Japan Trip Purchase Pictures (and Yssie’s paradise bracelet) — Current Pearl Collection

[NY_Resonant]

Now that I’m back from the Japan trip, I did a little photo shoot tonight of all the pieces. Here goes!



Where it all started, Yssie’s 8-8.5mm Pearl paradise Madama bracelet and the new 8.5-9mm Madama studs to go with it:



Studs a *little* lighter body color:





A 8-8.5mm stud for friend:







Tahitian necklace and earrings for my boss:

 

[NY_Resonant]

Tahitian necklace and 10.5mm studs for my mom:







My Tahitian next to boss’s:

 

[NY_Resonant]

My fiancée‘s 8.5-9mm natural white akoya gem strand:
















My mom’s 8.5-9mm gem luster with minor flaw:

 

[NY_Resonant]

My fiancés strand next to mother’s: fiancee is the one on outside.

 

[Calla-lilies]

LOVE these pictures (and the ones in the other post) -- thanks for sharing. Not to thread-jack but I will be visiting Tokyo later this year. We only have a little over a week -- just could not finagle more time. I definitely want to buy a pearl necklace! Is Kobe the place to go? I didn't put Kobe on the itinerary since it's a short trip and we're also visiting Kyoto and I don't think my husband/kids would be interested - haha. Any places you would recommend in Tokyo or Kyoto? And gosh, I better start saving my pennies!

 

[NY_Resonant]

LOVE these pictures (and the ones in the other post) -- thanks for sharing. Not to thread-jack but I will be visiting Tokyo later this year. We only have a little over a week -- just could not finagle more time. I definitely want to buy a pearl necklace! Is Kobe the place to go? I didn't put Kobe on the itinerary since it's a short trip and we're also visiting Kyoto and I don't think my husband/kids would be interested - haha. Any places you would recommend in Tokyo or Kyoto? And gosh, I better start saving my pennies!

Shin-Kobe station is about 50m away from Kyoto station. You could do a day trip by yourself and be back in Kyoto by late afternoon? You would get great quality there in the $3,000+ range for a 8.5-9mm necklace if pricing remains where it is today at either Takahashi or Yokota Pearls. Fair warning, Takahashi spent TWICE as much in the Pearl harvests this year for raw materials and those products will be ready by July-ish. I would be shocked if their prices did not increase further by late this year.

If you cannot make the Kobe trip, I would look at the Tasaki store in Kyoto (Mikimoto is a 5m walk away in a department store too but much more expensive for same quality Pearl and they had no AAA at that location… but you get their branded clasp). Tasaki was selling their A grade 8mm necklace (Normally they grade ABC) for $6500-ish. It looked about as good to my eyes as mikimoto AA. If you can spend $10,500-ish you should ask if Tasaki still has their special AA grade 8mm necklace. It was gorgeous to my eyes and their store only had ONE AA grade. It was visibly nicer than the mikimoto “premium/AA“ necklaces that I saw 5 minutes later.

‘You could also try finding pearls in Tokyo, etc. Not sure what the best stores would be… maybe check out generalpearl too?

 

[Calla-lilies]

Shin-Kobe station is about 50m away from Kyoto station. You could do a day trip by yourself and be back in Kyoto by late afternoon? You would get great quality there in the $3,000+ range for a 8.5-9mm necklace if pricing remains where it is today at either Takahashi or Yokota Pearls. Fair warning, Takahashi spent TWICE as much in the Pearl harvests this year for raw materials and those products will be ready by July-ish. I would be shocked if their prices did not increase further by late this year.

If you cannot make the Kobe trip, I would look at the Tasaki store in Kyoto (Mikimoto is a 5m walk away in a department store too but much more expensive for same quality Pearl and they had no AAA at that location… but you get their branded clasp). Tasaki was selling their A grade 8mm necklace (Normally they grade ABC) for $6500-ish. It looked about as good to my eyes as mikimoto AA. If you can spend $10,500-ish you should ask if Tasaki still has their special AA grade 8mm necklace. It was gorgeous to my eyes and their store only had ONE AA grade. It was visibly nicer than the mikimoto “premium/AA“ necklaces that I saw 5 minutes later.

