Help me pick WSS from takahashi

[yssie]

The measurement they give you (10mm) is the minimum for the width, by the way. Not the length. So they’re still going to be large pearls!!

 

[GeliL]

More photos, I was told some pairs was sold.

 

[yssie]

Oh it looks like a fair number sold actually. But there are some very nice options left. What are you thinking @GeliL?

 

[GeliL]

Oh it looks like a fair number sold actually. But there are some very nice options left. What are you thinking @GeliL?

I like these 3. I think. A lot of the 11mm ones have sold ,but the pair you highlighted in that lot is still there!

 

[GeliL]

I picked the 3 of them and had them sent more photos. What do you think?

 

[Crystal_Dreams]

IMO there’s a visible size difference between the bottom two (I’m assuming they’re meant to be a pair). The overtone of the top pearl reads as more silvery to me as well. Not sure how they appear to your eyes though!

 

[yssie]

From the closeups I’m not loving them as a matched pair. The middle and bottom match best in colour, but they’re different sizes and have different luster. The middle and top are better matched in “weight” but have different colour and shape.

What if you add these two to the card?

 

[Cerulean]

For a style that involves some sort of setting detail on top of dangly pearls (a little trio of gemstones or pearls, an elaborate cup, briolette dangles, etc.) I like the last pair of 11mm baroques best! I think those flat tops lend themselves to adding detail right above. I think they’re also the most lustrous pearls in this set!



In the smaller size I like the two red circled pearls as a pair best, if they’re similar in dimensions. That blue sheen is really magical in WSS, I think. These are the most lustrous and contrasty and iridescent pearls - even more than the 11mm pairs. My favourite two baroques in the whole lot. They’ll look most “metallic” in person, but I think they might also be most blemished so if they’re a decent match I’d def ask for more photos and a verbal assessment of surface.

My next choice - if the two reds are overly blemished, or not the right shape for you - would be two of the three green circled pearls, whichever two match best in size, but preferring the bottom two (last row green circle and second-to-last row green circle). I think these shapes are just lovely, more traditional “drops”, and they’re no luster/iridescence slouches!

I also like the top pair circled blue, but I think those bumps on the right pearl might be visible from afar? They’re the classic “baroques” - those rock-like shapes. But luster is slightly inferior compared to the red circled pair.



Edit - no worries about mixing the pairs up! Yy has done this for me numerous times.

This is really helpful! I didn’t expect that they’d happily swap out pairs, as a few don’t seem to match that well! Great call out for future reference

 

[GeliL]

@yssie Got the new photos of the pair you picked. I think it looks quite promising!

 

[yssie]

That’s a nice mated pair! Evenly weighted, good colour match, both pearls look pretty!

 

[Aerielle Max]

That definitely looks beautiful.
Is the color silvery white?

 

[GeliL]

That definitely looks beautiful.
Is the color silvery white?

It definitely is silvery white!

@yssie really appreciate your help. Ive decided on this pair and another pair of grey akoyas, so I'll be making payment soon. Since its turning out to be a smaller purchase, I'll try out the $35 shipping too! Although I heard that they only did wire transfer, I think they have adapted and is now using PayPal as well.

Will update with photos once I receive them

In general I don't think I am too worried about it. They have tracking and I have had items shipped to me from Japan that way, it just takes a while (2-3 weeks), but I can wait.

Thank you all very much for all your help and advice!

 

[GeliL]

The goods, they may even make good earrings together, even though the colour doesn't exactly match.

 

[yssie]

I hope you love them!! Really interested to hear your thoughts when you get them!
Their grey akoya are really lovely, a few of us got some after @Crystal_Dreams got hers and spoke highly of them I have blind faith in Crystal_Dreams' opinions on pearls
And Takahashi takes PayPal now!? That's great to know

 

[Cerulean]

I'd wait to see if you like them together before deciding if you want them in a single pair. They may or may not look nice together to you.

If you don't have many pearl earrings, it might be nice to have two pairs for some variety.

