Fruition: 9.5-10mm "top quality" white akoya from Takahashi

[pearaffair]

I swear, @yssie , I am not a pearl person, but your posts are threatening to make me into a pearl person. Those. Are. STUNNING. The shine and luster. Wow.

[Seriously, I’m beginning to wonder if I didn’t like pearls because I just haven’t seen great quality pearls. Thank you for your posts—they are so educational.]

I relate to this!! haha!

 

[AntiqueSparkle]

*thud*, my jaw is on the ground and refuse to get up again…

 

[Cinders]

Amazing, simply, continually amazing!!

I can't thank you enough for all the educational posts---I've found so many incredible sources as a result of your willingness to share.

While I have not yet amassed an epic treasure chest of goodies, I'm looking, looking, looking. I did get a few metallic beauties from Cees recently---they are amazing & I'm still trying to determine their best use. So, again, thank you for showing everyone the beauty of the pearl side & sharing your sources.

 

[Cerulean]

Omg @yssie

These are spectacular. Dare I say…I like them more than the Miki’s???? I can’t even believe I’m saying that. Takahashi is definitely going to be a vendor I need to try! Just outstanding pearls.

The overtone is so so gorgeous…they are perfectly luminous and that cool toned pink is phenomenal, I’ve honestly never seen that overtone color before. It’s almost a pinkish lilac! Like the underside of cumulus clouds during twilight hours. That beautiful, soft pinkish, bluish white, shifting moods as the clouds blow by…

Now I’m just daydreaming about warm summer nights…

 

[lulu_ma]

@ForteKitty has another Takahashi pair in this same quality, and she gave me the okay to tag her here and share a few more photos

Hers is closest to the fingertips, then Miki in the middle, and my mother's closest to palm. Her pair has the same cool-pink-with-blue overtone as my mother's, but body colour is a bit lighter. Has the real-world effect of making them look a bit more bright pink. Same fantastic luster, same high constrastiness, same faultless matching















Oh - and they're all perfectly round!! Just the camera making the end pearls look oval in some of these pics!

Wow! Wait a sec! Did Fortekitty get a 10-10.5mm pair or is it camera perspective?

 

[GreenPapaya]

Wow those are so beautiful! I’m still lusting after your baby Akoyas. I want a bracelet and choker, maybe later this year…

 

[LLJsmom]

I swear, @yssie , I am not a pearl person, but your posts are threatening to make me into a pearl person. Those. Are. STUNNING. The shine and luster. Wow.

[Seriously, I’m beginning to wonder if I didn’t like pearls because I just haven’t seen great quality pearls. Thank you for your posts—they are so educational.]

@Tonks what you said about not being a pearl person cause maybe you’ve never seen stunning pearls, that is EXACTLY me. And until I studied @yssie’s (aka Pied Piper) got these from Takahashi I never was. Now I am in love with my pearls and am scheming for WSS, but only if they are as beautiful as the ones that @yssie has posted. (Or I’ll die trying)

 

[yssie]

Wow... This thread got more attention than I expected

Writing responses... Slowly...

 

[yssie]

I love my Takahashi pearls. I reach for them all the time. I am often “in the mood” for them. Thank you for sharing about them. Your alien glowballs are unbelievable, otherworldly.

@Tonks what you said about not being a pearl person cause maybe you’ve never seen stunning pearls, that is EXACTLY me. And until I studied @yssie’s (aka Pied Piper) got these from Takahashi I never was. Now I am in love with my pearls and am scheming for WSS, but only if they are as beautiful as the ones that @yssie has posted. (Or I’ll die trying)

Having seen some of your pearls, and knowing that you've got a Mikimoto strand stashed away - I'd say you've kind of started right at the top of the pyramid

This is going to sound bizarre and maybe a bit inappropriate but I used to feel a little guilty about not loving pearls!! Back before I loved pearls. I'm Asian, Asians are supposed to do pearls, y'know? And on top of that - I'm a June baby, so growing up I got a lot of pearl themed gifts. Lots of children's jewellery - earrings and necklaces and bracelets with tons of tiny pearls burnished in.

Turns out I just hadn't seen any really great pearls yet! Once I did, yup, game over. A mediocre RB diamond is still a diamond, it'll still sparkle in the right lighting, I feel like you can kind of guess the potential? But a meh pearl is just kind of there. I remember asking if the pearls in something I was looking at were real, once... In some jewellery store somewhere in India. But at the time I didn't know shell pearls existed, I didn't know there was a difference between a "cultured" pearl and a "natural" pearl, so I don't even know what I was actually asking - verification that they weren't made of plastic or glass I guess?

