TRIP AROUND THE WORLD? Feb 28th - Mar 26th

[Ramona]

There is a good interview (link within text) about the situation at the nuclear power plants:

http://skepchick.org/2011/03/a-conv...aiichi-nuclear-power-plant-disaster-in-japan/

 

[lisa c]

Hi Cees, if Josh and Co, and Jeremy go home the locals and staff lose income. That's a definite negative.

Well, now we're getting information about full scope of the disaster, and my optimistic hopes for some regions capable of everyday life are dashed... devastation.

 

[Cees]

Lisa, that might be true, but safety comes first and with the danger of new earthquakes c.q. tsunami's Japanese might have some other things on their mind other than doing business.

 

[lisa c]

Oh, quite so. I'm sure they're weighing it all in the balance. Odd isn't it? that I was worried about terrorism and instead a terrifying series of natural disasters threatens those we care about.

Does c.q. in your post stand for consequent?

Well, we can pray...

 

[jacques.christophe]

Hi Nerida, it was very nice to meet you at the Hong Kong fair as well! Thank you Cees for always supporting our efforts with Philippines south sea pearls with your kind comments! =)

Had a blast with Josh, Jeremy and the rest of the crew on the pearl farm in Palawan!

 

[JBazar]

Jacques, Thank you for everything you guys did for us! The story of jewelmer and the golden pearl Is priceless, and the people behind the scenes there are amazing and inspirational. I cant wait to share the story with everyone and tell everyone on the farms I say hello from Japan!
P.s. I cant wait to get the pictures up.

 

[JBazar]

Otsuki Pearl Factory

Otsuki Pearl Factory

The last two days in Japan were action packed between the Mikimoto farms museum and the Otsuki pearl factory! Here are a few pictures I took at the factory.

The grading system of otsuki works like this...
RA: Best quality high luster no spots
R1: High quality possibly 1 surface blemish
R2: Very Good quality possibly 2 blemishes
R3: Good Quality possibly 3 blemishes
R4: Decent quality around 4 blemishes
R5: Fair-lowest quality.
The Pearls in this image are the best of the best!

High quality 5.5mm

Blue Akoyas before processing

 

[JBazar]

(Please notice at every stage of pearl sorting the workers are facing windows. These windows are all facing north for the optimal lighting.

 

[lisa c]

Josh, I've been thinking (- ouch, shouldn't do that too often), when you edit, do you keep all the raw footage? There might be stuff that ordinary folks might find slow, or redundant, that pearlers might find captivating! So, I'm thinking (ouch, again) please save some of what you edit and discard for the public version, for us pearlers? What do you think? Possible?

Also, I noticed that there seems to be a family resemblance among the pearl graders at the North-facing window. Is that correct? It makes sense genetically that the ability to see fine degrees of difference would be inherited, so my question would be - there's no prohibition against hiring many members of the same family, then? no, "hey, you guys are hogging all the good jobs!" complaints? Not saying there should be, just wondering. For the industry, it makes sense to hire where you find the talent, of course.

I also see two towels. Does that mean there's a gym with a pool on the premises? Do I need to die with envy?

 

[Hanaleimom]

Also, I noticed that there seems to be a family resemblance among the pearl graders at the North-facing window. Is that correct? It makes sense genetically that the ability to see fine degrees of difference would be inherited, so my question would be - there's no prohibition against hiring many members of the same family, then? no, "hey, you guys are hogging all the good jobs!" complaints? Not saying there should be, just wondering. For the industry, it makes sense to hire where you find the talent, of course.

I don't see a resemblance among them though.

I also see two towels. Does that mean there's a gym with a pool on the premises? Do I need to die with envy?

I think they are blankets. If there is a pool, then the towels would be kept in lockers. The employer probably does not allow employees to keep towels near pearl sorting area, which must be kept pristine.

 

[JBazar]

Lisa, I have hundreds of pictures and probably over a hundred hours of video, so I will have lots to share. These photos are not really edited at all, a few I brightened up but besides that not much of anything. When I was at the factory I didn't notice the family similarity and we talked with a few of the workers and didn't get that impression. As for the towels, they were used to whipe the pearl dust off of the pearls after they were drilled. We are in the airport here in japan. The lines were not really that bad believe it or not but there were a bunch if camera crews everywhere. The next stop on our pearl tour is Fiji to see Justin hunters farms which I have heard great things about. I will take lots of pictures there. I will post pics from the Philippines when I can too.