‘You could also try finding pearls in Tokyo, etc. Not sure what the best stores would be… maybe check out generalpearl too?

Thank you for your very thorough response -- much appreciated! I think I will "have" to make a trip to Kobe : )

$10K is out of my budget -- I am sure I will see something I like within my budget.

Thanks again. And enjoy the gorgeous pearls!

 

[NY_Resonant]

Thank you for your very thorough response -- much appreciated! I think I will "have" to make a trip to Kobe : )

$10K is out of my budget -- I am sure I will see something I like within my budget.

Thanks again. And enjoy the gorgeous pearls!

My pleasure. The Kobe trip is well worth it and it’s equally far from the osaka airport as Kyoto — which is why I went to Kobe for my last day on the trip. Just remember Takahashi closes on weekends (Yokota pearl is open). Prices drop roughly 20% if you go to 8-8.5mm from 8.5-9mm currently. Prices can also drop nicely if you find a tip top Hanadama strand type versus only looking at Tennyo type strands — top hanadama can absolutely be just as beautiful as a tennyo strand even if on average tennyo > hanadama.

Family can try Kobe Beef! Kobe is a very nice city to walk around in, both new mall area and nearby “historic” street sections are a lot of fun.

I highly recommend the Kobe Minato Onsen Ren hotel. Their buffet dinner and breakfast at the hotel are absolutely top notch as well… plus you can enjoy the onsen

 

[NY_Resonant]

I posted in another thread how the natural white necklace glowed more than the gem luster with minor flaws one. I caught it on photo, I think. Saw a gorgeous blue overtone on it by the window, so so pretty!

Natural white:


Gem Luster one:



natural white:



gem luster:




Natural white:



Gem luster:



A few more natural white pics showing the blue glow: I was facing away from windows so the reflection should have been of internal room here. I love that glow!

 

[lovedogs]

I posted in another thread how the natural white necklace glowed more than the gem luster with minor flaws one. I caught it on photo, I think. Saw a gorgeous blue overtone on it by the window, so so pretty!

Natural white:


Gem Luster one:



natural white:



gem luster:




Natural white:



Gem luster:



A few more natural white pics showing the blue glow: I was facing away from windows so the reflection should have been of internal room here. I love that glow!

Oh my lord these are amazing. Do you mind giving an approx price range for your fiance's? Like 5k? 9k? They are so so perfect!

 

[NY_Resonant]

Oh my lord these are amazing. Do you mind giving an approx price range for your fiance's? Like 5k? 9k? They are so so perfect!

I don’t mind. This NW strand was 6k.

 

[lovedogs]

I don’t mind. This NW strand was 6k.

Thank you! Super helpful! They are beyond gorgeous

 

[yssie]

Omg let a girl breathe will ya stop posting until I catch up!!!!

 

[yssie]

My fiancée‘s 8.5-9mm natural white akoya gem strand:
















My mom’s 8.5-9mm gem luster with minor flaw:

Natural white earrings as well? For your fiancee?

 

[yssie]

Your NW has so much blue. Teal maybe. It reminds me of some white south sea pearls actually.

This is @MakingTheGrade's Supearl WSS

 

[icy_jade]

Beautiful! No surprises about the NW selection. Those are my fav type of akoya too.

One suggestion - If you cannot go to Kobe, time your visit with one of the Jewelry shows in Japan or Hong Kong. Then you can see many many pearl sellers at one go, like one entire (huge) exhibition hall of them.

Can also try Hinata Trading for Tahitian pearls. They always have excellent selection at the shows.

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[NY_Resonant]

Natural white earrings as well? For your fiancee?

Actually those were my 8.5-9mm studs I had bought weeks ago. They ended up being a great match by luck!

They are nicely color matched to each other in RL despite this photo:


Really surprised their body color is similar actually.

 

[NY_Resonant]

Your NW has so much blue. Teal maybe. It reminds me of some white south sea pearls actually.