I really love how much you love and wear your pearls - it makes the greedy little gremlin inside me very happy

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Gorgeous! Such a lovely gift for your mumma .
I hope you both love wearing your beautiful pearls.

Thank you!! She's been rotating through my studs and so far has managed to not chip, scratch, break, burn, stain, or otherwise damage any of them, so I'm reasonably confident these will stay safe with her She's very hard on jewellery. Opposite of me, I'm easy on my pretties, so it makes me really think about what would best suit her... And not just project whatever I happen to be jonesing for at the moment onto her! And earrings are a great gift for someone who's hard on jewellery, noone's doing anything with their ears!!

... Yeah I probably just jinxed it

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Beautiful! I LOVE the overtones. I bet your mom is thrilled. I would have loved to see her face when she saw them for the first time.

Thank you!! Her exact words were "they're very pink, very nice!"

 

[MrsBlue]

Gorgeous! I love how we're all like wide-eyed toddlers at storytime when @yssie breaks out the pearls.

Did they send you the drilled pearls and posts separately or did you order posts for something else?

 

[yssie]

So beautiful all of them! Congrats @ForteKitty and congrats to your mum too! Such a great size

Erm… that’s why I can’t bring myself to buy Mikimoto. That’s pretty much the case for all other types of pearls (GSSPs, WSSPs) vs their branded alternatives too.

Once upon a time I wanted a full Mikimoto #set - akoya, WSS, GSS, “black south sea”. I thought it'd be romantic and mind-clean because surely they must have the #best of everything, right?

Yeah that was dumb. Mikimoto sources WSS from Paspaley, I would've felt beyond idiotic if I’d paid their premium and then later learnt that I could have gotten better *and* cheaper straight from the source. That whole saga was a very good reminder to myself to not try to... Um, extract all my eggs from one chicken. Y'know.

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I can't justify spending that much on a pair of single pearl studs even at @yssie's XS price band, let alone the higher ones!!!

DK

I've never asked my husband for his thoughts on my scale but I'm sure his nomenclature would look something like "okay", "we can think about it", "you should stop thinking about it", "nope", and "still nope"

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I swear, @yssie , I am not a pearl person, but your posts are threatening to make me into a pearl person. Those. Are. STUNNING. The shine and luster. Wow.

[Seriously, I’m beginning to wonder if I didn’t like pearls because I just haven’t seen great quality pearls. Thank you for your posts—they are so educational.]

YES.

OMG. I so get this. I just wrote the same thing to LLJsmom a couple posts ago.

I seriously never liked pearls. I mean I wouldn't turn them down if they fell into my lap, because they were #PreciousGems and #GemsGood, but I'd sure as heck never go out of my way for them. I would occasionally read threads on the Other Forum to try and figure out what all these people were getting out of these kind-of-boring little balls.

But nice pearls really aren't boring. Not at all. I know everyone says that!! I had to see to get it and I got it real quick once I saw. Nice pearls have this vitality that photos just can't ever capture... You know how diamonds are basically little mirrors that react to whatever's around them? Your lighting determines how your diamond will behave, and it's all very forumulaic. But nice pearls have a luminosity that *seems* to be powered by something other the light that's around them, and they *seem* to actively decide how they're going to respond. The way they shift with ambient change feels very deliberated, but you're not privy to the decision-making. Unpredictable and mysterious. I like to think of it as the souls of the oysters that they came from continuing to tend them.

And okay, yeah, that totally sounds like one of those myriad dreadful blogs extolling the Romance of The Pearl. But if you ever find yourself in a city with a Mikimoto boutique - stop in, if you can, 'cause I'm pretty sure you'll see it real quick too

 

[yssie]

Incredible!!!! Thank you for sharing!

Thank you!!

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*thud*, my jaw is on the ground and refuse to get up again…

- - - - - - - - - -

Amazing, simply, continually amazing!!

I can't thank you enough for all the educational posts---I've found so many incredible sources as a result of your willingness to share.

While I have not yet amassed an epic treasure chest of goodies, I'm looking, looking, looking. I did get a few metallic beauties from Cees recently---they are amazing & I'm still trying to determine their best use. So, again, thank you for showing everyone the beauty of the pearl side & sharing your sources.