Excited that you like those WSS! I think those were the original baroques I liked best too, but I think I lost track love the shape especially

 

[yssie]

I'd wait to see if you like them together before deciding if you want them in a single pair. They may or may not look nice together to you.

If you don't have many pearl earrings, it might be nice to have two pairs for some variety.

Excited that you like those WSS! I think those were the original baroques I liked best too, but I think I lost track love the shape especially

I was wondering if they were the same pair too!

 

[GeliL]

I'd wait to see if you like them together before deciding if you want them in a single pair. They may or may not look nice together to you.

If you don't have many pearl earrings, it might be nice to have two pairs for some variety.

Excited that you like those WSS! I think those were the original baroques I liked best too, but I think I lost track love the shape especially

i wondered that too. I got so confused as to which was which after they changed cards lol...

 

[Cerulean]

i wondered that too. I got so confused as to which was which after they changed cards lol...

Lol, I don't blame you...same here!

 

[GeliL]

Ultimately after examining a bunch of videos, I decided to make them both into one pair of earrings. Mostly because I have non-pierced ears and Japan is much more accommodating in making earrings in that style. I have a very large collection of non-pierced earrings because my body really doesn't like metal in me, and because I just love earrings too much to give up on them. That's a thread for another day...

Anyway, I thought I had to wait for a long time for them to arrive because they quoted 5 weeks including the turnaround time for the earrings. But it arrived today!! I used the $35 shipping, they shipped it out Monday and I checked the tracking today just to see where it was, and what do you know, it was out for delivery. You cannot describe how happy I was. What a pleasant surprise!

And the earrings. They are absolutely beautiful. The akoya and the WSS definitely don't exactly match in color, but it's so beautiful that I don't care! I am truly impressed with the lustre of the grey akoyas and the WSS pearls. The blemishes don't bother me at all! They also look so great on the ear. Overall I would like to rave at Takahashi's amazing service and the quality of their pearls for their price.

I have a pair of 12mm Tahitians, but I have to say these two earrings together are definitely one the biggest pairs of earrings I own. Maybe one day I'll go even bigger and get the truly massive ones, but for now, I am beyond happy with what I have. The shape of the WSS are lovely and the luster of the grey akoyas on my ear from afar truly look like metal beads. I am very, very happy with what I have.

Now, for some meat of this comment. The pictures:

 

[GeliL]

Comparison with two other pearl earrings I have ,both from mikimoto.

 

[lovedogs]

wow, they are gorgeous!!!! The smaller (non baroque) ones have lovely luster!

 

[GeliL]

wow, they are gorgeous!!!! The smaller (non baroque) ones have lovely luster!

Those are the grey akoyas! They are amazing!

 

[lovedogs]

Those are the grey akoyas! They are amazing!

I love them!!!! They weren't originally posted here, right? I just looked over the thread and didn't see any greyish color options. But they look SO GOOD

 

[GeliL]

I love them!!!! They weren't originally posted here, right? I just looked over the thread and didn't see any greyish color options. But they look SO GOOD

It was posted in one comment in this thread, I am better at picking akoyas than WSS so I just picked a pair and posted the pics of the pair I got. I think it's in the page before this one!

And YES!!! They really blew me away when I got them in person today, they absolutely glow! And it's super affordable too so I would highly recommend them if you are interested!

 

[lovedogs]

It was posted in one comment in this thread, I am better at picking akoyas than WSS so I just picked a pair and posted the pics of the pair I got. I think it's in the page before this one!

And YES!!! They really blew me away when I got them in person today, they absolutely glow! And it's super affordable too so I would highly recommend them if you are interested!

I am super tempted, they are gorgeous!

 

[yssie]

They’re beautiful!!! And they didn’t take too long to come in at all!!

Congrats @GeliL!!