This is @MakingTheGrade's Supearl WSS

I love the blue/teal so much. Great comparison to that WSS. I need to test what kind of lighting gives off that blue color more, it definitely needs actual sunlight for it versus purely indoor lighting.

 

[SomethingNew]

OMG, that was quite a journey, I want to hear more about it. Your strand looks immaculate, I am so happy for you to be able to pay a visit at Takahashi!

I am going to be in Osaka in 3 days in June, still debating if I should spend a day in Kobe or Kyoto.... I really do want to check out Takahashi while i am there. Did you stay a night in Kobe or just a day trip?

and some neck shot would at least take me to heaven.

 

[NY_Resonant]

OMG, that was quite a journey, I want to hear more about it. Your strand looks immaculate, I am so happy for you to be able to pay a visit at Takahashi!

I am going to be in Osaka in 3 days in June, still debating if I should spend a day in Kobe or Kyoto.... I really do want to check out Takahashi while i am there. Did you stay a night in Kobe or just a day trip?

and some neck shot would at least take me to heaven.

I spent the night in Kobe at the Kobe Minato Onsen Ren Hotel. I highly recommend that hotel and Kobe has plenty to see/walk for a day IMO — just remember Takahashi is closed on weekends.

Some neck shots:

 

[Cinders]

Ohmygoodness, so many beautiful pearls!! Congratulations on all of these beauties! I didn't even know one could visit Takahashi---what a treat.

 

[SomethingNew]

Thank you for sharing your photos and your wonderful experience to Takahashi, you look fabulous in them. Absolutely love them all. Please wear them in good health.

 

[NY_Resonant]

I could not resist. I stopped by Mikimoto yesterday afternoon I brought along my Fiancée’s 8.66mm earring pair and the Natural white necklace to see how they stacked up against Mikimoto AA and AAA.

First off, the earrings: The one on top is AAA 8.5mm, the middle with gold studs is my 8.66mm, the bottom is a 8.5mm AA. You will note mine is much lighter bodied.

 

[NY_Resonant]

Now for some overhead shots showing the AA on the left, my NW, the AAA necklace on the right.











Body shot showing just how much lighter my natural white is compared to the AAA and AA necklaces:



From left to right: NW, AAA, AA




Another slightly “less good” AA was added on the right in picture, so previous AA is maybe above average for the mikimoto AA category range?







The slightly less-good AA is on the right compared to the better AA on left: To my eyes at least but matched my RL opinion.

 

[NY_Resonant]

Alrighty, now for some close up shots.

AAA on left, AA on right of NW strand in next 2 photos (NW is surrounding the gold stud earrings):




AAA earring, AAA strand, NW strand, AA earring in this shot:


Pics of AAA on right, Nw strand in middle, AA on left:





AAA earring top, then AAA strand, my NW, then my earring:

 

[lovedogs]

Sooooo helpful! My personal take:

The less good AA is noticeably less good than the "better" AA. I think your NW strand is better than both AAs and on par with the AAA

This helps a lot w understanding body color. I don't think I ever quite understood the impact until seeing these pics. My eyes prefer darker body color (no idea why, and I think it goes against trade ideal). But very helpful to know in terms of my own preferences!

Your NW is seriously stunning

 

[yssie]

So full disclosure here, I've had the pleasure of chatting with @NY_Resonant a fair bit off PS lately.

His photos are so incredibly helpful!! But honestly, his opinions - on pearls themselves, on how photos represent what the eyes see, on preferences and why - are the real gems IMO. Our conversation has been really educational and insightful.


So... A couple of my personal takeaways from chatting with him and a few others lately:

1. We western pearls people - vendor and consumer, both - tend to lump a smorgasbord of concepts into the word "luster". And we're really doing ourselves a disservice by doing that - we really need to start thinking about "iridescence", "contrast", and "gloss" as separate ideas that don't need to slide up and down the quality scale together. Because not only do they not need to slide up and down the quality scale together - they often don't! I'm personally going to make a point to always address each of those three concepts independently moving forward.

