoya pearls are farmed in Australia for at least a decade now.

While the article said that the environment of Australian farms and Japanese farms are very similar, one very big difference is most Japanese akoya pearls go through intense treatments (maeshori, pinking etc.) to attain the color and lustre customers typically associated with akoya pearls, while Australian akoya pearls do not.
 
Would the warmer water temperature of Australian waters increase the rate at which nacre is laid down, and would that reduce the luster compared with Japanese akoyas?
 
Pearl Dreams said:
Would the warmer water temperature of Australian waters increase the rate at which nacre is laid down, and would that reduce the luster compared with Japanese akoyas?
Click to expand...

Quoting from the article:
It is located approximately the same distance from the equator as the southern Japanese pearl farms, and its very similar seasonal variations of water temperature optimize nacre quality during the cultivation process (Strack, 2006; Gilbert et al., 2017).
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Not sure about what's exactly meant by "southern Japanese pearl farms" (AFAIK the southern end of Japanese pearl farming region reaches Amami Ooshima), but for akoyas it is usually the region around Mie and further north in recent years. In this case I would expect the quality of the "raw" pearls to be similar, except that the Australian akoyas would have a much thicker nacre due to the difference in farming practices.
 
Apparently there are Akoya pearl farms off the south coast of India, too. Learn something new every day.
 
Quality is excellent. A Japanese company originally started the farm after searching the east coast for the best water conditions that would suit Akoya. Since this time, the farm has changed ownership but is now owned by Pearls of Australia (think Cygnet Bay Pearls in West Australia). We supply them with some equipment. And can confirm, no treatment.
 
LorenLL said:
Since the article was written in 2017, it could be assumed that akoya pearls are farmed in Australia for at least a decade now.

While the article said that the environment of Australian farms and Japanese farms are very similar, one very big difference is most Japanese akoya pearls go through intense treatments (maeshori, pinking etc.) to attain the color and lustre customers typically associated with akoya pearls, while Australian akoya pearls do not.
Click to expand...
I can’t see any article maybe I’m missing it
 
Ladykyva said:

This guys basically says the coldness of the water makes for thicker nac and higher luster
Click to expand...
The thickness of a pearl's nacre is inversely related to the coldness of the water; the colder the water, the slower the pearl oyster grows, hence a slower rate of nacre deposition. Cold temperature also favour a "tighter" nacre growth, therefore akoya pearls farmed in cold waters tend to have a higher luster even when comparing to akoyas farmed in warmer regions like Vietnam, southern China, etc.

Another major factor of nacre thickness is cultivation time. According to the GIA article Australian akoyas have a cultivation period of 18 months, which is much longer than that of typical Japanese akoyas, so the nacre is much thicker despite the water temperature and quality of the Australian akoya pearl farm being similar to Japanese farms.
 
LorenLL said:
The thickness of a pearl's nacre is inversely related to the coldness of the water; the colder the water, the slower the pearl oyster grows, hence a slower rate of nacre deposition. Cold temperature also favour a "tighter" nacre growth, therefore akoya pearls farmed in cold waters tend to have a higher luster even when comparing to akoyas farmed in warmer regions like Vietnam, southern China, etc.

Another major factor of nacre thickness is cultivation time. According to the GIA article Australian akoyas have a cultivation period of 18 months, which is much longer than that of typical Japanese akoyas, so the nacre is much thicker despite the water temperature and quality of the Australian akoya pearl farm being similar to Japanese farms.
Click to expand...
About the bolded part-- I understand what you are trying to say but that part is incorrect as worded. (South sea pearls have very thick nacre compared to akoyas, but are farmed in warm water).

It is true that nacre is deposited more slowly in cold water, though.

Tahitian pearls are also farmed in warmer water but some have high luster anyway. For example, the pearls from Rikitea, on Mangarava in the Gambier Islands, are left in the water for a long time and thus have thick nacre. They tend to be a bit smaller and have high luster (a younger oyster, perhaps?)
 
The thickness of a pearl's nacre is inversely related to the coldness of the water
Click to expand...

The tricky language is "inversely related," I think. Two variables are inversely related when an increase in one variable causes a reduction in the other variable. We all agree on cold=thinner, etc.

I'm wondering if these satiny Australian Akoya look similar to freshwater pearls, and it would be nice to see some side-by-side-by-side photos. I love the hard shininess of Japanese Akoya.
 
Yes, I understand; I should have read it better.

But Mangareva is in cooler waters than the other French Polynesian islands; nevertheless, the nacre of the Rikitea pearls tends to be thicker.
Presumably because they are left in the water longer.

Here is an extreme example; in post #11 he states this is from a Rikitea lot:
jshepherd

Thread 'Crazy 4.5 mm Nacre'

As most of you know, we've been slicing a lot of pearls over the past few months as Hisano builds up her geode and finestrino collection.

At the ruckus she showed off a Tahitian geode with black diamonds. It wasn't that large, maybe around 12 mm. But the nacre was crazy. It was several millimeters thick. I figured it was one of those random pearls that had a really happy oyster momma.

But as we've been slicing more of this batch -- pearls we pulled for this from a big lot of mainly drop peacocks -- we're finding most have insanely thick nacre.

Sorry for the poor camera phone shots...
 
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