 

[lisa c]

Really??? You don't see it? For instance, look at the last picture - the woman with the glove on her left hand, off to the right by herself, and the woman at the very end, far left, of the row of women at the window, and the woman third from left. Look at the length of their faces, the angle of their lips, the proportions and angles of brow, eyesocket, cheekbone?? Agreed, their noses are different, one is shorter...

No? Well, maybe it's an artifact of photography...or hey, my eyeballs! Oh, well, If no resemblance was seen on site, then we can throw my hypothesis of family talents and Sorting-Dynasties away.

Thanks for the info, Cathy, and Josh, about the towels, but Too bad about the pool, though. That would've been soooo cool, too stretch sore muscles with a swim after a long day over pearls.

p.s. and I see that I mis-spoke. The women at the windows were drilling, not sorting the pearls. So, if there are Sorting-Dynasties, they were in another room!

Josh and Co, thanks for everything you're doing, this is a real treat!

 

[JBazar]

Fiji Pearl Farm

Fiji Pearl Farm

WOW what an amazing day we had at Justin Hunters Fiji pearl farm. The colors of these pearls is mind blowing and Fiji was absolutely gorgeous. In one day we managed to see the Hatchery, visit a working raft, watch the technicians seeding the mollusk, went scuba diving to film the nets underwater and got an interview! A big thanks to them for making it all possible.

Possibly my favorite picture that I have ever taken, but with pearls this beautiful and the Fijian backdrop I had some help.

 

[lisa c]

Wow! Excellent photos! What a job it's going to be, selecting what to upload/publish. I don't know whether to be envious or glad that I only have to look, instead of sort and choose. This is glorious stuff, from the scenery to the pearls themselves.

In photo 6, is that a round, red critter hanging off the underside of the mollusc? It couldn't be a pearl, could it? That would be too astonishing, right? Obviously, I'm no marine biologist...

(in an aside, who has the gorgeous legs?)

 

[Lagoon Island Pearls]

Nice work Josh!

How long do you expect this to be in post production?

 

[Tango]

amazing, the colors and all the rest???

 

[GemGeek]

This is like catnip for pearl people!

 

[Silvia_Bonvini]

I agree the colours of the pearls are incredible... but how about the beach and the nature there??? I'm soooo envoius!! I want to go too!

 

[newberry]

This is like catnip for pearl people!

A perfect way to put it Blaire. I look forward to the finished documentary.

 

[JBazar]

Thanks for all of your great feedback!!!

Thanks for all of your great feedback!!!

Lisa C: Thanks for the great comments! I do the photography for my company so I guess I have just developed a half way decent eye for pearl pictures. I have been taking about 120 a day and just choosing the ones that stand out to me. In photo 6 it is actually not a pearl hanging from the mollusk. Marine life attaches itself to the shells and feeds off of the neautreance (plankton) in the water. This marine life is reffered to as bio fouling and is a threat to the mollusk. The shells need to be pulled up on a fairly regular basis so that these critters can be cleaned off and the shells can get the full neutreance of the waters.

Lagoon island pearls: Thank you so much! Post production is going to take a long time. For the past three weeks we have not stopped filming so we probibly hundreds of hours of footage on two video cameras. This is a huge responcibility for me. To create a documentart that is 100% acurate that hopefully gets people excited about pearls but that they can learn from at the same time. We plan on taking our time to produce the best piece that we are capable of and I forsee the post production continueing on for at least 1 year.


I have been interviewing everyone that I have met for my "Pearl Talks" and we have shot so many interesting little segments along the way. While we are editing during the next year upon our return you can be sure that I will have some really interesting segments that I will post up for a long time to come. Jeremy stole my itenerary lol but tomorrow will be a huge day of filming for us here in Tahiti. On Tuesday we are flying to Robert Wan's farm Marutea Sud, hopefully I will get some pics up soon!