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What a great story... thanks for sharing this! Such a great reminder of the dedication of pearl farmers to their craft and how they are tied to the waters they live around. "But with the advent of plastics, the enterprise entered its death throes" May generations of pearl lovers outlive the age...

Ivona.. THAT NECKLACE IS GORGEOUS! I love the mix of the sunstone with the pearls.. beautiful photos too! Makes me happy to see this little tiara thread keeps inspiring! Cheers, Sarah

Great work Morphius.. I have just been playing around with pearls on chain these last couple of days myself. The top necklace is 8 Chinese fresh water stacked petal pearls, middle necklace is the same with a Tahitian circle pearl in the middle and the bottom necklace is Tahitian keshi on 14K...

They certainly look like Akoya pearls to me.. I love that they show the flaws "on the underside of the bead".. I appreciate any and all dealers who list the "flaws" but I have never heard of the underside of a bead.. pretty clasp though!

Adeline... GET A DRILL.. it will inspire your lovely creations even further! I prefer my Yotsuba model to the Chinese versions I have used. It's a bit heavier and sturdier, but much more expensive and I am sure that the newer drills being produced and exported from China are much better than...

Thank you Lisa, Acting as a translator here: Fuji says that in significant quantity Biwa pearls were not harvested before the mid 1960's For many years after their first harvest in Lake Biwa there was no need to develop a market (or to attempt to sell them to the west) because people from the...

Hi Helen... Thank you for the compliment. Fuji says this definitely looks like a necklace of Chinese fresh water pearls... especially with such a distinctly Hong Kong style clasp. We both agree that this looks like it was made in the 80's. That is of course to say , with out seeing them in...

Hello and thank you Karin for the heads up.. I had my pearl-guide brain stuck in conch pearl farming ;) And welcome Helen! Given what I can see from the photos, I lean towards Chinese fresh water, somehow those particular gold beads also tilt me in that direction. They definetly COULD be pearls...

Conch pearls are actually included in the controlled export of all products "bi-products" or not that come from any subspecies of conch. In order to legally import them (or export them from their native habitat).. one has to apply for certification (C.I.T.E.S) because they are considered...

Imanit, Those sure look colorful in the photo.. looking forward to seeing your photos of them. Lisa, Sometimes they do double drill button shape pearls so they will sit flat.. mostly in really inexpensive Chinese pearls. One time in Tucson I saw a strand of mabe pearls (maybe 14mm) double...

Wow thanks Steve, I thought I was going a bit deep... He he we all have to be careful what we say about Debeers.. They have ears everywhere! The natural pearl business can be a very extreme world, one full of pure wonder and severe disappointment.. At every level of the trade. It is not easy...

Smetzler, I must add that there does seem to be a nearly exact ratio of sheisty and dishonest people in the natural conch pearl business as there are in the diamond trade, although the conch pearl business as it stands today involves barely a fraction of the total population of people in...

ooooohhhh I LOVE this game! Fuji and I sometimes get a little loopy sorting through loose pearls in Hong Kong, and end up seeing all kinds of animals in the pearls. It's usually when I know it's time to call it a day! Here are my current favorites.. They are either a pair of dinosaurs, or a...

Hi Five Pearls.. I recently had a similar request from a man in Germany. I sent him to my dear friend Katja who is a master goldsmith and has a gorgeous gallery here Petaluma California. They communicated via email and his wife was overjoyed when she received this surprise. Katja made a...

They look natural in color to me. Generally producers will use peach color pearls to irradiate.. and the outcome is silver in color. (which is NOT to say that all silver/grey Chinese fresh water pearls have been irradiated.. some have been simply dyed that color) It would be very difficult to...

In January this year, I went to a random hairdresser to perk up my "winter" look.. I told the stylist, I wanted it to remain natural looking... what I got was SO far away from natural looking, I went back in furious. I told him that I also own a small business and I understand what a "negative"...

Here are some more photos of both Japan Kasumi pearls and their Chinese counterparts. First is an extreme close up of one my favorite Japan Kasumi pearl necklaces .. this "feathering" of nacre with its special color play is just amazing to me (even after all of these years). Second is a shot...

A couple of years ago, I personally advised all of my natural pearl clients to have their conch pearls certified with GIA or another lab, so that they get the date and authenticity of the pearl on file... just in case these cultured conch pearls flood the market one day..

did some one say SPLASH? mmmmmm maybe my favorite word!

Hi Unwins, That is the best pearl story I have heard in a long while. The best part is that every visitor to your home gets to hear the story as told by your children.. the echo reaches me way up here. As for value .. the dollar amount will never surpass the memory and the cherished family...