Intergem Pearl vendors, other random questions?

[pregcurious]

I'm a pearl novice here, coming over from the Colored Stone forum. Please bear with me.

Can anyone recommend pearl vendors at Intergem? I would like to see Tahitians in person because their colors are so difficult to read online.

When does PP have their Tahitian sale?

Is there an easy way to navigate Catherine Cardellini's website? When I go there, I have to browse through 154 pages. I've tried the search engine, which is okay.

Thank you!
Preg

 

[pinkjewel]

welcome, Preg!! I used to hang out more on the CS forum, but am usually found over here instead now. Can't help with Intergem vendors as I don't have any of their shows near me, but I haven't heard of too many purchases from there being made by members here-so I'm not sure. I think Pacific Pearls may exhibit at the show in San Francisco, but hopefully someone else can chime in to has been to Intergem shows.

Pearl Paradise usually has sales around Mother's Day, and Black Friday, and monthly sales that vary. I'm not sure there's a normal tahitian sale. Last year they had purchased a huge lot of excellent peacocks that they made into strands and had a sale on them last summer. The best thing to do is get on their mailing list to get notification of their monthly sales which vary. If you have a special request they will look for items for you at the Hong Kong shows (next show will be in March).

s far as CC's site- you can narrow down by search parameters, but I also find her website to be a bit difficult to navigate in general.

 

[ckrickett]

PP is also really foo at offering pictures other than just glamour shots. You can get side by side comparisons, natural light, and neck shots. I have found them to be extremely helpful and accommodating. Since tahitians are little chameleons and look so different in different lights, and even depending on what you are wearing.

 

[pearlsngems]

I was never impressed that there were many nice pearls at the Intergem shows in our area (Connecticut.) Perhaps in your part of the country it may be different.

I suggest you go onto the Intergem website, look at show dates for locations you would attend, and click to see the list of exhibitors. You may be able to research them online to see what they carry.

 

[gingercurls]

I went to the Intergem show in White Plains, NY in November. In my opinion, the show was low-end. I looked on the Intergem website and saw that the vendor list for White Plains was super small in comparison to many other locations. I saw a great deal of imitation pearls and the real pearls that I saw were low quality, maybe B grade at best. The Tahitian selection was especially dismal. The strands were poorly matched, pitted, gray, and lackluster. I highly suggest Pearl Paradise. I recently purchased a gorgeous pair of large, round blue toned Tahitians that I absolutely adore.

 

[pearlsngems]

That is useful to know, gingercurls.
We were thinking of attending one of the White Plains shows and that is all I need to put that idea to rest.

 

[Fly Girl]

I have found that the Intergem show in Minneapolis has lots of low end beading supplies, and very few nice pearls. You can pick up some dyed freshwater pearls for fun, if that is what you are after.

 

[pregcurious]

Pinkjewel, thanks for the hearty welcome. It's nice to see your beautiful avatar. I contacted them about peacock Tahitians, and they were nice to put a pair aside for me, but then my husband didn't end up getting them (He got me something else.) Now he knows better.

Ckrickett, thanks for the encouragement to do PP. Tahitians are new to me so I feel wary. I've purchased 3 different pairs of freshwater pearl earrings in the past from PP, but never anything very expensive.

Pearlsngems, gingercurls, and Flygirl, thanks for the tip on Intergem. I will plan on getting something else there. It's my first gem show and I feel like I have to get something. I saw that Prima Gems and Marc Sarcosi will be at Chantilly, so it will probably be a colored stone for me.

 

[ckrickett]

Pinkjewel, thanks for the hearty welcome. It's nice to see your beautiful avatar. I contacted them about peacock Tahitians, and they were nice to put a pair aside for me, but then my husband didn't end up getting them (He got me something else.) Now he knows better.

Ckrickett, thanks for the encouragement to do PP. Tahitians are new to me so I feel wary. I've purchased 3 different pairs of freshwater pearl earrings in the past from PP, but never anything very expensive.

Pearlsngems, gingercurls, and Flygirl, thanks for the tip on Intergem. I will plan on getting something else there. It's my first gem show and I feel like I have to get something. I saw that Prima Gems and Marc Sarcosi will be at Chantilly, so it will probably be a colored stone for me.

Tahitians are such special pearls, each are unique so even if you were to go to a show, if you weren't to purchase pearls there it might not be too helpful.

I've worked with PP on a number of small and larger projects. The best thing about them is no matter how much (or little) you spend they give you the best service. If you want tahitians I would find a few examples of what you'd like and work with them to make a custom strand for you. You can work with budget, length, size, color, whatever. And they will give you pictures in different light to let you know what you can expect! Their quality is amazing too. My baroque strand was 1000000% prettier then a strand I saw at Neiman Marcus for 50x The cost

 

[pregcurious]

Thanks, ckrickett. I am jonesing for a baroque strand also with lots of different overtones.