2. A lighter-bodied pearl can never look *as* high contrast as a darker-bodied pearl of the same quality. It's just not physiologically possible. The literature says this, and between all of us, we've proven it out again and again - between different akoya, between WSS and akoya, between different Tahitians. So for someone who likes both a lighter body and super high contrast, at some point near the top of the quality scale you're going to have to chooose, no way around it!!

3. Complexion makes such a difference. @NY_Resonant has explained that on his fiancee's skin the light and cool colour of his new natural white strand pops much more than a darker pearl, or a pinker pearl, or a warmer pearl. And @CircularBrilliant observed that she prefers the way her cooler WSS pops on her skin, vs. her slightly darker-bodied WSS with more pink overtone. In fact IRL her eyes prefer the brightness of a cooler and lighter-bodied WSS over even more gloss luster and more contrast luster that a darker-bodied WSS might show. For me, I'm darker than both NY_Resonant's fiancee and CircularBrilliant, and my skin has more olive/green than both, and somehow that makes my colouring really flexible when it comes to white pearls - everything "white" baseline pops and nuances matter less.

So - all of that said - the real takehome of #3 for me: It's not enough to just see the pearls (on the table). You've got to put them on. NY_Resonant commented that at one point the strand he preferred "on the table" wasn't the strand he preferred on his fiancee. And the strand he chose in one ligthing environment wasn't the strand he preferred in another lighting environment. Which is exactly what @icy_jade always says, choose what looks best on you, and it's totally true, and there are no shortcuts to trying things on!!


NY_Resonant's adventures have solidified some of my own preferences:
A) My ideal akoya is a tippy-top-high-contrast darker-bodied cool strand with stronger pink, because I do just love that super high contrast look and pink is extra flattering on me. My second choice is a light-bodied cool strand, even if that means sacrificing a touch on tippy-top-high-contrast - I prefer a light-bodied cool pearl over a darker-bodied warm pearl, even if the dark-bodied warm pearl has higher contrast.
B) For WSS my preference is a strongly iridescent pearl with clear pink and blue, and minimal green. This almost always requires a cooler body, so body tone is kind of taken care of without any extra consideration... And I personally deprioritize body lightness in WSS. Light body or dark, it's all going to pop on my skin.
C) For Tahitians I actually have a body tone threshold - not too dark, not too light, everything in between goes. And once that threshold is met, my top priority is high gloss luster, and I will prioritize high gloss luster over even strong iridescence or more contrast luster.

 

[yssie]

Also, that NW strand - OMG talk about value for money

 

[NY_Resonant]

So full disclosure here, I've had the pleasure of chatting with @NY_Resonant a fair bit off PS lately.

His photos are so incredibly helpful!! But honestly, his opinions - on pearls themselves, on how photos represent what the eyes see, on preferences and why - are the real gems IMO. Our conversation has been really educational and insightful.


So... A couple of my personal takeaways from chatting with him and a few others lately:

1. We western pearls people - vendor and consumer, both - tend to lump a smorgasbord of concepts into the word "luster". And we're really doing ourselves a disservice by doing that - we really need to start thinking about "iridescence", "contrast", and "gloss" as separate ideas that don't need to slide up and down the quality scale together. Because not only do they not need to slide up and down the quality scale together - they often don't! I'm personally going to make a point to always address each of those three concepts independently moving forward.

2. A lighter-bodied pearl can never look *as* high contrast as a darker-bodied pearl of the same quality. It's just not physiologically possible. The literature says this, and between all of us, we've proven it out again and again - between different akoya, between WSS and akoya, between different Tahitians. So for someone who likes both a lighter body and super high contrast, at some point near the top of the quality scale you're going to have to chooose, no way around it!!

3. Complexion makes such a difference. @NY_Resonant has explained that on his fiancee's skin the light and cool colour of his new natural white strand pops much more than a darker pearl, or a pinker pearl, or a warmer pearl. And @CircularBrilliant observed that she prefers the way her cooler WSS pops on her skin, vs. her slightly darker-bodied WSS with more pink overtone. In fact IRL her eyes prefer the brightness of a cooler and lighter-bodied WSS over even more gloss luster and more contrast luster that a darker-bodied WSS might show. For me, I'm darker than both NY_Resonant's fiancee and CircularBrilliant, and my skin has more olive/green than both, and somehow that makes my colouring really flexible when it comes to white pearls - everything "white" baseline pops and nuances matter less.