Thank you!!

And if I may - it sounds like you're doing it the right way!! As in - taking the time to figure out what you want before buying. I personally bought too much too quickly and I made a few expensive mistakes, and pearl resale is definitely improving but it's still pretty ouchey My collection is finally at a point where I'm happy with everything I've got and I genuinely don't feel any need for anything else, bouts of wanderlust aside I would be even happier if I'd gotten here with a little less meandering around though!

 

[yssie]

Omg @yssie

These are spectacular. Dare I say…I like them more than the Miki’s???? I can’t even believe I’m saying that. Takahashi is definitely going to be a vendor I need to try! Just outstanding pearls.

The overtone is so so gorgeous…they are perfectly luminous and that cool toned pink is phenomenal, I’ve honestly never seen that overtone color before. It’s almost a pinkish lilac! Like the underside of cumulus clouds during twilight hours. That beautiful, soft pinkish, bluish white, shifting moods as the clouds blow by…

Now I’m just daydreaming about warm summer nights…

The gods are listening

For real though. I was telling a friend a few weeks ago that if I'd seen these before I got my Miki, I wouldn't have bought the Miki. The price differential is *staggering*, it feels like it just shouldn't be possible to match that quality for this much less. I spent soooo much time inspecting these pearls and searching for the gotcha.

But here we are. I have no explanation. Why were all three pairs still available when I inquired - how had they not all been snatched up already? And is THIS really market value for this quality of pearl!? I had PSLs done on all three pairs and I've seen them all, they're all ridiculously amazing. I'd asked another vendor to keep an eye out for a pair like this for me, and that vendor told me that if something did turn up it'd probably be in the $15k range - but also told me point blank to not hold my breath!!


I've sort of bushwhacked my way into some thoughts. No clue how much merit they might have.

I can see a larger vendor not wanting three extra-special pairs of pearls, even if they cost next to nothing wholesale. They'd be such a pain in the backside to sell. Creating a new quality band and explaining to customers why these three pairs cost more than everything else. Or selling them in an already-existing quality band and explaining to a customer who purchased one and wants another why the second pair isn't as nice, and why there won't be any more like the first.

And a smaller specialty vendor... Reality is that there are certain pricing expectations that we've come to normalize, and the number of people looking for larger pearls in the context of those pricing expectations is very small. And selling these three pairs anywhere close to buy price would definitely invite a deluge of requests for more, and probably also tons of questions about why smaller pearls of same quality are so pricey by comparison... I can see how that's not a good place for any vendor to be. Especially given the giant question mark of future availability.

So maybe realistically only end-consumers would actually want these? And I would guess that the PS audience is a pretty big chunk of their end-consumer customer base. Or, heck, maybe I'm reading into it way too much and it's as simple as "nobody else asked" That feels even crazier!!
I do believe that these pearls were my luckiest find and I don't expect I'll ever top them. Ending my pearl buying on a high


And for me, even though I said that if I'd gotten these before my Miki I wouldn't have bought the Miki, I think if I didn't have the Miki I'd never be fully confident that these are a quality match. If that makes sense? Even if I'd taken them into a boutique - limited time, whackadoo lighting, the knowledge that I'd want these to be a quality match so I'd be mentally looking for reasons to fulfill that agenda and maybe unconsciously selectively ignoring some details... Or maybe the other way round, maybe I'd want to believe the Miki superior and I'd unconsciously selectively ignore some other details... Yeah. Nope. Let's be real, I'd never have had enough confidence to believe the quality match if I wasn't out of pocket on both. The Miki are mind-clean in that they set the bar for everything else. And honestly at the end of the day when I look at them I can't regret buying them, premium and all, I still go gooey for them

And now that I've written the novel... I think you're actually one of the people I've talked about all of this with before. How 'bout that

 

[Mcgregor]

Beautiful, beautiful pearls. Your mother is a very lucky woman to have a daughter like you! Your sweetness towards her shines brighter than the beautiful pearls.

 

[pearaffair]

Thank you!!

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Thank you!!

And if I may - it sounds like you're doing it the right way!! As in - taking the time to figure out what you want before buying. I personally bought too much too quickly and I made a few expensive mistakes, and pearl resale is definitely improving but it's still pretty ouchey My collection is finally at a point where I'm happy with everything I've got and I genuinely don't feel any need for anything else, bouts of wanderlust aside I would be even happier if I'd gotten here with a little less meandering around though!