 

[ckrickett]

OOOH What are thou looking for!!?

 

[pinkjewel]

Thanks, ckrickett. I am jonesing for a baroque strand also with lots of different overtones.

Good choice!! I love my baroque strand ( from PPs sale last summer). I need a longer one now (LOL). You may also want to talk with Kamoka Pearls. They make beautiful baroque strands with multi colors, too. Their pearls tend to be a bit more expensive than PP, but they do have some gorgeous colors.

 

[cmd2014]

Tahitians can be tricky to buy online as how they look varies so much depending on the light...so sometimes you can end up surprised even though you've seen pictures in a variety of lights. Scale is hard to tell from a picture too. But PP has a very generous return policy, so if this happens, you can always go back to the drawing board.

I can also vouch about PP's quality. I too have seen much lower quality baroque strands (less luster, more blemished) sold in brick and mortar stores here for 5x the cost. All of the strands I have bought from PP exceed the quality I've seen in person here by far. So it's worth the small risk of buying off of a photo.

 

[pregcurious]

I'm basically looking for baroque circle pearls with the strongest blue/green/red/pink overtones. I love perfectly round peacock pearls too, but I feel like the baroques show the overtones the best.

 

[CRDKeshi]

Pregcurious, if you're going to the Chantilly Intergem show, it's one of the largest Intergem shows in the country, and often crowded Having said that, in regard to pearls, it can be hit or miss ... lots of low/middle end FW pearls, but good for beading projects, not gem quality. I did see a couple of really nice metallic strands mixed in though. Few, very few Tahitian strands, although last year I saw 2 VERY nice Tahitian strands I would have bought, one in the wholesale room, one in the retail room. I was waiting for the PP Ruckus Tahitian event, and was rewarded for my wait with my 2 round strands ... as they were my first, I really needed to see in person. Now I'm just itching for a LONG, baroque "harvest" strand Wave to me at Chantilly ... I'll likely be in the crowd, so long as there's not snow.

 

[Pearlescence]

Yes, you will get more visible colour with big circles than you would with rounds. Often because circles show banding while a peacock pearl's subtle 'eye' can be lost from a distance. Mixed colour rounds will obviously look mixed colour, but in terms of colour bang for your $ circle pearls will hit the spot.
Peacocks can be a beautiful joy but sometimes someone looking at them on you will have to stare and move their head from about six inches away to appreciate them. Which is not necessarily a good thing....

 

[pregcurious]

Pregcurious, if you're going to the Chantilly Intergem show, it's one of the largest Intergem shows in the country, and often crowded Having said that, in regard to pearls, it can be hit or miss ... lots of low/middle end FW pearls, but good for beading projects, not gem quality. I did see a couple of really nice metallic strands mixed in though. Few, very few Tahitian strands, although last year I saw 2 VERY nice Tahitian strands I would have bought, one in the wholesale room, one in the retail room. I was waiting for the PP Ruckus Tahitian event, and was rewarded for my wait with my 2 round strands ... as they were my first, I really needed to see in person. Now I'm just itching for a LONG, baroque "harvest" strand Wave to me at Chantilly ... I'll likely be in the crowd, so long as there's not snow.

CRDKeshi, 2 weeks left!

 

[pregcurious]

Yes, you will get more visible colour with big circles than you would with rounds. Often because circles show banding while a peacock pearl's subtle 'eye' can be lost from a distance. Mixed colour rounds will obviously look mixed colour, but in terms of colour bang for your $ circle pearls will hit the spot.
Peacocks can be a beautiful joy but sometimes someone looking at them on you will have to stare and move their head from about six inches away to appreciate them. Which is not necessarily a good thing....

Thanks Pearlescence. I've never seen circle Tahitians in real live...I'l have to go to LA to see the PP showroom or depend on their picking a strand for me.

 

[CRDKeshi]

I know ... I'm really looking forward to the Chantilly show; it had better not SNOW PP does do a remarkably good job of helping you choose something online, and will send you extra photos, under different lighting and even worn if needed ... as do many of the other vendors mentioned or posting here. Good luck in your search; my own next Tahitians will be rings and/or circles ... hopefully a rope ... and I'll look for lots of comparison shots too.

 

[pregcurious]

CRD, are you CathyKeshi on another forum?

 

[CRDKeshi]

Yes

 

[pregcurious]

Nice to see you at both places!