Keshi Pearl News

[SteveM]

Certainly, any baroques trying to pass as keshis may be discovered by keeping on good terms with your dentist and his X-Ray equipment. The greater challenge is distinguishing a tissue-nucleated keshi from a natural.

Nucleation refers to the insertion of mantle tissue. If a bead is inserted without the accompanying tissue, the mollusk is not nucleated.

Just to sum up what we've been discussing above:

We have seen the CIBJO definition of keshi as a saltwater pearl produced without a bead, either intentionally or unintentionally. Grafting techniques developed in China in the 1990s (I remember Jeremy telling me "It's all in the wrist") to create rounder pearls without a bead began to be applied surreptiously to saltwater oysters with the specific aim of natural certification. Thousands were likely certified. The labs reacted to this sudden inundation of 'naturals' by raising their technological game with CAT scanning (Microtomography). THIS 2010 paper describes how the world of pearls was saved from the scammers. But the grafting techniques applied happily resulted in a greatly expanded and more predictable Keshi category. I am unaware if historical statistics exist for Keshi production and sales but they would be interesting to see.

Replying to my own post here as I just received a notification from International Gem Society pointing to their latest article on Keshi and Soufflé Pearls. As you will read, it completely ignores the clarifications and updates on keshis we explored here, including that there is no way to tell keshis from naturals and insisting keshis are only produced unintentionally. Anyone here with influence over there should point them to CIBJO, GIA and other sources for the correct data.

Update: I went ahead and posted at IGS (my first and probably only such) with the documentation above, hopefully they will take it kindly.

 

[SteveM]

Update: I went ahead and posted at IGS (my first and probably only such) with the documentation above, hopefully they will take it kindly.

IGS will update their article on cultured pearl byproducts to reflect the CIBJO definition of Keshis and the Gem Lab report on Keshi vs. Natural detection. Ironically, that may put them out in front of many in the pearl community. (Douglas, maybe it would be worth copying all of these posts re Keshi definition to a new thread for easier access?)

 

[CortezPearls]

Replying to my own post here as I just received a notification from International Gem Society pointing to their latest article on Keshi and Soufflé Pearls. As you will read, it completely ignores the clarifications and updates on keshis we explored here, including that there is no way to tell keshis from naturals and insisting keshis are only produced unintentionally. Anyone here with influence over there should point them to CIBJO, GIA and other sources for the correct data.

Update: I went ahead and posted at IGS (my first and probably only such) with the documentation above, hopefully they will take it kindly.

There are just so many ways to tell them apart!
And so many different methodologies...sounds ludicrous!

 

[SteveM]

This is a better home for this. Started with that center pearl on BWeaves' keshi necklace, which could not automatically be assumed to be beaded for reasons subsequently discussed.