Ehhh there are different ways to pay for education. Any money you lost on your pearl journey was probably an ok amount to pay for the education

(is what I tell myself regarding all the money I lost while learning about myself and jewelry…)

 

[yssie]

Wow! Wait a sec! Did Fortekitty get a 10-10.5mm pair or is it camera perspective?

Haha no her pair is a touch smaller actually, it's just the camera and the way I'm holding them!! They didn't have any 10-10.5 in this quality and they told me they probably never would - if they'd had any you'd better believe they sure wouldn't anymore and d*mn the buying ban

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Wow those are so beautiful! I’m still lusting after your baby Akoyas. I want a bracelet and choker, maybe later this year…

Thank you!! And I'm very on board with your plan!!

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Gorgeous! I love how we're all like wide-eyed toddlers at storytime when @yssie breaks out the pearls.

Did they send you the drilled pearls and posts separately or did you order posts for something else?

OMG what a description

They half-drilled all the pearls for me yup!! And I epoxied them when I got them - customs is wayyy less if you can avoid declaring finished jewellery. I actually bought a few pairs of pearls and a few pairs findings and I miscounted the findings, but I had a spare set from an older project that worked just fine I've got so much random pearl stuff!!

 

[yssie]

Ehhh there are different ways to pay for education. Any money you lost on your pearl journey was probably an ok amount to pay for the education

(is what I tell myself regarding all the money I lost while learning about myself and jewelry…)

Copying... Pasting... Sending...

Beautiful, beautiful pearls. Your mother is a very lucky woman to have a daughter like you! Your sweetness towards her shines brighter than the beautiful pearls.

Oh. That's so sweet. Thank you so much!!

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

There are pearls, stories and pictures.

Then there is Yssie. That's all.

cheers--Sharon

 

[love_pearls]

I feel that as a collector, owning an example of mikimoto is a must, no? Owning one example before anything else, after all, they were the pioneers of cultured pearls.

 

[Cerulean]

The gods are listening

For real though. I was telling a friend a few weeks ago that if I'd seen these before I got my Miki, I wouldn't have bought the Miki. The price differential is *staggering*, it feels like it just shouldn't be possible to match that quality for this much less. I spent soooo much time inspecting these pearls and searching for the gotcha.

But here we are. I have no explanation. Why were all three pairs still available when I inquired - how had they not all been snatched up already? And is THIS really market value for this quality of pearl!? I had PSLs done on all three pairs and I've seen them all, they're all ridiculously amazing. I'd asked another vendor to keep an eye out for a pair like this for me, and that vendor told me that if something did turn up it'd probably be in the $15k range - but also told me point blank to not hold my breath!!


I've sort of bushwhacked my way into some thoughts. No clue how much merit they might have.

I can see a larger vendor not wanting three extra-special pairs of pearls, even if they cost next to nothing wholesale. They'd be such a pain in the backside to sell. Creating a new quality band and explaining to customers why these three pairs cost more than everything else. Or selling them in an already-existing quality band and explaining to a customer who purchased one and wants another why the second pair isn't as nice, and why there won't be any more like the first.

And a smaller specialty vendor... Reality is that there are certain pricing expectations that we've come to normalize, and the number of people looking for larger pearls in the context of those pricing expectations is very small. And selling these three pairs anywhere close to buy price would definitely invite a deluge of requests for more, and probably also tons of questions about why smaller pearls of same quality are so pricey by comparison... I can see how that's not a good place for any vendor to be. Especially given the giant question mark of future availability.

So maybe realistically only end-consumers would actually want these? And I would guess that the PS audience is a pretty big chunk of their end-consumer customer base. Or, heck, maybe I'm reading into it way too much and it's as simple as "nobody else asked" That feels even crazier!!
I do believe that these pearls were my luckiest find and I don't expect I'll ever top them. Ending my pearl buying on a high


And for me, even though I said that if I'd gotten these before my Miki I wouldn't have bought the Miki, I think if I didn't have the Miki I'd never be fully confident that these are a quality match. If that makes sense? Even if I'd taken them into a boutique - limited time, whackadoo lighting, the knowledge that I'd want these to be a quality match so I'd be mentally looking for reasons to fulfill that agenda and maybe unconsciously selectively ignoring some details... Or maybe the other way round, maybe I'd want to believe the Miki superior and I'd unconsciously selectively ignore some other details... Yeah. Nope. Let's be real, I'd never have had enough confidence to believe the quality match if I wasn't out of pocket on both. The Miki are mind-clean in that they set the bar for everything else. And honestly at the end of the day when I look at them I can't regret buying them, premium and all, I still go gooey for them

And now that I've written the novel... I think you're actually one of the people I've talked about all of this with before. How 'bout that

Honestly, I think you are spot on about all of this. The sheer rarity alone makes these essentially impossible to sell as they are - in a league of their own. The explanations would likely fall of deaf ears and dissatisfaction AFTER being spoilt by these would definitely be the fallout!

