Friday
Pattye, Kether and I went to visit Tom Stern’s booth. What a nice man!. He is an almost shy, amazingly humble, quiet man, but as you talk to him you find he has led an adventurous life, especially since he retired from his medical practice after 33 years. He took 9,000 (or was it 23,000) wheel chairs to donate to people in Borneo and does quite a bit of that kind of work along with his pearls.
We saw more natural pearls than one is likely to see in a lifetime. And some of the biggest. He had many of them, mostly GIA certified. The largest 33mm peanut pearl is truly a million dollar pearl. We saw the heirloom antique set he posted a picture of in his thread. It is a museum piece worth a mere half million.
He has bags and bags of smaller natural pearls too. Many of his larger pearls had a great deal of water. Quiet water. You could actually see through the edges of them! But when you turned it a bit, the pearly luster came back. After you have seen these, you will never wonder what water is again…..
We saw his natural Celebes pearl-the size of a walnut. It is brown, but still very beautiful and lustrous.
He has some of the biggest fattest keshi you can imagine 16+MM? I will take some pictures, maybe tomorrow. We saw his cultured SSP a golden color to blow all other goldens out of the water and his Tahitian- also fantastic, but it is the abundance of natural Borneo pearls that gets one dreaming..
He also has about 10 Tridacna pearls in addition to the tridacna shell with the pearl attached. They are not GIA certified so he is not sure if they are Tridacnas or glass. I think they are natural because of the inclusions, but he is going to get them GIA certified too.
It was a pleasure to meet his beautiful wife Yolanda and look at her bead creations- no lowly beader, she. Her necklaces are large and elaborate with many collected smaller pieces incorporated in them and lots of beaded leaves, for instance. Hard to describe, but they come together beautifully.
She also had a tiny bowl of golden pearls and asks you to stir it with the tiny spoon. It is for luck. She confesses those pearls are fake, but says the result is the same as if they were real.
After meeting Tom and Yolanda, I just feel blessed that they found the Peral-Guide forum and are sharing this with us. I told him he so outclasses the JOGS show he was in- then heard that Bo Perry(?) is going to interview him for his publication!
I hope someone helps him get into the AGTA or the GLDA show. He should be in the upstairs gallery of the AGTA show where all the top jewels are showcased. I bet by this time next year, we will see him getting far more recognition.
Pix coming.
Love the photos, that suite of naturals makes a perfect screen saver!