So - all of that said - the real takehome of #3 for me: It's not enough to just see the pearls (on the table). You've got to put them on. NY_Resonant commented that at one point the strand he preferred "on the table" wasn't the strand he preferred on his fiancee. And the strand he chose in one ligthing environment wasn't the strand he preferred in another lighting environment. Which is exactly what @icy_jade always says, choose what looks best on you, and it's totally true, and there are no shortcuts to trying things on!!


NY_Resonant's adventures have solidified some of my own preferences:
A) My ideal akoya is a tippy-top-high-contrast darker-bodied cool strand with stronger pink, because I do just love that super high contrast look and pink is extra flattering on me. My second choice is a light-bodied cool strand, even if that means sacrificing a touch on tippy-top-high-contrast - I prefer a light-bodied cool pearl over a darker-bodied warm pearl, even if the dark-bodied warm pearl has higher contrast.
B) For WSS my preference is a strongly iridescent pearl with clear pink and blue, and minimal green. This almost always requires a cooler body, so body tone is kind of taken care of without any extra consideration... And I personally deprioritize body lightness in WSS. Light body or dark, it's all going to pop on my skin.
C) For Tahitians I actually have a body tone threshold - not too dark, not too light, everything in between goes. And once that threshold is met, my top priority is high gloss luster, and I will prioritize high gloss luster over even strong iridescence or more contrast luster.

Thank you, Yssie, for summarizing some of our conversations. It has been a vast learning experience for me but i’ve come to certain personal conclusions.

Judging the pearls by themselves, ie: On the table, leads me to think each body color type has certain advantages.
1) A darker body pearl, all things equal, will naturally have a highest contrast compared to a lighter body pearl.
2) Body color will not impact gloss quality in a meaningful way.
3) The lighter body pearl with the same iridescence level as a darker body will show that glow in a different more noticeable (IMO) way. It will be a brighter glow that appears more visible to my eyes with a higher-energy shade. This is one reason, I think, why the NW strand has such a strong beautiful blue/teal glow. Could this be considered an advantage to compensate for the weaker contrast?

My NW strand, on the table, seemed to have a similar level or a little more of overall contrast than the AA but a bit below the AAA. It’s blacks just weren’t quite as dark as the AAA even if it’s whites (Light source reflections) were a little brighter.

My personal belief is that this NW approaches the contrast limit for such a light body. It certainly has a bit more contrast than my darker bodied gem luster with minor flaws necklace for example.

Now for some off the table/On the neck thoughts:

1) Yellow and pink combines to a peach/cream color. The chinese skin tone for my fiancee had a bit of that effect on the neck — it made the pearls blend in and appear more muted and *warmer* on the neck than they did on the table.

2) When we talk about the contrast of the pearl, we talk about the difference in shade between the dark and light portions on the pearl itself.

What i’ve come to realize, However, is that another layer of CONTRAST exists for the jewelry (When put on) itself which is the shade of the pearl compared to the surrounding shade of the human skin. It is a combination of the first layer of contrast (The pearl) and that second layer of contrast that I believe we refer to when we say a pearl “poped” or “glows” or “comes alive”.

That’s what I meant when I told you i’d have picked the AAA over the NW on the table. The first layer of contrast was greater for the AAA. However, on the neck, when the second layer contrast was taken into account — where the NW had the advantage over the AAA — the combined score was in my opinion leaning towards the NW for my fiancee.

That’s how I look at it anyway.

One final thought:
Just like how our eyes detect CHANGE in brightness less clearly when something is already very bright… so do our eyes detect darks less clearly when the environment is dim. Extra brightness is quite noticeable in a dim environment.

We often judge pearls in very bright store settings. This actually creates an environmental advantage for darker more contrasty pearls since the extra “brightness” of the lighter body pearl is less noticeable.

Try comparing a dark body pearl to a very white body pearl in a dim environment and then in a very bright environment. I believe you might draw different conclusions of how they look compared to each other.

When walking home at night yesterday, the NW necklace became extremely noticeable when it caught the lights from the storefronts and reflected those glows brightly. I actually took out my darker gem luster necklace to compare and the luster difference appeared to have GROWN between the two pieces compared to that morning.

Which makes sense to me. The NW always reflected lights more brightly. A light in a dark room is much more noticeable than a light in a bright room.

That makes me think a lighter body pearl contrast has an advantage in dimmer environments and darker body pearl contrast has the advantage in bright environments. Small differences, perhaps, but it was noticeable for me.

I’d love people’s thoughts/opinions on that!!!

 

[yssie]

The lighter body pearl with the same iridescence level as a darker body will show that glow in a different more noticeable (IMO) way. It will be a brighter glow that appears more visible to my eyes with a higher-energy shade. This is one reason, I think, why the NW strand has such a strong beautiful blue/teal glow. Could this be considered an advantage to compensate for the weaker contrast?

This thought intrigues me.

Structural colors of pearls - PMC

The luster is the most important characteristic of pearls, whose colors depend on periodic structures of aragonite crystal layers and conchiolin sheets. We here propose an optical model for analyzing the structural colors of pearls that includes the ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

In this paper (which is oft-referenced by subsequent papers, and whose authors have written other papers on similar topics - so I trust it) - iridescence is modelled using the pearl’s nucleus as a light source and each aragonite tablet as a diffracting unit. And the pearl’s overall iridescence is the calculation of interference created by thousands of microns-thick layers of aragonite all scattering the light “emitted” by the nucleus.

So ignoring bleaching and pinking, if a pearl’s colour is created by conchiolin absorbing some wavelengths, and that conchiolin sits between every layer of aragonite, then a darker conchiolin layer is going to absorb more wavelengths… Leading to the quick and dirty conclusion that a “whiter” pearl doesn’t just show more iridescence, it actually iridesces more strongly than a darker-bodied pearl with identical nacre structure in the same lighting environment…

… Ignoring the surface diffraction component of iridescence, ignoring tablet edge effects, ignoring conchiolin matrixing, ignoring genetic colour expression (Tahitians)…

Okay, well, lots on this list

My personal belief is that this NW approaches the contrast limit for such a light body.

I can see that being true. No clue how to go about proving it, but for me, based on what I see in my own pearls, I can see this being the case.

1) Yellow and pink combines to a peach/cream color. The chinese skin tone for my fiancee had a bit of that effect on the neck — it made the pearls blend in and appear more muted and *warmer* on the neck than they did on the table.

Yeah. We talk about this with diamonds. A colourless diamond vs. a near-colourless on different skin colours. Why not pearls too.

What i’ve come to realize, However, is that another layer of CONTRAST exists for the jewelry (When put on) itself which is the shade of the pearl compared to the surrounding shade of the human skin. It is a combination of the first layer of contrast (The pearl) and that second layer of contrast that I believe we refer to when we say a pearl “poped” or “glows” or “comes alive”.

If I say a pearl “pops” I mean exactly what you’re saying here, that there’s high contrast between the pearl and whatever I’m comparing it to. Which is usually skin, or hair maybe. Rarely clothes.

I know this isn’t addressed to me but I will say that I can’t even define the word “glow”! Some combination of iridescence and muted contrast? To me south sea pearls “glow”, and high-gloss-luster high-contrast-luster mirror-like pearls don’t. But that’s a handwavey assessment that most people who read this could find problems with.

That makes me think a lighter body pearl contrast has an advantage in dimmer environments and darker body pearl contrast has the advantage in bright environments.

I’m really curious to hear where your inflection point is on environmental darkness and pearl body tone preference. Like - what amount of ambient brightness causes your eyes to shift preferences. I’m really curious if I see the same thing actually, I’ll find out soon, I’ve got my pearls ready to go for my ever-darkening evening