GIA adds hanadama-quality comment

[Hyun-Yoon Yoon]

See the under link.
https://www.gia.edu/gia-news-press/...comment-added-to-pearl-classification-reports

 

[CortezPearls]

See the under link.
https://www.gia.edu/gia-news-press/...comment-added-to-pearl-classification-reports

It's a good one!
Good to see GIA adding the Hanadama trade name to the report.

 

[jshepherd]

This has been a topic of discussion with the board of the CPAA for the past couple of weeks. There are some mixed feelings.

I called a friend of mine at GIA who I assumed was part of this update as she was the one primarily responsible for the recent classification report. We spoke in length about the issues with the Pearl Science Laboratory of Japan and the criteria requirements GIA was putting in place. We're submitting a few strands in Tokyo next week to understand better their criteria since we don't have a master strand set with GIA hanadama.

If their standards are as Akira described, and they are consistent across labs, this could be a great thing. The PSL certificates have become more and more politicized, and the grading standards applied have become too loose. I've seen many strands with PSL certs included that would have never passed a decade ago and, in my opinion, are not hanadama, A vendor in Japan told me they've even been able to get TV Grade (akoya sold on TV shopping shows in Japan similar to HSN and QVC) certed. Pearls that are destined for shopping channels are almost always lower commercial grade. It's basically like giving the same certification to a $100 strand of pearls that is typically reserved for a $1000 strand. This allows sellers to price-point buy hanadama for the certificate instead of quality-curating - basically defeating the whole purpose of the certificate.

 

[Remarkable Rocks]

This has been a topic of discussion with the board of the CPAA for the past couple of weeks. There are some mixed feelings.

I called a friend of mine at GIA who I assumed was part of this update as she was the one primarily responsible for the recent classification report. We spoke in length about the issues with the Pearl Science Laboratory of Japan and the criteria requirements GIA was putting in place. We're submitting a few strands in Tokyo next week to understand better their criteria since we don't have a master strand set with GIA hanadama.

If their standards are as Akira described, and they are consistent across labs, this could be a great thing. The PSL certificates have become more and more politicized, and the grading standards applied have become too loose. I've seen many strands with PSL certs included that would have never passed a decade ago and, in my opinion, are not hanadama, A vendor in Japan told me they've even been able to get TV Grade (akoya sold on TV shopping shows in Japan similar to HSN and QVC) certed. Pearls that are destined for shopping channels are almost always lower commercial grade. It's basically like giving the same certification to a $100 strand of pearls that is typically reserved for a $1000 strand. This allows sellers to price-point buy hanadama for the certificate instead of quality-curating - basically defeating the whole purpose of the certificate.

This is a very good point. Until there is a standard that is established by uniform master sets, then we will see abuse of the descriptor and risk undermining confidence in the term and ultimately, the market. The gemstone world has seen the abuse of terms by laboratories and vendors to the point where they become hollow. Examples would be "pigeon blood" and "Paraiba", even "emerald" for what is essentially green beryl.

 

[jshepherd]

While Hisano and I were in Hong Kong we met with Tom Moses from GIA New York and Tom Takada from GIA Tokyo. They described the process they went through to create master grading sets to include hanadama. It was very reassuring given the variation of range we've seen with certed hanadama coming out of Japan.

We met with our main akoya supplier in Japan who agreed to put some strands together that would meet GIA's criteria. We submitted strands and pairs to both the New York and Tokyo lab. One piece didn't pass (interestingly it had already passed PSL certification), and all the others passed with highest marks or secondary marks for surface. GIA allows surface leniency with their hanadama certificates.

This is what they look like.