mm and grams

[mmutiara]

hello all, i am new tothis wonderful forum although i've been lurking here for ages. i learnt so many things here!

now, i am an Indonesian, and would like to buy some pearls from my homeland. as i am quite far from eastern part of indonesia where the pearl farms are, my best bet is to buy online.

problem is, most of the seller are selling using grams instead of mm.

is there any rule of thumb of how many mm per grams of pearl? understood that due to the irregulatity (sorry if this is not the right word) of pearls, such rule may be very far from exact. this is really just to give me ideas on size beore i ask more specific questions to senders.

thanks, greatly appreciated your helps.

 

[Agustus-Collection]

Hi mmutiara, well yes and no.

Usually all single pearls are described with grams and sizes (mm), or at least should be.

In general, depend on the shape the bigger a pearls gets the more expensive the pearl will be per gram.

Example (prices are fictive) a round golden south sea pearl with 11mm weights 2.6grams and cost $215
but a golden round south sea pearl with 16mm weight 5.9grams and cost $1600.

This is different again with baroque pearls, or keshis and of course natural pearls.

Again, every pearl should always be described with weight and sizes only that way you will know what you get!

Salam dari Bali

 

[Cyril Roger Brossard]

Hi, sorry to ask but I am puzzled by this... is mm the abbreviation of millimeter or of momme? thanks in advance. I ask because you said they used grams instead of "mm" this is confusing as one is the weight, the other could be the diameter (metric) or the weight (Japan).

 

[Caitlin]

Momme is the Japanese weight scale for pearls. It is defined in the glossary on this site.

 

[Agustus-Collection]

Momme weight is usually shown as "mm." and so is millimeter

So i only can guess it depends on the seller.

Sorry i guess i misinterpreted the actual question before, thanks Caitlin!

 

[mmutiara]

nonono, actually i meant millimeter when writing mm. i dont even know there is weight scale called momme. this forum is so educative!

thank you all, amd thank you agustus on the milimeter vs gram comparison. i am trying to buy something from lombok mutiara sellers, and almost everything is in grams only! i will ask the sellers then since it seems there is no rule of thimb of mm-gr thingy

oh, and i would loooooooooove to bisit your pearlfarm next time i visit bali. hopefully it is ok.....

 

[Agustus-Collection]

i thought so.

Well, buying pearls in Lombok can be very difficult i agree.

Mostly pearls directly from the farm, are only been sold by the lot and therefore only grams are used.
None of the pearls are measured other than the total gram weight.

The gram weight of a pearl does give the indication of its size, however it will never tell you the exact size of each individual pearls,
which simply needs to get measured together with the weight.

We actually do not have a farm, we are passionate addicted pearl lovers, this all has started about 30 years ago and since more than a decade it has become
Agustus-Collection.

We travel all over Indonesia, visiting farms, the remotest islands and always on the hunt for the best beauties!

Good luck with your search for the perfect pearl, you said you are far in the eastern part? Where exactly? Did you know that Papua and especially Maluku has stunning pearls to offer!

 

[Sutrisno]

Salam kebangsaan! Haha, mau beli mutiara dari sumber terpecaya memang terasa sulit. Where do you live? I think there is an indonesian pearl farmers association in jakarta which might be more trustable...

 

[mmutiara]

apakabar, mas? salam kenal ya....

as a matter of fact, i am far from the eastern part as i am in jakarta hahaha...

sven, it was a shock to me that you dont have pearl farm. so does agustus collection operate more on pengepul method? btw what do you think about pearl in ntt, like flores? last time i went there, a little kid offered me quite a nice blackish pearl, alas in cash only. and i was strapped already, as it was my last day, hahaha.... luckily fiving and pearls are more often goes hand in hand in indonesia

mas sutrisno, where are you located? do you happen to have an online shop?

 

[Sutrisno]

Salam, eh ibu/pak?

Hahaha, aneh dipanggil mas, bukan orang surabaya nih, tetapi menetapnya di sana. Namaku ini gara2 wapres Trisutrisno, lengket di benaknya ibunda.

Well like I said, there is an association of indonesian pearl farmers in Jakarta. You might want to get in contact with them, maybe, just maybe, they might be direct you to trustable pearl farmers? This is after all, indonesia... Hahaha. Yeah, little kids offering pearls, I actually find that somewhat offensive, not cute, as they most probably are stolen goods.

I wish you much luck, as pearl purchases are perilous! rhyming intended.

 

[Cyril Roger Brossard]

...Example (prices are fictive) a round golden south sea pearl with 11mm weights 2.6grams and cost $215
but a golden round south sea pearl with 16mm weight 5.9grams and cost $1600...

Old thread but overlooked that part before.
Question: shouldn't it be "a round golden south sea pearl with 12mm weights 2.6grams" as a 11mm with a mass of 2.6 grams would mean a material close to pure aragonite crystal... If not then could you develop on the nuclei used for such pearl? Given that we are talking about South Sea Pearl (Pinctada maxima) then the above mentioned mass would be roughly 130% higher than average.

Just interested by the mass, this is purely an academic question. Thanks.

 

[Agustus-Collection]

Hi Well, of course i used the measurements only fictive to give an 'example' this was not based on a actual pearl/s which i would have needed them in front of me.

Like i said, this was more or less to give an example that the prices can vary a lot depend on the size of the pearl especially the round ones, as the price per gram gets higher with the size.

But thanks i enjoyed reading you answer!

 

[Cyril Roger Brossard]

Thanks Sven, you are definitely quite accurate in your fictive measurements, the 16 mm at 5.9g is rather spot on!
Thanks again for the feedback.
Cheers.

 

[sinju]

16mm not less then 6 grams i think...

 

[Cyril Roger Brossard]

16mm not less then 6 grams i think...

As you have certainly read the whole thread, the measurements used by Sven are: "only fictive to give an 'example' this was not based on a actual pearl/s"...
therefore the 16 mm at 5.9g was rather spot on... mean to say for a fictive measurement is it quite good considering a ρ of 2767...
You may post here accurate readings of mass and diameter as to emphasize your findings, be assured that it will be most welcomed by the forum.
add what species and the provenance of the nuclei as to make sure that we have ground for comparison.

Cheers.

 

[sinju]

One Mome if i am not mistaken is 3.75 grams