Japanese Kasumi vs. Chinese "Look-a-likes"

[Sea Urchin]

Okay, as always please excuse my likely dumbness, but to me, those pearls... well, they're not matched at all, and when I click on the link I see lots of pits and just patches of what I'd call ickiness. I would think an excellent strand would be matched, and have that interesting crinkly texture, sure, but not all those other irregularities. I am missing something or it's just personal preference or I am just too pearl-ignorant to get it, or what? (It's okay, y'all can tell me, really)...

 

[Amrita]

Adeline and all,

Sometimes being in the thick of it, you have a risk of missing the big picture....and that is why I love coming here..
Okay, so I had a few strands and I do love them, but I am not sure whether they can be called Kasumi look-alikes or fireballs or nucleated baroques etc. I just loved them and am not sure whether one bunch of them can be called as having pondslime tones...? Never too sure of these given names (which are not common in China, you understand.)

Have a look and tell me what you think these would be called. I have called the white ones double nucleated baroque fireballs...I think. All of these range from Euro 50 to Euro 65 per strand or about USD 66 to USD 87 per strand...

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

Okay, as always please excuse my likely dumbness, but to me, those pearls... well, they're not matched at all, and when I click on the link I see lots of pits and just patches of what I'd call ickiness. I would think an excellent strand would be matched, and have that interesting crinkly texture, sure, but not all those other irregularities. I am missing something or it's just personal preference or I am just too pearl-ignorant to get it, or what? (It's okay, y'all can tell me, really)...

Matching sets from limited editions is exceedingly difficult. Although it might not seem so at first glance, this strand is well matched for size and shape. If they were matched for color and lustre, it would likely have a variety of shapes and sizes.

 

[Adeline Leigh]

(Laugh) Those icky bits take some time to fall in love with most definitely. But again from what I understand the amazing colours in the Kojima Japanese strand that no freshwater pearl can come close to (correction: Grace's Edisons apparently have but they are 5-6 figures per strand [pearl people, pls correct if my memory fails me] and those are Chinese freshwaters!!) are beacause they are in-body nucleated and therefore have blemishes (pitting, divots etc). You got to read more about the phenomenon here; that's where I started my 'education' then subsequently found PG:
http://pacificpearls.us/in-body-bead-nucleated-freshwater-pearls/2/

I think if I can summarise my pearl journey:
Stage 1: Bought Chinese freshwater round pearls with good lustre and thought, wow, I did good for this price (not that I could then afford a Mikimoto).
Stage 2: Bought more Chinese freshwaters and spied some interesting keshi with amazing lustre and iridescent skins and thought, could they get any better?
Stage 3: Bought smooth-skinned flameball and fireball nucleated pearls and thought by golly, I have south sea baroque pearls on a bargain (As if! Now that I own baroque and freeform SSPs, I know only the shape is similar, not the lustre nor the nacre. It's a whole different ballgame and it explains too the price jump)
Stage 4: Bought Chinese wrinkly and textured (predominantly the mauves, purple-greens, pinks) and smooth (creams, golds, whites) lookalike kasumis and my hypothesis is - the more lively and saturated and iridescent the colour, the tradeoff is in the smoothness of the skin hence the icky bits and bumps. And as for my most expensive cfw kashumi lookalike pearls, despite their iridesence, it can't seem to compare with the Japanese kasumis and that's just by comparing with the photos.

I'm now in Stage 5 from my pearl journey - the holy grail of saltwater akoyas, SSPs, tahitians, Sea of Cortez pearls (I only own one) and of course, my baby abalone naturals. I think I still have some way more to go

I think all my preaching won't convince you, it's the fondling that'll get you converted. BIG GRIN.

 

[Sea Urchin]

LOL, I definitely see a progression from white round to... everything else.

 

[Adeline Leigh]

Dave, thanks for weighing in there. It is a fantastic strand, I often wonder who it'll eventually end up with.

Amrita, good on you, there are some lovelies there!

Most are smooth skinned from what I see and nicknamed "peanuts" (my supplier calls them "hua sheng") for the conjoined twinned pearls. Now the pinks you have look most likely to be nucleated and are quite something. They are quite pink! Hehe, when my supply runs out I know where to go.

Having said that between mine and your pics we still don't have the wrinkly skinned Chinese kasumi lookalikes, deeply grooved and divoted. Anyone else have a pic just for concurrence? It's too late out to take a pic of mine.

