Off to Phuket to visit two Akoya pearl farms

[suzannelowrie]

Dear Friends of the Akoya:
I'm a hard-core pearl tourist. So when my Thai driver got me an unadvertised special Chiang Mai-Phuket from Thai Air, the Thai Baht just jumped from my wallet. I leave Tuesday for Phuket to visit two pearl farms, but I'm going with sinking feelings about the Phuket Akoyas. Why? you ask. Because they may be nucleating with glass beads. Who cares? Well, I saw a lot of pearls in Singapore shops that were severely cracked and chipped around the drill hole. The idea of nucleating with glass beads makes me worried. Will the nacre dry out quickly? I have seen clam nuclei in Vietnam and I have a Vietnamese Akoya pearl with 45 days worth of nacre. The nacre is on tight. I feel comfortable about Akoya oysters building layers of nacre on clam shell beads from Mississippi. I feel uneasy about glass nuclei. Plus the Phuket pearl farmers have retail stores in tourist-dense areas. That is cause for alarm. What if demand outstrips supply? Will the "Phuket" pearls really be Chinese Akoyas? Or Burmese? Or Indian? I'll post next Friday the results of my trip. Since I find the military government of Burma to be morally loathsome (the Burmese military maintains slave labor camps filled with starving non-Burmese prisoners) I don't want to buy Burmese products. So I'm setting off with lots of suspicions floating in my mind. Are these suspicions justified? I don't know.

 

[Ashley]

Akoya oysters building layers of nacre on clam shell beads from Mississippi.

Just to clarify: They are not clams, they're various specie of Freshwater mussel. The clams that you are referring to are the endangered T. Gigas- the giant saltwater clam's shells are used for Chinese Freshwater mussel nucleation, they produce the now infamous Fireball pearls. The shells are also not very well-suited to being used as bead-nuclei because the specific density does not match that of the outer nacre layers. The internal bead will expand and contract at a different rate than that of the nacre in response to external temperature variation, causing splits and cracks in the pearls.

On another note, I am quite interested in hearing about your tour, and will be looking forward to your updates! The junta has many horrible deeds rightly attributed to them, I agree- I am just not 100% about boycotting the efforts of small farmers and miners in the region. Most of the fine rubies that we see on the market today have in fact been smuggled out of Burma (ok, ok Myanmar); they are the miners only hope for survival. If you want to hit em where it hurts, boycott all JADE products- most of the regime's money comes from the exportation of fine Burmese Jade.

 

[jshepherd]

I've heard that glass has been experimented with in the past but it did not work. Mikimoto tried it before mussel shell and was unsuccessful. I have also heard it was tried in Tahiti (but I cannot find a reference) and the resulting pearls were no good because the glass had a tendency to break when drilled.

 

[Mikeyy]

I've heard that glass has been experimented with in the past but it did not work. Mikimoto tried it before mussel shell and was unsuccessful. I have also heard it was tried in Tahiti (but I cannot find a reference) and the resulting pearls were no good because the glass had a tendency to break when drilled.

Not to mention that contraction and expansion rates are not relative.

 

[suzannelowrie]

Problems with glass nuclei-Akoya pearls in Phuket

Problems with glass nuclei-Akoya pearls in Phuket

Dear Friends of the Akoya:
Thanks. I feel much more cheerful about my trip to Phuket. Somehow, knowing that glass nucleated pearls have proven to be a failure historically makes me feel confident and happy about rejecting any glass nucleated pearls. I intuited that glass and nacre might be incompatible. I have trouble understanding why Giant Sea Clam would not be compatible with freshwater nacre. Hey, it's all Calcium Carbonate, right? You say that the expansion and contraction rate of Giant Sea Clam beads and that of freshwater nacre is not identical. I believe you. But where was this tested and how? Forget the fact that the poor Giant Sea Clam is on the endangered species list, it's the composition of the GSC v the composition of freshwater nacre that interests me. I understand that if the two materials contract and expand at different rates, cracking, splitting, and chipping will follow. But aren't the materials very very similar?

 

[jshepherd]

The coefficient of thermal expansion is different. Saltwater nacre and freshwater mussel shell is a good match.

The giant clam beads are bad for akoya. The nacre is thin and as the nucleus expands and contracts it can crack the nacre. This would not be the case with South Sea or Tahitian pearls, but there is another issue with GC beads with those. The pearls tend to crack, or in some cases explode, when they are drilled.

 

[jshepherd]

Found the article here on PG.

https://www.pearl-guide.com/pearl-nucleus-composition.shtml

 

[lisamla]

I've done a pearl farm tour in Phuket - it was fun and entertaining, but the information shared was rather basic. It was more for the tourist and less for the pearl enthusiast. I do not remember anything being said about glass beads. Enjoy your trip.

 

[barbie biggs]

The coefficient of thermal expansion...
remember when you were a kid and you had to decide if you were ever going to really use all that math stuff?

Fascinating stuff pearls.

Remember those pearls that had jewels in them. Then the carvers got to work and let the jewels show through the pearl. Once the jewel is exposed one would think there would be less tendency to crack or split. Or is there some other explanation?

barbie

 

[Mikeyy]

Dear Friends of the Akoya:
Thanks. I feel much more cheerful about my trip to Phuket. Somehow, knowing that glass nucleated pearls have proven to be a failure historically makes me feel confident and happy about rejecting any glass nucleated pearls. I intuited that glass and nacre might be incompatible. I have trouble understanding why Giant Sea Clam would not be compatible with freshwater nacre. Hey, it's all Calcium Carbonate, right? You say that the expansion and contraction rate of Giant Sea Clam beads and that of freshwater nacre is not identical. I believe you. But where was this tested and how? Forget the fact that the poor Giant Sea Clam is on the endangered species list, it's the composition of the GSC v the composition of freshwater nacre that interests me. I understand that if the two materials contract and expand at different rates, cracking, splitting, and chipping will follow. But aren't the materials very very similar?

Very simply, Corn and popcorn are both corn. Right? The difference is in the structure of the material. The same theory applies to Calcium Carbonate.

 

[suzannelowrie]

Akoyas in Phuket nucleated with Mother-of-Pearl mollusk

Akoyas in Phuket nucleated with Mother-of-Pearl mollusk

Dear Friends of the Akoya:

The pearl farms in Phuket are nucleating small pearls (Akoyas) with Mother-of-Pearl "clam" (that's what it looked like- a very large white clam) or mollusk (just to be safe).

The Marine Bioreserve is breeding Giant Sea Clams and has 200,000 ready to release. What do I think? I think the large SS pearls being raised around Phuket need GSC and the government is responding with a breeding program.

Were the Mother-of-Pearl "clam" shells the GSC? No. The GSC has a beautiful wavy shell. The Mother-of-Pearl (whatever) is a white thick shell with a lovely iridescent lining that has been used for 1000's of years in Thailand as a gift for royalty. Silversmiths edge the "clam" (whatever) in silver and add a silver figurine. Dolphins, turtles and deer are popular. I have seen mermaids. Tourists buy these shells by the thousands.

At the hinge, they are quite thick and (a rough guess) 7mm beads could be easily produced. I saw 4mm beads with cream and tan like Mississipi mussel shell, but with flashes of iridescence.

Why did the owner of one pearl farm claim on the internet that he was nucleating with glass? Don't know. Can't buy AAA strands or necklaces in Thailand anyway. All the nice Akoyas are decorated with tiny diamonds and a wisp of 18K gold and sold as souvenirs-- earrings, pendants, rings to cash-rich tourists.