 

[pearaffair]

I was debating whether or not to post again in this thread since I do of course have some WSS of my own listed, but heck, I love pearls, so I’ll just stay away from that topic

Takahashi is a very honest operation. That thread in CS right now describing how to buy from Sri Lankan vendors, outlining the myriad ways local market culture and customs enable suppliers to obfuscate reality to make the sale… Buying from Takahashi - many Japanese vendors actually - is a study in contrast!! Takahashi seems to take pride in selling forthrightly, and they want their international clients to be happy.

But they have many customers and only one English-speaking sales rep, and they judge according to their own standards. Your standards may be lower or higher than theirs - mine are always higher. The challenge is in conveying precisely what amount/degree of $Something is or is not acceptable to you.

You have a generous budget! But I’ll be honest, ditto @Crystal_Dreams, it’s not sufficient to achieve top luster in this size, in round/near round/symmetric drop shapes. I’m not sure about really baroquey baroques, I don’t have any feel for pricing in that niche. If you’re willing to drop the size requirement down to say 10-11mm your options will open up immensely.

The thing about aiming for baroques… Pearls spin inside the pearl sac as nacre is being deposited layer after layer - if they spin in random directions a circular pearl is formed, if they spin about a single axis (or a small few similar axes) a baroque/circled/shaped pearl is formed - the longest direction of the pearl indicates the axis about which the pearl was spinning. So when you’re talking about baroque akoya - you’ve got slow nacre deposition (which yields tighter nacre layers - higher luster) primarily around the axis of spin. You’ve got focused deposition of tight nacre layers around one axis. When you’re talking about baroque SS, though, you’ve got a much higher rate of nacre deposition (because the water where WSS are farmed is warmer than akoya waters), which yields less tight nacre layers - regardless of axis of spin. Baroque SSs aren’t generally more lustrous than round or near-round SS simply by virtue of being baroque. If you like baroques that’s an awesome way to get something you love at a lower pricepoint than rounds, of course.

If you’re mostly just wanting to try size and style - have you thought about shell pearls at all? I know, I know. Blasphemy! But… They’re pristine, they’re super glossy, and frankly these days they’re so well done the fact that they’re fake isn’t going to be obvious to anyone who sees you wearing them!! “The look for less” with really great ROI, IMO.

Shell pearls! I haven’t heard of these. I will google but please feel free to point me in a specific direction if you know of one

FW Edisons are another option for #Big! Cost of nice WSS is insane these days.

I’m going to google these as well!

Sure! They were akoyas from Reens on Etsy. There are many more details here: https://www.pricescope.com/communit...earls-for-custom-earrings.257411/post-4811932

They are not perfect at all. I liked how rainbowy they were, and wanted something kind of "earthy"

They are much smaller than what you are after. 9-11mm, and the hoops are 13mm.

These are beautiful!

Ultimately after examining a bunch of videos, I decided to make them both into one pair of earrings. Mostly because I have non-pierced ears and Japan is much more accommodating in making earrings in that style. I have a very large collection of non-pierced earrings because my body really doesn't like metal in me, and because I just love earrings too much to give up on them. That's a thread for another day...

Anyway, I thought I had to wait for a long time for them to arrive because they quoted 5 weeks including the turnaround time for the earrings. But it arrived today!! I used the $35 shipping, they shipped it out Monday and I checked the tracking today just to see where it was, and what do you know, it was out for delivery. You cannot describe how happy I was. What a pleasant surprise!

And the earrings. They are absolutely beautiful. The akoya and the WSS definitely don't exactly match in color, but it's so beautiful that I don't care! I am truly impressed with the lustre of the grey akoyas and the WSS pearls. The blemishes don't bother me at all! They also look so great on the ear. Overall I would like to rave at Takahashi's amazing service and the quality of their pearls for their price.

I have a pair of 12mm Tahitians, but I have to say these two earrings together are definitely one the biggest pairs of earrings I own. Maybe one day I'll go even bigger and get the truly massive ones, but for now, I am beyond happy with what I have. The shape of the WSS are lovely and the luster of the grey akoyas on my ear from afar truly look like metal beads. I am very, very happy with what I have.

Now, for some meat of this comment. The pictures:

stunning result!!!