And what Miki offers is a mind clean selection, curated by people with eyes as discerning as yours. There’s something extremely special about owning exceptionally beautiful pearls from an exceptional establishment - it does give them an air of…perfection! You absolutely had to dip your toes in Miki first, and I think that was almost a requirement to even appreciate what these Takahashi pearls even meant in the grander scheme. It’s sort of like…you need to know all of the rules in order to break them. Miki writes the rules!

These Takahashi pearls seem like a bit of a fluke, if I’m being honest (hopefully I’m wrong so I can hold out a prayer that one day, I may selfishly find some of my own ).

But frankly, they couldn’t have fallen into better, more appreciative hands.

 

[yssie]

HI:

There are pearls, stories and pictures.

Then there is Yssie. That's all.

cheers--Sharon

Thank you!! You’re such a sweetheart

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I feel that as a collector, owning an example of mikimoto is a must, no? Owning one example before anything else, after all, they were the pioneers of cultured pearls.

Love_pearls yes!!

I completely agree with you. Mikimoto is so much more than just a name and a pearl storage closet. So much history of invention and heritage of cultural diaspora, it’s an honour to own some of the house’s contributions to the jewellery industry

You might already have these but just in case - there are two books published by Assouline in partnership with Mikimoto: Mikimoto (Memoires) is older, The Pearl Necklace is fairly recent. I believe both are out of print now but you can find copies on a number of used book vendors. They’re gorgeous coffee table books, if you haven’t already seen them I think you would love them!!

 

[yssie]

@Cerulean yup. You nailed it. Agree with your whole post. Just gonna highlight and respond to a few specific portions.

And what Miki offers is a mind clean selection

This!! Miki offers a guarantee of quality. Which is a guarantee that’s basically otherwise-impossible-to-guarantee. With zero need for luck, effort, risk, or concern on the buyer’s part. That guarantee does have a pretty hefty premium but like you said - we all get to pick our poisons

It’s sort of like…you need to know all of the rules in order to break them. Miki writes the rules!

I love the way you put this

Mikimoto isn’t just a name or a brand. They created the akoya market as it is today and they set the standards that every other vendor in the world hopes to meet. And the entire industry takes that fact for granted, from farm all the way to lil’ ol’ me who started this thread for the express purpose of cooing over the fact that Takahashi’s best meets Miki’s best

These Takahashi pearls seem like a bit of a fluke, if I’m being honest (hopefully I’m wrong so I can hold out a prayer that one day, I may selfishly find some of my own ).

So I think it’s luck in terms of what Takahashi gets in their lots to begin with but I totally trust their discernment in sorting!!

Like - I trust that they maintain objective quality brackets, and that they won’t inflate their internal quality assessments… And I also trust that whatever those internal assessments are, they do a really good job of keeping them consistent over time!! They’re wholesale, so they’ve got to be good at staying consistent over time, right?

So I’m actually very sure they’ll get more and I really hope some of whatever they get next time stays in the PS family

Confession: I held off on making this thread until all the pearls were spoken for, cause I didn’t want to post detailed comps and give some rando ammo to buy the remainder and try to flip ‘em back to other PSers for 5x Downside of a public forum, that. At least this way future PSers who see this thread and are interested in this size will know to ask Takahashi right away

But frankly, they couldn’t have fallen into better, more appreciative hands.

Thank you so much

 

[icy_jade]

For real though. I was telling a friend a few weeks ago that if I'd seen these before I got my Miki, I wouldn't have bought the Miki. The price differential is *staggering*, it feels like it just shouldn't be possible to match that quality for this much less. I spent soooo much time inspecting these pearls and searching for the gotcha.

But here we are. I have no explanation. Why were all three pairs still available when I inquired - how had they not all been snatched up already? And is THIS really market value for this quality of pearl!? I'd asked another vendor to keep an eye out for a pair like this for me, and that vendor told me that if something did turn up it'd probably be in the $15k range - but also told me point blank to not hold my breath!!

