Hi Everybody!
 
The custom necklace is finished, and I just couldn’t wait to share it with you all! As I mentioned in my previous post, this necklace is an heirloom Birthstone necklace for a client that is very special. There are 15 Precious and Semi-Precious Gemstones stationed carefully in 5 small bezel-set “Clusters” of 3 stones each to represent her 15 grandchildren. We also created small matching “Starlight Birthstone” earrings that represent the 6 daughters and sons of this special Grandma!
 
The stones used for the necklace are: 1 pc Brazilian Alexandrite (June), 2 pcs Emerald (May), 1 pc Ruby (July), 4 White Sapphires (replacement for Diamonds, April), 2 Citrines (November), 2 pcs Peridot (August), 1 pc Garnet (January). Each have been hand-set into solid 14K Yellow Gold bezels and then hand-knotted into a strand of Silver-Rose Elite Collection Freshwater Pearls, 7.0-8.0mm.
 
The earrings consist of 1 pc. Emerald (May), 1 Alexandrite (June), 1 Citrine (November), 1 Peridot (August), 1 Amythest (February), and 1 White Sapphire (replacement for Diamond, April). We had the earrings custom built for just this occasion to hold the 2.0mm gemstones, which sit atop matching 7.0-8.0mm Silver-Rose Elite Collection Freshwater Pearls. The result almost look like Mardi Gras earrings!
 
I would also like to take this moment to thank Rhoda, whom it has been an absolute pleasure to work with, from our beginning sketches to the final layout of this very unique, very wonderful treasure, made expressly for her Mother’s 80^th Birthday. Thank you for being so wonderful!! Psst, Rhoda… we love your pearls!!                                         

Hi Everybody! 

We are involved in creating another custom piece of jewelry for a customer of ours, and before we get too into the nitty gritty of it all I wanted to share with everyone the preliminary layouts… There are to be 15 gemstones to represent children and grandchildren in the necklace- the two center top stones are gorgeous Brazilian Emeralds, and below it is a rare Brazilian Alexandrite.

Brazilian Alexandrite is the birthstone for June (besides pearls!), and is a color-changing Chrysoberyl. In daylight, this stone has a saturated Tourmaline Green coloration, but under incandescent or candlelight, this gem shifts to a Raspberry Reddish/Purple! The next stones are White Sapphires (not diamonds), Peridot, Aquamarine, Tanzanite, Cirtrines, Ruby and Garnet. Each one of the stones will be bezel set in 14K Yellow gold and soldered together in clusters of three. Then, we will hand-string them into the 6.0-7.0mm Elite Freshwater pearls at set intervals which I think will lend the piece a slight Renaissance feel, and finish with a gold clasp. 

The finished necklace is going to be given by a family to their 80-year old mother in honor of a lifetime of love and memories. I am so proud to be a part of this special moment, and in creating a keepsake that will pass through generations of family members! I hope you all enjoy looking at this as much as I do, and remember to keep us in mind for future dream projects of yours!! Have a great week everybody!!

Hi Everybody! I have one more wonderful custom pearl delight to share with you all! Recently finished for a wonderful customer, this 14.0-15.0mm AAA Quality White South Seas pearl pendant is perfectly balanced with a .20ct VS1-GH Quality sparkling round-brilliant diamond, and hung from a glimmering 18-inch Snake Chain of 14K White Gold (one of my favorite chains!).  The Silver overtone is so strong, that you can almost see hints of purple in the surface; we helped her to select this gorgeous pearl from the large lot that we have in stock now- it was chosen because of its perfectly smooth and flawless surface, and amazing luster and depth.  

Creating custom jewelry is one of Purepearls.com specialties- we absolutely love the process beginning with drawing up new designs to finally sending the finished articles to delight our customers! If you have any pearly dreams waiting to come true, feel free to give us a call- we’ll be happy to oblige!

Hello,
 
I am writing from Italy, and would like to know if all of your pearls come from China?
 Thank You,

Francisco
 

Dear Francisco,
 Thank you for your interest in PurePearls.com! Our Freshwater pearl inventory is all Chinese in origin; as far as saltwater Akoya pearls go, a rule of thumb to go by when dealing with any vendor that you come into contact with, be it online or in a brick and mortar retail location, is the vast, vast majority of the smaller Akoya pearls (sizes 6.0-7.5mm) that you can purchase today will be Chinese in origin.
 
The Japanese exclusively farm larger-sized Akoya pearls (sizes 7.5-9.5mm); they have mastered the science of culturing the larger sizes inside the small P. martensii oyster, which has trouble tolerating the necessarily large shell-bead nucleus- the mortality rate is quite high for these oysters simply due to the fact that the animal is not anatomically suited to producing pearls above 7.5mm- ultimately, the Japanese farmers find it more expedient and economically feasible to make these rare, large sizes their specialty.
 
Chinese farmers have been culturing fine quality Akoya in the smaller sizes for a few decades now, and have much cheaper costs of doing business than the Japanese. Often what happens is the Japanese import the Chinese product, and then exports them out internationally after tagging the pearls with the Blue Tag which reads Product of Japan. Since gemological laboratory reports are not able to definitively determine origin, and because Chinese farming and processing techniques have become so sophisticated and now rival Japanese farmers in terms of quality and workmanship, many unsuspecting consumers purchase small Chinese Akoya under the mistaken impression that their pearls were Japanese.

Customer Question:  One of my friends recently purchased his fiancé a set of your pearls for their wedding. Both he and his wife now have excellent things to say about your collection. I am considering your Akoya 18″ necklace, 7.0-7.5 mm white pearls with rose overtones for my girlfriend for Christmas, and I have one quick question: Is there a noticeable visible difference in quality between the AA+ pearls and the AAA Akoya white pearls? M. J.

Answer:  The difference between AA+ and AAA is very subtle.  They are both the highest qualities in the industry with AAA being the very top and AA+ being a half-step below.  With AAA, the pearls are more than 95% inclusion-free surface (very clean) and have the highest luster.  The AA+ have more than 90% inclusion-free (very light blemishing) surface and very high luster.  If you held the two strands out, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.  The difference can only be seen when examining them up close.  With all the photos, you actually can’t tell much difference either because the light from the camera and the equipment tends to wash out the surface of the pearls.  I personally wear both qualities because they both are really nice! 

Best,

Amanda

Hi Everyone, 

I received this beautiful story yesterday in my Inbox!  I know all of you appreciate the beauty of love that unfolds throughout life.    Best, Amanda

“Amanda, I wanted to share this with you . We spoke sometime ago about me buying some pearls for my daughters birthday..My husband and I were  about to leave on a business trip. I was worried about receiving them before we left.

Just to jog you memory… you probably have too many to recall. 

Well, we did not receive them before we left. I had our mail held and I also spoke to our mail delivery person. However, when we returned there was our mail and the pearls were there. Safe and sound !  I gave them to my daughter the night of her birthday . When she opened them she wept.  I told her I wanted to give her joy not tears. She just said through her tears,” Momma, their beautiful  !  I always feel so unworthy and you and Dad make me feel like a little girl again. Will it be like this even when I am 65 ? “  I asked her when she would begin to  feel like her daughter is not HER little girl..

The next day at work her Dad told me , she was still gloating about her beautiful pearls.

Thanks for the talk, thanks for the safe delivery, thanks the lovely pearls. It has been an excellent experience.”

Bunny Schnepel

Red Bud, Il.