Here we go again, help with multicolor Tahitian strand

[Pinkmartini87]

Ok team, I’m back. As you all know for years now I’ve been trying to acquire the most colorful multicolor Tahitian strand possible, to no avail.

Here’s my inspiration strand from a fellow PSer that started this all:




Here’s the one I purchased years ago from Pearl Paradise, eventually returned because I thought it was not QUITE colorful enough, and then regretted it since lol. (I especially loved the pastel pink, yellow, and the varied purples/greens).

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Ok team, I’m back. As you all know for years now I’ve been trying to acquire the most colorful multicolor Tahitian strand possible, to no avail.

Here’s my inspiration strand from a fellow PSer that started this all:




Here’s the one I purchased years ago from Pearl Paradise, eventually returned because I thought it was not QUITE colorful enough, and then regretted it since lol. (I especially loved the pastel pink, yellow, and the varied purples/greens).

talk about the one that got away
but good luck in your quest this time

 

[Pinkmartini87]

So, if you are still with me, I then thought about buying this strand from Kamoka but ultimately didn’t because I thought the color palette was a bit too dark/autumnal (I would like to stick to some nice pastel pinks/yellows interspersed with whites, greens, blues, and purples):




I also looked at and ultimately passed on this other strand for similar reasons:

 

[Pinkmartini87]

Ok…if you are still here for my first world sob story lol, now I’m looking at this 9-11mm strand below at $9000 (for reference the strand I returned to Pearl paradise was just over $2k so you can see how desperate I’m becoming over time in raising the budget haha):

Tahitian Pearl Necklace of Intense Color

An 18 1/2" collection of excellant luster Tahitian pearls is closed with a white gold and Diamond ball clasp. The pistachio greens and intense peacocks are clean of blemishes. The pearls range in size from 9mm to 11.4mm. This is a remarkable necklace.

judimccormickjewelry.com

What I need help is: am I being realistic in my goals? Or am I just being an idiot and on the brink of overspending? Is this strand close to the strand that inspired this all to start?

What I THINK I want is a bright, lustrous, super colorful strand with as many colors as possible crammed into one strand, that will hold its color in most lighting situations, ie as @yssie and @pearlsngems taught me to look for strong body colors than overtones.

(And oddly enough I slightly prefer ovals over perfectly round since I like the ringed color effect of ovals).

Because I feel like the longer I search, the more muddled I’m becoming, and the higher the budget rises?

Or should I keep looking? Any leads?

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

So, if you are still with me, I then thought about buying this strand from Kamoka but ultimately didn’t because I thought the color palette was a bit too dark/autumnal (I would like to stick to some nice pastel pinks/yellows interspersed with whites, greens, blues, and purples):




I also looked at and ultimately passed on this other strand for similar reasons:

on my screen the luster is so beautiful i cant even take in the colours

 

[Pinkmartini87]

talk about the one that got away
but good luck in your quest this time

@Daisys and Diamonds You are always the sweetest soul with a kind word for everyone—thank you for listening to me play my sad violin lol.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Ok…if you are still here for my first world sob story lol, now I’m looking at this strand below at $9000 (for reference the strand I returned to Pearl paradise was just over $2k so you can see how desperate I’m becoming over time in raising the budget haha):





What I need help is: am I being realistic in my goals?

What I THINK I want is a bright, lustrous, super colorful strand that will hold its color in most lighting situations, ie as @yssie and @pearlsngems taught me to look for strong body colors than overtones.

Tell me if this strand I’m looking at now ticks all the boxes in terms of the original inspiration strand. Because I feel like the longer I search, the more unrealistic I’m becoming, and the higher the budget rises?

Or should I keep looking?

wow !

sorry im no help
they all look beautiful on my very dated lap top screen

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

@Daisys and Diamonds You are always the sweetest soul with a kind word for everyone—thank you for listening to me play my sad violin lol.

the world can be such a cold horrible place , its ok to want what the heart wants
plus we get to go along for the ride

i kind of think you should delete that origonal pearl paradise strand from your records and memory because its a whole different world we are living in now and its not good to live with regret, especially how the price has jumped so much since

hindsite is a wonderful thing and all but $2k

 

[Pinkmartini87]

@Daisys and Diamonds Words of wisdom indeed, friend!

