We started the day with a small change of plans, instead of heading to the Expo to sort pearls, we rushed off to the finished jewelry show to meet with Jacques Christophe Branellec of
Jewelmer Pearl Company. I won't give away any details just yet but Jacques is pearl industry royalty and when he wants to meet with you, you don't turn him down.
While walking the show taking pictures, a vendor came up and said he had something to show us. When we got to his booth he opened a box to reveal a perfect strand of 36 flawless "fancy color" Edison pearls. I know what I was told the cost was, anybody care to guess the price tag?
I often get asked, "what is the difference between a AAA pearl and a metallic pearl?". More then just high luster, a true metallic pearl is a very specific type of luster that appears to come from within the pearl, as opposed to just on the surface. It takes a lot of work to sort true metallic pairs. We spent hours sorting top grade pearls, to make just a few cards of true metallic white pearls. Well worth the effort, we walked away with rounds and drops ranging from 7.5mm to 10mm.
We didn't get everything we needed today, but we got off to a good start. We managed to select a number of golden peach, multi-color and even a few "fancy color" strands.
With our eyes strained from the bright expo lights, we called it a day and headed over to a vendors office to select out some staples pieces. While it's not terribly exciting selecting 100+ white freshwater strands, it is pretty cool to see how many pearls they keep in their office at any one time.
