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In recent times I've seen this video posted online, Before commenting, I will disclaim a few things. The video was produced by the SSEF lab and contains beautiful scene work by our friend and pearl farmer Josh Humbert. (and others, if I'm remiss). This review is not intended to take away from...

Yes, advanced courses are a good idea for those who are more inclined. In most industries, R&D is spearheaded by the industry itself. Not so much in pearl culture but for it's marginal nature and technological protectionism. In the natural world, marketable or not marketable are irrelevant...

I finished it in about the same time and have the same impression, Douglas. Pearls as One is more thorough. I have issues with the natural pearl sections in both, but when I remind myself it's an ID guide for cultured pearls and not a treatise of pearl formation and/or their causes, it's all...

Update: Here's a video made today. I broke into one of the specimens shown above and ruled out septarian nodules. However, two of the four specimens shown above may still be septarian. After all, when you observe closely, they are cracked in a star formation... typical of septarian modules...

A loose pearl cast ashore would undoubtedly become dull, pitted or otherwise damaged. After all, they are < 4 on the moh scale. Any weather exposed pearl will revert to calcite rapidly and as Douglas suggested, there's little to no chance of finding one laying on a beach in plain sight. And...

Though the format is okay, the method is inadequate. 90kv 3ma, seems a little intense and might explain over-exposed views. I gather they wanted to see the core, only to find no discernible nuclei. That strongly suggests uniformity from shell beads. Had they varied intensity, structural...

Agreed. A natural pearl strand created from near perfect matches on four points (size, color, shape, surface) is a statistical improbability. So astronomical in fact, it would have to be graded from a pool of millions of natural pearls. I'd suggest saving $$ and have these candled for...

Thank you for the references. FYI, Specimen 1 and 3 are in my possession. Specimen 1 was acquired though an ammonite shop where I issued a bounty on anything resembling pearls. By a stroke of luck, this piece came to them just a few days later. I was scarcely in Alberta four hours, when the...

Update: I visited a lease on the Bear Paw Shale in Southern Alberta last summer. This is within what is commonly known as the K-zone. A massive area, where shells have been crushed and/or flattened by subsequent layers of overburden. I discovered three specimens which are important to this...

Nearly 24 hours after this was posted, I received the email. The warning is appreciated, but inadequate. Bo's been hacked. His and our personal information has been compromised. My personal information (home address) was displayed in the offending attachment. What's worse, anyone that clicked...

My post was factual and respectful. I received numerous messages asking why it was pulled. In trying to find out why, it's become quite apparent it was at the behest of P-G members. For that reason, I'll no longer contribute to this group.

My apologies. Nobody owns up to it. Their site is full of errors. They censor scientific evidence refuting those errors. Reads more like ex-party people pretending to be experts.

Please explain for the group why you removed my post from the Facebook page with evidence refuting the grain of sand video.

This is a mabe. Note the whelk is cut in half.

It's illegal in most countries for pearl farmers to sell oysters to the general public.

Agreed. They left out the paranoid, underhanded monopolist part. Not worthy of my reverence either.

Not necessarily. Pearls could have been harvested at any stage of growth during any given decade. Unless of course they're Tahitian, which up until now have minimum thickness requirements to be market ready. Besides that, black pearls don't candle well. What you're seeing is diffusion. Equal...

I notice you've visited this page. It not gas. Juvenile growth is different than adult growth. The former is mainly protein, while the latter is largely aragonite... even calcite in over mature specimens. The transition between the two leaves distinguishing signatures. Likewise, pearls grow...

Nice work. Candling is an effective method of gathering glimpses into the origin of pearls. In many instances, a single view is suitable, but I try to impress views from all 3 axis. Understanding of course, it's just not possible in many pieces. Thin nacre on cultured pearls is not easily...

Pteria penguin, is a mollusc in the family Pteriidae, the pearl oysters. It is native to the western and central Indo-Pacific region and is most often used to create mabe pearls.