My husband is so sick of my years’ long obsession with finding the perfect Tahitians and all my griping about it that at this point he says just to throw some money at the “problem” and be done with it once and for all. Poor man.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

@Daisys and Diamonds Words of wisdom indeed, friend!

My husband is so sick of my years’ long obsession with finding the perfect Tahitians and all my griping about it that at this point he says just to throw some money at it and buy it and be done with it once and for all. Poor man.

then lets do it this time (i know eaiser said than done)

he might retract the offer if it takes too long
i very much look forward to our forum pearl princess giving you a helping hand

 

[Begonia]

We need a neck shot on that last strand. Will the seller do that?

 

[Pinkmartini87]

We need a neck shot on that last strand. Will the seller do that?

Let me ask! Good point!

 

[lovedogs]

Not trying to make you increase your budget, but just wanted to show this as a comparison.

36pcs "EXTREMELY RARE" High Luster 11-13mm - RSR AAA/AA Quality Edison X Tahiti Pearl Necklace NL1200

Tahitian Pearl Necklace composed of 36pcs of Round/Semi-Round shape with a official grading score of AAA/AA quality. Tahitian Pearl have different shape and Grading that affect their value. As the pearl color are natural and have not gone through any processing technique, customizing your own...

cmwpearls.com

 

[lovedogs]

I would also reach out to PP privately to see if they have anything in their inventory that could work (or anything forthcoming)

 

[Pinkmartini87]

@lovedogs hahaha oh yes, I saw that one too. I wish it didn’t have Edisons in it—I had asked CMW if they could take out the Edisons and they said no to customization.

And yup, I reached out to PP a few months ago, they don’t have anything similar now. I even showed them the picture of the strand I returned. I think what makes this hard is that I’m looking for a very specific color palette in slightly oval shape and not just a bunch of multicolor high luster pearls in general. As my husband says, I’ve become a real pain hehe.

Beautiful bracelet you have in the works btw!

 

[Pinkmartini87]

I hate to name drop but imma gonna:

@yssie @pearlsngems @MakingTheGrade @Lisa Loves Shiny ladies, heeeeeeelp!

 

[dk168]

@Daisys and Diamonds Words of wisdom indeed, friend!

My husband is so sick of my years’ long obsession with finding the perfect Tahitians and all my griping about it that at this point he says just to throw some money at the “problem” and be done with it once and for all. Poor man.

Your husband is a keeper!

However, tell him if only it is that easy!!!

DK

 

[dk168]

Good luck, don't give up.

Worse comes to the worse, collect individual pearls to make your holy grail strand!

Personally, I don't like multi-colour strands, however, each to their own.

With a healthy 9k USD budget for the strand you posted, I should be able to get a nice strand of blues which is my own holy grail for pearls.

DK

 

[lovedogs]

Did you try reaching out to Cees? He often has access to nice tahitians

 

[pearlsngems]

Cees Van Oije on Instagram, to be clear. Yes, reach out to him. I love the GSS I got from him. Be sure to mention that you like ovals and near rounds.
Just remember that it is a pain (and costly) returning pearls to overseas locations if they don't work out for you.

But do you love the Judi McCormick strand as it appears in the photo? (Remembering that Tahitians photographed under studio lights will show off their colorful overtones more than they will in regular daylight.) She is in the USA and accepts returns for 30 days. If you love it, you could ask for some natural light photos, and if you still love it, buy it and try it on.

Also, I agree with @Daisys and Diamonds -- forget about the one from PP and the price. Pearl prices are up!

 

[Lisa Loves Shiny]

I hate to name drop but imma gonna:

@yssie @pearlsngems @MakingTheGrade @Lisa Loves Shiny ladies, heeeeeeelp!

