I hope
@yssie will forgive me for borrowing her thread for a moment to post some general pearl information and some of it I hope will prove interesting as a bit of "insider info."
First, a plea to those who may see this thread: Please be nice human beings. I woke up today to more-than-a-couple messages on my own email/Instagram telling me that I was selling bad pearls, had tricked customers, or misrepresented quality, and one particularly nasty one that I won't repeat here. And using this thread as a reference for doing so. That's incredibly not OK first and foremost to Yssie, who is a wonderful person in real life and whom I
know takes very unkindly to those who reference PS and use it as an excuse to be mean or unkind. PS is one of my favorite places - it is a digital getaway where I so enjoy seeing all of your incredible pieces, and not even as a vendor. Remember that most of us even joined trade because we have the same passion and love for gems and jewelry as the consumers do here, and that love never leaves us. Please, just be nice.
Next, here is a very-professionally drawn diagram I just made on a sheet of semi crumpled scrap paper.
There are a few points I would like to highlight from this, similar to what was mentioned:
1. There are no bad pearls here (and I mean that to be PS-wide). 99% of the pearls on PS from any vendor here are within the top sections of "all pearls." - there is legitimate junk that comes from any pearl harvest, and what is seen on PS is all the nice stuff.
2. I am continually trying to push the left side of my "might be considered gem" graph more rightwards, and I'm making progress in doing so. It's hard for a few reasons:
-----> a. Comparing pearls is really easy when you have a whole bunch of pearls to do so. A brand like Mikimoto has literally tens of thousands of pearls on hand and they can more easily determine where their "grade lines" will be. I don't have that, and ideally, I would like a "master set" of pearls across all the best luster qualities and all sizes and surfaces. I would love to do this, and am working on doing so. But, it's by no means inexpensive, putting together master sets like this. So, it's hard to "grade" pearls without comparisons to do so. When I get a pair of pearls in (like a custom order, for example), it's tough to assign a grade without a lot of comparisons available to do so. It's not purposefully or greedily assigning a "gem" grade to something that doesn't deserve it, but it serves as an easy way to say that pearls are within the highest class of pearls available.
------> b. All pearl vendors do get some who specifically say they
have gone and compared grades at Mikimoto or somewhere, and that's a different buyer than those who want "really really nice pearls." I (nor other vendors) would never call something gem unless one thinks it is deserving of being so, and that's more than just luster all the time -- it's matching, (lack of) blemishes, size rarity, smoothness of texture, true roundness, and so forth. FWIW, I was told pre-COVID at a Mikimoto boutique that A+ would be going away, and existing A+s just simply become AA. Dunno if that is still their plan. But again, I am by no means (thank the heavens) the king of the pearl grade. Anybody who is grading pearls is giving their opinion, vendor or otherwise, and in pearls that are the 1% of 1%, think of it like how GIA grades high karat colorless stones: lots of eyes to double check. And I'm just me, doing everything, but doing my best all the same, which brings me to the next point...
-----> c. As I often lament, there are no standard grades for pearls. Every supplier, wholesaler, vendor has some idea of best, and rarely is that an actual "best."
3. Finally, and most importantly, the worst feeling ever for a vendor (I think, at least) is to have someone left with feeling like they didn't get something that was what they wanted. I don't always know what someone will notice in terms of comparing, nor do I always know when another pair like the 7mm pair that Yssie kindly showed off comes available. But, I do hope that anyone who has worked with me knows and has left feeling like if they did have a concern, they could ask about it and I would do everything to resolve their concern in the best way that I could.
I hope Yssie doesn't mind the slight thread hijack here, but I hoped to stem a few of the emails popping up in my inbox and maybe give a little insight to how pearls and what grade they should be can be considered...
I'll end it with commenting on the shiny new and very lovely studs -- they're awesome! It's not hard at all to believe that there was only one of these pairs available within the global company. They really are that rare.
Enjoy your weekend, all.
And before I checked the tracking again - lucky save from guaranteed panic!!
to anyone giving Andrew a hard time
