A few readers may remember the large, colorful and wrinkled skinned pearls I picked up in Hong Kong. Most often referred to as "Ripples" these pearls are dead ringers for the classic Japanese freshwater pearls from lake Kasumi. Sadly pollution in the 1980's has all but ended production in Lake Kasumi. The good news is Chinese pearl producers have taken up the slack and have been busy producing "Kasumi-Like" pearls.
In the two weeks since returning from Hong Kong I've been working with a goldsmith to create a custom clasp for these strands. After all you can't just put any old pearl clasp on 17mm pearls! We both decided that a toggle style clasp(actually two sizes) would have the form and function needed for these unique pieces. So with the design agreed upon we set to making the casts.
Once the clasps were finished I couldn't wait to send off a couple of strands to the stringers. Needless to say I was very happy with the finished product.
We'll be offering these strands with the option of either a 14kt Gold toggle, sterling silver toggle or unstrung. Keep an eye on this blog as we expect to announce our full promotion by the end of the week. For now here's a sneak peak at a few of the strands:
