My first EVER tahitians....

moonpie

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Jan 20, 2015
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Ok so first of all I feel I need to apologise. I've realised I only ever come here when I'm awaiting a pearl purchase... I swear it's not me being selfish with my time I just don't (can't afford to!) Make pearl purchases as often as I'd love to (I'm so into coloured gemstones so once I have one of something I try not to get the same again for a while as nature has given us the best variety that I love taking "advantage" off).

Anyway so except when I'm head over heels for something (like I was/am with golden south seas..aaahhh....hence spoiling myself rotten by getting a ring and earrings soon after each other 😆 when I first came into this world of pearls a few years ago) I tend to get one example then force myself to move to another. Hence all would be pearl money becomes CS money 🙈 and....that was my very long winded way of explaining why I am only here infrequently!!!

Right! So tahitians! So it all started last year (or was it the year before I was last here)? When I brought my first ever freshwater freshadama strand of pearls from PP. I desperately wanted a tahitian strand. But I managed to hold off (and stopped coming here) and eventually the "NEED" wore off lol. So a bit after that I brought my first ever 5mm melarani mint garnets; my CS vendor also had some amazingly beautiful (and rare I love the rare factor) straight green 3mm kornerupines which I brought too.

So I had both these pairs of stones in hand and was amazed at nature's beauty and knew these needed to be an extra special pair of earrings. Pretty much straight away I remembered I was desperate for some tahitians and thought viola!!! This is it! My perfect moment to buy tahitians is finally here. So I dug out an old inspiration picture I had saved from ages ago and thought excitedly this is it this is really it. Next barrier to overcome was can someone make this for me and how much will it cost!!

Unfortunately, having 2 kids doesn't leave much spare for pretties... but that's where the concept of saving is my best friend. So, I emailed John at PP (because obviously I'd be getting my tahitians from here) and very long story short after a lot of conversing back and forth I was given a quote and told it is possible!!! However as my inspiration earrings were handmade (and I had gotten a quote from my other regular handmade jeweller over here) first (and thought it was high due to being handmade lol) I realised the handmade quote was actually lower.. and realised my initial thoughts of having PP do the whole thing wasn't going to save me anything.

So, John was beyond amazing, I told him I'd be back for the tahitians after a couple months of saving and we said our goodbyes for the time being! Fast forward a couple of months, with much discipline from myself (especially after mostly dodging all the Xmas sales my regular vendors had *PHEW*) I was back stalking the PP website for my tahitians.

Now initially I had gone with the idea of wanting small round (extreamly green) tahitians... basically to save on overall cost but as I looked on the website I oh so nearly *God it was soooo close* got distracted by a tahitian pearl cup bracelet. I even had so many back and forth convos with Erin at PP over the bracelet.... I was SO close to purchasing it!!! After fighting the urge for a couple of weeks I was able to remind myself of my goal (of complementing these earrings soon this year)... and was able to focus on just finding the tahitians I needed for the earrings.

So since I was bummed I wasn't getting the bracelet I let loose and just thought what the heck! I'm going to get big tahitians I'm tired of holding back!!! Then I looked at the price for the size I wanted in rounds and ran straight back to holding back world 😂

So after a few more hours of thought (and I knew I always love drop shapes for earrings) I settled on size 11-12mm drops. Next I had to hope Erin could find me a pair in stock that was largely smooth (no rings/dips/circles etc) that was green enough for my earring purpose. I knew which of their settings I wanted - the leaf settings without the top wire hooks and to cut it short, Erin delivered and I ordered my first ever pair of tahitian pearls!

Then the standard pearl guide stalking started. All the tahitian threads. The comparison ones then the fear.... oh gosh the fear. Did I get the right pair or tahitians?! Everyone says tahitians are so hard to buy online, maybe the hardest so omg did I get the green I wanted?!!! Will it be as green as it is in the picture Erin sent me? Why does X member have a picture of a greener tahitian then me, dammit this is the picture I should have sent to Erin!!! To show her exactly what I want! Why didn't I send her a pic?! Why did I only say I wanted green why didn't I just send her *this* beautiful picture?!!!

Arrrrgh! 😂

Now the above was all a few days ago (particularly the crazy/fear stage) so I'm calm and sane again 😊 I'm happy with the picture I have of the tahitians that are right now at this moment flying their way to me (YAY!!!!) and I'm just desperately *praying*(yes praying!!!) They will be gorgeous and green!

I know that oh so longed for tahitian tin cup bracelet I was after... will happen some day. I'm hoping it will be this year but we will have to see how fast I can save for the completed earrings (got the pearls now so next saving stage is the down payment for my jeweller to start work on the earrings). I'm planning to have no more stone buying moments for the first half of this year, and focus on these earrings, and getting my rainbow moonstone and pink spinel ring made. Brought those stones almost 2 years ago so I'm beyond desperate for them to be set so I can wear them!!!

Oh gosh this has turned into a bit of a diary entry haha. Hope you guys don't mind 😊 I'm just so excited! Will attach a picture of the tahitians winging their way to me and would love to hear your opinions! Please don't hold back (or only tell me what I want to hear) I already know for the bracelet I will definetly go for more colourful tahitians... maybe even peacock overtone.. I've realised I don't much love cherry ones but who knows how that will change.. and I do (oh so much) love the teal tahitians... but I digress again!

Will end this here otherwise I'll never stop!
 
First is the picture I found here I should have sent Erin!

And the other is the picture Erin sent to me. I choose the bottom pair :)
 

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And finally a very bad lighting picture of the mints and kornerupine. Purposefully not showing a picture of what the completed earrings will look like just...because....I'm evil haha. Will keep it a surprise until I return with the completed earrings!
 

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Moonpie, you have a rollicking thread that was very entertaining with coffee this morning I can't wait to see the final earrings and design. I hear you on budget constraints. I/we bought 2 pearl necklaces this year at Christmas and I am going to need to be content to sit and cheer on other pearl buyers for a while.

Those green Tahitians will be pretty. Only have seen one once and could not get over the deep color. *sigh*...of course, pictures are requested when the earrings arrive, but you know the drill. :)
 
OOOO, I can't wait to see the finished product. The pieces parts are lovely.
 
I'm sure they are going to be marvelous! Thanks for the entertaining backstory. :)
 
Great post! And beautiful Tahitians! I love the plump drop shapes, the lighting isn't the best for showing off overtones but they do look very green! Please post lots of photos when they arrive.
 
Thank you everyone glad you enjoyed my post I was worried the length of it would put everyone to sleep! Will definetly post pictures of the tahitians when they arrive (eeeek)!
 
In the meantime I was glued, absolutely glued to that other thread showing everyone's "everything other then pearls" jewellery.... mmm was a delicious few hours spent drooling my way through that! Anyone have any tahitian and other gemstones jewellery to add here?

I mean any jewellery piece with tahitians and gemstones combined.
 
OMG jersey pearl that is so SO beautiful! So beautiful! You made it yourself?!

It reminds me so much of a Marco biciego piece... just beautiful!

Oh great you've got me craving that tincup bracelet again!
 
Ok so I've been told my tahitians are mainly green body colour then have a secondary silver body colour (colour shift or something). I've heard people here describe a charcoal body colour- which I thought mine looked like but now I'm confused.

What exactly does it all mean?!
 
moonpie, Tahitians have a body color and the more colorful ones have an overtone color (or colors) as well.

Vendors often use a lighting setup that brings out all the colors of the pearls, but "in real life" the body color is what you will see most of the time in most lighting, while the overtone color tends to show up more in diffuse light.

Even though Tahitian pearls are called "black pearls", most are not actually black. The most common body colors are gray/charcoal and green.
 
Their here!!!

Their here!!!

So they arrived! And whilst I am completely floored by the beauty of tahitians (can't stop staring at these) I'm also a bit heartbroken! Tahitians might be my new favourite over GSS btw.

So the colour is spot on. A gorgeous shimmery green with pink centers that I totally wasn't expecting. I love that! The pink center is really really hard to capture on camera. They also photograph darker on cam then I see in real life - I get the big deal about tahitians being awful to photograph now!

The biggest shock however was the deep pit 1 of them has. I thought I was getting aaa grade (or maybe I said aa+ grade I'd need to check my emails) but I jus wasn't expecting a blemish this deep. It's like a gash! Especially for these really special earrings I have planned...now I'm regretting being so impatient and getting the pearls after Xmas like I did... maybe I should just the have waited for the new stock PP is getting in a couple of months?!

Both pearls have 1 blemish but the other blemish doesn't bother me at all, it's really light and faint and I like that it "proves" it's a real pearl from imperfect nature! The other gash though....it's just so deep I can't help feeling like it will make my earrings defective somehow :( ugh no idea what to do!

Sending it back isn't an option, and I have thought about waiting a bit and ordering another pair of tahitians with these settings again for the earrings but....it's just such a waste buying it twice for the same thing. I do obviously want more tahitians but don't want to go for the same colours again (my next pair I want with deep blue or teal overtone....*drool*). Ugh! Trying to make myself look past the gash and love them (I do- except get stuck on the blemish when I think about it)!

I do love them though, I love tahitians much more then I thought I would! The colors in the pair I have mesmerise me. Can't wait for the day I'm ready to buy my tahitian tin cup bracelet :D
 

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I'm a bit confused. Are these drops, or round? Have they been half-drilled?
Will the divot be visible when worn or can it be turned toward the back or the bottom so as not to be visible?

If they have not yet been drilled, the drill hole can be placed where the blemish is.
 
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