Blue Akoyas

[Jaye]

Aside from Japan and Vietnam, where in actuality are the blue Akoyas being farmed?
Here in Bkk, i’m seeing round strands, and they all say the blue Akoyas are all from Japan.
But does that mean that they are auctioned in Japan, or are the blues actually farmed in Japanese water?

Thank you all for any info

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Yes, they are actually being farmed in Japanese waters, as well as Vietnam.

 

[pattye]

Do any of you, like me, wonder what the harvest run that includes the blue akoya looks like? I've also seen the natural pink and pale gold. What percentage of the harvest is actually blue and what are other colors, white of course, as I can't imagine all are blue. Have the farms been able to color select to produce a higher percentage of blue? Have we discussed this before, lol?

 

[Pearl Dreams]

The blue color is a result of injury to the gonad in the process of grafting it, as I understand it. A brownish /black substance produced by the oyster covers the bead and nacre is laid over that. Through the layers of nacre (which is transparent) the color looks blue if the nacre is thick and brown/tan if the nacre is thin.

I don't think the blue color is therefore something one could select for as the injury is unintentional.

 

[Jaye]

Another question Pearl Dreams,
I’ve heard that there are only a few Vietnamese Akoya farms; are they all owned by Japanese, and again are all the technicians Japanese?

 

[Jenny]

Interesting. Now, I understand why they are considered rare. Thank you, Pearl Dreams!

 

[BWeaves]

Since blue is caused by impurities under the nacre, rather than the from the mollusk's shell color, I wonder if there is a way to force different types of mollusks to create blue?

Or is it more profitable to create white pearls and the blues are just a secondary sale because they happen to be pretty?

 

[Pearl Dreams]

I wonder if there is a higher attrition rate among oysters that have had this sort of injury during the implantation process? It seems logical that a higher per cent of these shells would die.

 

[pattye]

I wonder what Jeremy would add to this discussion? So would the process of production of blue South Sea pearls differ from Akoya? Is that color all an accident? Because the nacre is definitely blue on my SS strand. Many of the pearls are more of "gas" pearls and some do have a loose nucleus and are lighter in weight. Fascinating!

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Interesting question, Pattye!

I suppose cutting one in half would show where the color is. I wonder if any of my pearl books have a photo of a bluish SSP cut in half? Maybe Bari's book-- he has photos of many halved pearls. Will check.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

I looked page by page through Hubert Bari's book -- no photo.

However, if there are natural SSP that are that bluish color, then it must be the color of the nacre itself.

Also, considering how thick SS nacre is compared to akoya, it doesn't seem that the color of brown organic matter over a nucleus should be able to be seen through it.

 

[SunSeeker]

How interesting! I really love the blue pearls!

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Another question Pearl Dreams,
I’ve heard that there are only a few Vietnamese Akoya farms; are they all owned by Japanese, and again are all the technicians Japanese?

Sorry, I just saw this question now. I don't know the answer.

 

[Katbran]

I don't think they are all owned by the Japanese. As I understand it the Vietnamese company Hoang Gia owns several farms and there are some small independent farmers.

 

[CathyKeshi]

Pearl Dreams, your thread posting the GIA article on akoya pearl farming in Australia has a lot of correlations to this thread, and info on color development in akoyas! I don't pretend to understand much of it, but it's interesting!!!

 

[pattye]

This GIA article references an Australian Akoya farm; it does show photos of the range of harvest colors, linking here in case anyone missed the other thread.

As I understand it, most of the technicians that do the nucleating are Japanese, who are secretative about their skill, knowledge and expertise. Farms track and evaluate the quality of the pearls each technician produces. To his credit, Josh Humbert of Kamoka Pearls was trained by Japanese technicians and is able to do his own grafting.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Thanks for posting the the link to the article, Pattye.

 

[CathyKeshi]

I found it fascinating that the technicians seemed to see different color results based on their techniques. Thanks for posting the link over here Pattye.

 

[Katbran]

Thanks Pattye - interesting article !

 

[Jenny]

Thanks for the article.