I'm sorry @Pinkmartini87 - I haven't bought anything or even looked at pearls for over a year now. Wish I could be of more help. @yssie has the best eye for beautiful pearls and hopefully she responds soon. Good luck in your search.

 

[pearlsngems]

I think you may be more likely to find the color palette you desire if you mix Tahitians, naturally colored pink/lavender FWP, and white and light yellow GSS pearls. Just a thought.

 

[Pinkmartini87]

@dk168 I can’t wait to see your blue strand one day!

@lovedogs and @pearlsngems I could try Cees again. I have a nice greenish-blue pair of Tahitian earrings from him. I hesitate bc I do feel like I’m kind of bothering him bc I’ve asked him in the past re a multicolor strand and he’s shown me many but for some reason the particular color palette wasn’t to my liking and he’s not able to customize by adding or taking away certain colors (totally understandable!). I could try mixing diff types of pearls although I don’t actually like the pastels of freshwaters as much as I like the metallic pastels of Tahitians. Mostly, I’m not sure how to go about mixing since it probably takes more chops than I’ve got trying to match luster, size, and shape of different types of pearls and combine into a single strand. If you know a vendor who might be up for a custom project like that let me know. I just don’t trust myself to do it and end up with some Frankenstein creation.

I think my budget is ok but I’m just such a pain!

@Lisa Loves Shiny Thanks so much anyway for stopping by and it’s nice to hear from you!

 

[pearlsngems]

It's hard to find exactly what one wants. I'm afraid I don't have any more suggestions at this time.

 

[Pinkmartini87]

It's hard to find exactly what one wants. I'm afraid I don't have any more suggestions at this time.

You have patiently taught me so much about pearls over the years and I’ll always be so grateful to you for that even if I never manage to find my holy grail strand.

 

[pearlsngems]

That is kind of you to say.

"Never" is a long time. So many of my pearls have come to me through serendipity. The right piece popped up at the right time.
If you know your parameters, you can be ready to jump if something nice turns up!

You already know what your ideal is, but now you need 2 more lists, to set the parameters.
1. Must-haves-- you won't buy if the necklace lacks these qualities. Be specific. Colors, size, shapes, price, luster, surface quality (cleanliness) etc.
2. Dealbreakers-- you won't buy if the necklace possesses these negative qualities. Again, be speciific.

Between the Must-Haves and the Dealbreakers there is a range of necklaces that you could conceivably be happy with.

We used this method when shopping for a house, and we've been in our house going on 30 years and hope to age in place here if health allows. Is it ideal? No. But it fits within the parameters that we set when house shopping. It's been good enough.

 

[dk168]

I reached out to pearlzaustralia as in the Etsy shop of our very own @katbran to source a pair of WSS drop pearls last year, after not having much luck to find a pair that I liked for years.

Can't recommend her highly enough.

Please bear in mind though that your holy grail strand of multi-colour pearls is very unique in that your preferences in pearl shape and colour palette is very unique.

It might take some time to source and pick out individual pearls that meet your criteria.

As I have said before, if only throwing more money into this would make it easier, NOT!

DK

 

[dk168]

@pearlsngems I did something similar when spec'ing my van, a long list of "need/must have" and "want/nice to have".

The resultant panel van conversion might not be ideal, however, it is as close to ideal as I could have within the given limitations such as the existing space to keep the van outside my house and budget.

DK

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Sadly in no help. I lucked into some nice circle tahitians from Cmw when they were still fairly new and that’s really the bulk of my Tahitian buying aside from a singleton from moline and a purple pair from takahashi. I agree with folk above though that this might be something you put together slowly over time if you have a very specific vision in mind.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

You have patiently taught me so much about pearls over the years and I’ll always be so grateful to you for that even if I never manage to find my holy grail strand.

i have faith you will find it this time, remember hubby is keen
in fact im very much looking forward to following your progress via this thread
life is about the journey not just the destination
dont give up till you find the perfect strand