 

[waimeamomi]

Wrinkly, off shaped, crazy, askew and gorgeous. These are Chinese from Sarah. Taking the pics is the first step to convincing myself to part with them. Really more pinky/purply than is showing.

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

It is a fantastic strand, I often wonder who it'll eventually end up with.

It is, indeed. I enjoy the differences between each one. It seems too be graded along those lines too.

All different yet uniform? Gotta love artistic ex/impression! Whoever buys it will always wonder too.

 

[Adeline Leigh]

Keepers, Sheryl. Keepers.

And if I were one of the recent lottery winners, I'd know what I'd do with one of my drops in my sea/ ocean of money ... Why hasn't anyone bitten yet? Maybe after all this postulating one of our well-heeled PG friends will (drumroll) become the new owner!

 

[Amrita]

Ah - so the wrinkly surface is one of the main features of Kasumis or Chinese Kasumi look alikes....hmmm thanks...

 

[kojimapearl]

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 of three necklaces of Japan Kasumi pearls on the deeper sides of their natural color range.
Third is a photo of a long rope of what I call "blush" color Japan Kasumi pearls. I love these soft tones.. to most people these will appear white.. but to those who appreciate that these pearls were saved from the dreaded "bleach bath" that most Chinese pearls in these tones are subjected to.. the subtle colors are so complimentary to skin tones. I love making necklaces with these subtle mixes of color. (ha ha even if most husbands don't notice)
The fourth photo is of some of the Chinese ripple surface pearls in their natural colors. We are currently cleaned out of the darker purple versions of these pearls, as they tend to go really quickly.
I wrote this to a customer just this morning : "I have copied off a rather dense copy of several interesting articles that we have either written or compiled on Japan Kasumi pearls, their history and their stubborn, pearl loving farmers.
As with most "commodities" that are now produced in China... the presence of Chinese "look-a-like" pearls.. has not helped the cause of the 3 farmers in Lake Kasumi ga Ura Japan.. but as Japanese culture is nothing if not a testament to perserverance, and patience.. these farmers keep working hard to care for these very special pearls.. and often to our surprise , people around the world are still very interested in them, and often willing to pay the steep difference in price after understanding the nature of these pearls and the history behind them."
Power to the little pearl farmers out there, may your patience pay off, and may your precious pearls always find appreciative places!
I hope this finds you all well!
With warm regards from all of us..

 

[Amrita]

Thanks for such a wonderful post with the amazing photos, Sarah! Very enlightening and educative. All strength to the 3 patient and harworking farmers of Lake Kasumi ga Ura.

 

[Adeline Leigh]

It's always a treat when Sarah posts. Thank you for the marvellous pictures.

Sheyl, yours looks like the last picture that Sarah shared Can really see those pink colours amidst the pondslime now.

I'm partial towards the pastels (aka no go bleach bath pearls). They are wiateria-like pretty. Who cares what husbands say

 

[BAS]

What a marvelous thread to read through! I have a question for the pearl experts. How thick is the nacre on these kasumi or "kasumi look-a-like" pearls? Can they be passed from generation-to-generation, or last a life-time, or last years (let's say wearing them once a week against skin and wiping them gently with a damp cloth after each wear to remove sweat/oil)? Thanks!

 

[pearlescence]

There's well over 1mm of nacre on the one's I've had in stock - straight Edisons, South Sea-ish and Kasumi-ish. So more than Tahitians and certainly more than Akoya

 

[luminous]

Thank you for that info. I normally worry about nacre thickness, but they are so beautiful I got swept away and didn't care. It's good to know they're more hardy than akoyas.

 

[GemGeek]

This thread has some great stuff in it, so I'm bumping it up. Post # 57 by Sarah of Kojima Pearl has the double-drill x-rays showing that the technique of stabbing the donor tissue into the bead is still in practice on Kasumi and Kasumi look-alikes. Lots of beautiful photos throughout.

 

[Katbran]

Thanks for giving this thread a big bump ! Love all the photos ! Always good to revisit a lovely past !

 

[battah]

Some more eye candy! These are Chinese ripple/Chinese kasumi pearls. I bought them thinking they were gold and darker purple, but in person they wowed me with their rainbow tones. Two shots in different lighting - they appear darker in the first photo, on an overcast day. The second is a cell phone pic (which washes them out a little bit) in the shade on a sunny day - the top strand is the knotted one from the first photo.




I picked out a pearl from the first strand (it wasn't pretty enough for me!), so I can smash it to measure the nacre thickness.

 

[pearlescence]

Are ripple pearls taking over the world? Is this a bad thing?