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Last year, Hisano and I led two different groups on tours of akoya pearl farms in Japan. In June we visited farms in Uwajima, and in November we went to Tsushima, Sasebo and Nagasaki. These trips were part of the Pearl Association of America's new immersive experiences initiative, and we were...

I have not heard of this lab before. But that doesn't really matter. If someone is offering you a strand of 7-7.5 mm hanadama for 15000 yen, it is not a strand of hanadama. You can only get a very (very) low-quality strand of akoya pearls in that size for that price.

This is really cool! The clasp too!

It definitely doesn't look like any type of pearl.

Pearl, purl, perle .... LUSTER! Love it!

I think it's more likely a piece of shell, not an actual pearl.

No, that's not a conch pearl, unfortunately.

These are a lot of fun. We shared a strand and a bracelet of these during a livestream in Hong Kong last year. I hope they continue to grow more of them.

Wow! The dyed Chinese freshwaters being sold as black Tahitian pearls are the most unfortunate, IMO. That crosses the line from something that could otherwise be excused as just satire (the Onion News of the pearl world) to actual fraud. He is violating FTC Act §45, 16 CFR Part 23, State UDAP...

On our June farm tour, whenever we took photos we yelled "Luster!" instead of cheese ;)

Very cool!!!

This is a beautiful write up by Esther Ligthart, who joined @jeg and I on the trip to Japan in November! It was a warm July evening when a message appeared on my phone, the kind of message that feels casual when you first read it, yet lingers longer than expected once the screen goes dark. “I...

It's a strand if inexpensive Chinese freshwater pearls, probably no more than 10 or 20 years old. It's really only worth a few dollars. It's not at all what she described to you, unfortunately. This is something we can all tell visually, and your Raman spectroscopy report confirmed it. You see...

I'd recommend checking out KariPearls.com to get some comparables. She has some near buttons and near ovals there in similar gram weights. I can't really make out the shape of yours, but it does appear to be more free-form baroque overall.

This is a fun piece! It looks like a swag style. The piece on the bust looks like a choker, maybe 14-16 inches - short to frame the collarbone. This works because the dipping strands (swags) need some tension form the main strand to hang nicely. 18 inches would work too, but if you go with 30...

Try this - https://archive.ph/19aIP

I see a famous personality developing ..... :LOL::ROFLMAO:

Here is the Pearl Talk!

The term cobalt comes from a treatment with cobalt-60 radiation. The nucleus of the pearl is made of freshwater mussel shell and freshwater shell contains manganese, which reacts with cobalt-60 radiation (saltwater shell has no manganese). The reaction causes the nucleus to turn dark, and this...

This is a bit last-minute, but Pierre Fallourd will be passing through Los Angeles this Sunday on his way back to Australia, and we’ve invited him to sit down with us for a conversation. We are going to be streaming live at 3 pm Pacific this Sunday. Pierre spent about 15 years at Jewelmer, then...