Oh @yssie this reminds me of a conversation I had with an ex colleague many years ago that I could help her to purchase pearls that are as good as Mikimoto quality and at a fraction of Miki price but she didn’t believe me and obviously didn’t take me up on my offer.

It’s actually the same for WSSP and GSSP vs the really well known pearl brands. Not to say that pearls of such quality are common or easy to find, but possible with some effort and so so much cheaper than the branded alternatives.

Again, I think you need to go to the trade shows in Japan or HK when the world is normal again…

 

[icy_jade]

I feel that as a collector, owning an example of mikimoto is a must, no? Owning one example before anything else, after all, they were the pioneers of cultured pearls.

I never felt that as objectively speaking I just need to have the best of the best, and it doesn’t have to come from Mikimoto. Like I don’t need to buy diamonds from De Beers… but yes when you buy a Mikimoto, you are buying into the brand and the experience so I would say it’s a different segment?

In my case, I’ll rather spread my dollars (and at my peak I bought like a mini jewelry store) so that I can afford more pretties. End of the day whatever makes you happy.

 

[love_pearls]

I never felt that as objectively speaking I just need to have the best of the best, and it doesn’t have to come from Mikimoto. Like I don’t need to buy diamonds from De Beers… but yes when you buy a Mikimoto, you are buying into the brand and the experience so I would say it’s a different segment?

In my case, I’ll rather spread my dollars (and at my peak I bought like a mini jewelry store) so that I can afford more pretties. End of the day whatever makes you happy.

Maybe I am a minimalist. I can wear the same things over and over again. Like most of my winter items clothing, it's been with me for 10 years.

I like miki probably because it's this brand that makes me get serious with pearls. I used to wear the basic small ear studs I got from Tous every day without taking them off. I wore it for 9 years without changing my ear studs so at this point, I want a nice pair that can last me a long time because I am getting older.

After getting the pearl ear studs, my next goal might be the pave diamond earrings from another brand. This way, I have a small collection of earrings or ear studs in different materials.

 

[Ann]

I'm way late to the pearl game. Never had an interest. Even turned down a beautiful strand as a gift from my high school boyfriend's mom. She could tell I wasn't thrilled. At the time I just thought old lady pearls. Not Now . I'm obsessed with gorgeous pearls. But what I want is always so $$. And there is always something else screaming for that money. I really would like a pair of drop/dangle WSS. But with the ability to change out the dangling pearl - different color, different shape... @yssie Please do not ever stop posting here. Your contributions to this forum are invaluable and a great source of education. I will live thru your pearls - and I WILL get more in the future. Just as soon as I redo the landscape in my backyard and redo my master bath, haha!

 

[molinePDG]

Cool-- a really remarkable find here, and one that no US retail vendor large or small would be able to come remotely close to matching.

Watch your back -- Mikimoto might be coming after those.

I know it's a quest you've been on for some time, so must feel great to have that completed! Congrats!

 

[OdetteOdile]

I just so enjoy your pearl threads @yssie ! The pictures, the descriptions, the comparisons.... Lately it had me pulling out my various pearls from my jewelry box and comparing them with one another for tone and luster. It was fun! I'd love to see a gem quality pearl in person. I am excited for your mom to receive these gorgeous pearls. I hope she loves them!!

 

[pearlsngems]

...
You might already have these but just in case - there are two books published by Assouline in partnership with Mikimoto: Mikimoto (Memoires) is older, The Pearl Necklace is fairly recent. I believe both are out of print now but you can find copies on a number of used book vendors. They’re gorgeous coffee table books, if you haven’t already seen them I think you would love them!!

I own the book, Pearl Necklace. Gorgeous photos! Amazon is way too expensive for this book. Best price is from Thrift Books:
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/pearl-necklace/13733031/item/19483615/#idiq=19483615&edition=13435781

 

[LLJsmom]

@yssie
Thank you for being you. Your integrity that clearly is a huge part of what makes you you and your (sometimes) painful transparency shines through every statement you make. You don't shy away with sharing your observations, good and bad, and that makes all your posts so fulfilling to read. Thank you for all the time and energy you put into transforming technically challenging concepts into digestable bits for us newbies, and taking stunning and honest pictures in effort to teach and share your love and appreciation of these lovely specimens. All of us here that have the opportunity to learn from you are so fortunate. You're my hero.