Nacre thickness of soufflé pearls

[jshepherd]

Over the past couple of years one of the most common questions we've fielded about soufflé pearls is related to their durability. Because they're hollow, might they break if dropped? Over the weekend Hisano cut a large one in half and I measured the nacre thickness. In the thinnest areas it's still more than 2 mm thick. In the thickest it's well over 4 mm.

It would take a hammer blow to smash these pearls. Then again, a hammer blow would smash just about any pearl.

Oh yeah, and they really don't smell bad when you cut them open.

 

[KAC]

saw your post on facebook - that's pretty impressive nacre thickness.

 

[jshepherd]

I was definitely surprised. Hisano cut this one for a project she is working on and I commandeered it after seeing the nacre. I gave it back after photos though

 

[pattye]

Absolutely fascinating! The blog post, too!

 

[CathyKeshi]

Oh, the pearl colors on that blog post are just delicious!

 

[JerseyPearl]

Might that project be related to the other sliced pearl you showed? I am really fascinated by what look like growth rings in the pearl. I don't really know much about the process of how a pearl is created (although I am learning thanks to this site) but it looks sort of like agate inside a geode. Thanks for sharing!

 

[jshepherd]

I can't get into Hisano's project at this point. That would get me into trouble!

There is the full photo of the sliced pearl above on our blog though. I made the image clickable and zoomable (is that even a word?!) too. So if you want an up-close view of those rings take a look at it on the blog. You can really see the rings well when you zoom in.

Soufflé Pearls: Some things I bet you didn’t know

One of the most popular types of pearl that we’ve been bringing in over the past year have been those lightweight, hollowed out pearls popularly known as soufflé. The name, coined by friend and fellow pearl expert Jack Lynch of Sea Hunt Pearls, conjures up the image of the namesake puffy French...

www.pearlparadise.com

 

[JerseyPearl]

Thank you for the linkable photo! And thanks for this wonderful site...I have learned so much over the past few months of lurking.

 

[whicker]

One more item for my ruckus list..

 

[mcmoo]

Jeremy, Thank you for such an informative post! I picked up one of the souffles pictured in your blog. Hisano was very nice in helping me find it. I absolutely adore my new pendant and I wanted to share it with everyone here as well as on the other site.

 

[BAS]

mcmoo -- your souffle makes me smile -- so very very pretty. Wear it in good health!

 

[BAS]

And now we know why Hisano was cutting souffles in half!!!

 

[GemGeek]

That is a delightful pendant! I really like the setting style and the colors is dreamy.