Josh's Tahitians

[jshepherd]

I spent an hour matching some of the new Tahitians I got from Josh. Nice color... they are coming together well.

Clearly I am not the pearl photographer of the office!


Close up of same.

 

[GemGeek]

Nice and really DARK.

 

[Josh]

Aw, gee. Thanks. With Tahitians the darker the pearls, the higher the number of A grades in the lot. Also, the advantage in having a very dark first graft is that the color and quality is preserved in the bigger pearls of the second graft. In the second graft the color always gets lighter so if you start with a dark first one then your chances of first rate color in the second graft go way up.

 

[GemGeek]

Then it sounds like you have some excellent stock for your second grafts. Do you know what percentage survive the second time around?

 

[jshepherd]

And I believe this is the maximum number of strands we were able to make from them. Several of them were multi-color strands so I was able to match more than I had originally expected.

A total of 21 strands... all in three day's work!

 

[GemGeek]

Goodness gracious, what pearls! Jeremy, you really are great at matching. Makes me want to run right over to your office and buy one....except that my budget was busted south of the equator!

<sigh>

 

[Caitlin]

What fun matching pearls for a strand is!

 

[GemGeek]

What fun matching pearls for a strand is!

Other than composing mixed colors from strands of single colors, I've never matched pearls. I'm so jealous.

We didn't get to see the Tahitian sorting operations at Robert Wan - Tahiti. I would have loved to have my hands full of dark pearls. Can you imagine the photos? Yum!

If you saw the bag of high-grade peacocks in my tour report, that's my dream necklace!

Good for you, Caitlin!

 

[jshepherd]

Sunday was fun. Monday was interesting. Tuesday was tiresome. Today I wanted to pull my hair out. That last strand was a bit of a stretch, 11-14.5mm multi-color.

At least I did not have to drill them all. They are on the plane with me tomorrow, heading to Hong Kong for the show. I did the matching personally, but the drilling would have set me back another day.

Now that my eyes are tired it is time to catch up on Pearl-Guide reading!

 

[GemGeek]

Sunday was fun. Monday was interesting. Tuesday was tiresome. Today I wanted to pull my hair out. That last strand was a bit of a stretch, 11-14.5mm multi-color.

At least I did not have to drill them all. They are on the plane with me tomorrow, heading to Hong Kong for the show. I did the matching personally, but the drilling would have set me back another day.

Now that my eyes are tired it is time to catch up on Pearl-Guide reading!

Okay, maybe I wouldn't want to try matching as a full-time job. But, clearly, you have a gift for it. If the pearls were limitless, it would probably be a lot more fun than working with a finite batch. Then again, the finite batch presents the real challenge - How can I make the most of the pearls and the most of my investment?

 

[WeeGem]

Those are just gorgeous. Wouldn't it be fun to lay on a bed of those???? If money were no object of course.

 

[Valeria101]

Wouldn't it be fun to lay on a bed of those???? If money were no object of course.

.... money... and back pain!

If those pictures are not the greatest and still show significant pewter and green overtones galore, wonder what these dark ladies look in flesh.

 

[Josh]

I just got back from a week on the farm. What a treat to see the pearls arrived at their (pretty much) end product. 21 strands in three days sounds like hard work to me. Beautiful job.
Gemgeek, most of the oysters survive the operation (approx 15% mortality rate in the second graft) but usually 55 to 65% produce sellable pearls.

 

[GemGeek]

Thanks Josh, I was curious about that. Then it's not so much the mortality as it is the lowered quality in second-graft pearls. Ideally, the value of the larger pearls offsets the losses.

We are suckers for photos here, so if you get any interesting pearls, or just want to show us a bucket of Tahitian pearls, post it on "Show us your pearls". I keep going back to look at the pinks!

Cheers,
Blaire

 

[nlerner]

most of the oysters survive the operation (approx 15% mortality rate in the second graft)





While visiting the "Sea World" in San Diego we came across a small sanctuary dedicated to the oysters the were sacrificed to give us those precious pearls.

I found it very touching.

 

[GemGeek]

That's just precious. We owe those oysters and mussels, big time!

 

[Josh]

Hi Blaire,
Yes, the higher price does offset the lower numbers. Our second grafts typically go for a little under twice the price of second grafts.
I'll try to organize more pics soon if not when the new harvest comes in.

 

[salem]

Our second grafts typically go for a little under twice the price of second grafts.

Wow, confusing post. Do you mean the second grafts go for twice the first graft?

 

[Josh]

Uh, yeah. Just seeing if anyone was paying attention. The second grafts go for a little under twice the price of the first grafts. Thanks Salem.

 

[Valeria101]

I'll try to organize more pics soon if not when the new harvest comes in.

Hm... new harvest, you say? When is that?

There is o such thing as 'too many pictures', at least not on this side.

'Curious about one thing: it is sometimes mentioned that the first grafts tend to be the smallest, but also the highest quality. Is that right? Perhaps the next round of pictures could pick up some of the finest, regardless of size....