Autumn Whisper

 

 

Hello. I’m happy that this necklace caught your interest.

As you can see in the photos, the pearls in this necklace have quite a strong luster.

They are 7.5–8.0 mm natural-color Akoya pearls, and the necklace is approximately 46.5 cm long.

The pearls have pleasantly baroque shapes. I would like to describe them as softly rounded baroque pearls, although some of them also have a slightly rugged character.

As with many Flower Jem pearls, these pearls have not been dyed or color-treated.

 

 

Dyed and color-treated pearls make up a much larger proportion of the pearls found on the market, and whether or not a pearl has undergone such treatment has nothing to do with its quality.

When I worked for a pearl company, the company itself cultivated Akoya pearls, so most of the pearls I handled were untreated pearls straight from the production side. Perhaps that is why, even now, when I buy pearls, I naturally tend to choose untreated ones.

Like many Flower Jem necklaces, this necklace is also fully knotted.

 

 

This time, I used a silver-colored thread. It was an extremely strong thread that I was experimenting with at the time.

Being strong is certainly a good thing, but it has one disadvantage: when made into a necklace, it reduces some of the necklace’s flexibility.

You might say that this necklace has a little bit of bed hair.

The clasp is a rhodium-plated silver clip-type clasp.

This necklace was made around September 2025.

And strangely enough, it was never listed for sale.

 

 

I had shown it to several customers in the past, so I had somehow convinced myself that I had already listed it.

I am writing this on August 23, 2026. Recently, I have been working through pieces that I once took down from my shop and then somehow never relisted.

In the middle of that process, I came across Autumn Whisper.

It was made last September, when the first hints of autumn were beginning to appear, which is how it got its name.

Now it is late August 2026. The days are still very hot, and at night…

Well, the nights are still very hot too.

 

 

But every now and then, the evening breeze has begun to feel pleasant, so perhaps this is a good time of year for a necklace called Autumn Whisper to finally make its appearance.

Now then, what do you look for in pearls?

Luster? Shape? Size?

Or perhaps a beautiful design?

I know a little about Akoya pearls because I was involved with Akoya pearl farming for about ten years.

 

 

Necklace design, however, is not exactly my specialty.

As for what I personally look for in pearls, it is strong luster and a thick nacre layer.

To me, luster and nacre only truly work when they exist together.

The luster of a pearl with thin nacre sometimes feels to me as though it is simply shining—or simply reflecting the light that hits it.

It reminds me of repeating wonderful words that you have read in a newspaper, seen on television or the web, or found in a novel or the Bible, and then passing those words directly on to someone else.

 

 

“That’s a fine opinion, but what do you think?”

Something like that.

When I was in junior high school, the web was not yet part of ordinary life, and television seemed to be at the center of entertainment for almost everyone.

We were junior high school students, so naturally, many conversations among my classmates were about the popular television dramas they had watched.

 

 

But I remember many of their reactions being things like:

“That was good.”

“That scene was amazing.”

Their comments often seemed to me simply to repeat what they had just watched.

 

 

Even when the drama changed, what they said about it somehow sounded the same to me.

Of course, from their point of view, they were sharing the excitement of having watched the same program together. That is perfectly natural.

Personally, though, I wanted to hear how each person had felt about it.

Which scene moved them?

Which words spoken by an actor stayed in their mind?

What happened inside them when they watched it?

Writing this now, I find myself thinking:

“What a troublesome person I was.”

 

 

At the time, however, I began to feel a certain emptiness in television and gradually moved away from it.

Then, by chance, a friend introduced me to the guitar.

I became absorbed in it and started spending much more time practicing guitar than watching television.

The relationship between nacre and luster somehow reminds me of that.

Even if something shines strongly, if all it does is reflect light directly, a plate or a sheet of metal can do the same thing.

But when a pearl has a thick layer of nacre, light travels through those layers, creating various interference colors before returning to our eyes.

When I talk with someone, I enjoy hearing the things that person has thought about over the course of their life.

Not simply borrowed ideas, but their own thoughts and opinions.

 

 

There is something wonderful about that.

I realize I am now talking about something that may sound understandable and incomprehensible at the same time.

It is surprisingly difficult to explain the appeal of thick nacre.

And judging nacre thickness itself is not easy either.

If you place a pearl with thin nacre and one with thick nacre next to each other, the difference becomes much easier to see. But without a comparison, it can be difficult for someone who does not regularly handle pearls to recognize it.

 

 

So if you ever visit a jewelry store, I recommend looking at several different pearls side by side.

You may begin to notice the differences in nacre thickness and in the strength and depth of their luster.

There is a reason I place so much importance on nacre thickness and luster.

Strong luster produced by thick nacre can be seen even from a certain distance.

Wounds and subtle differences in pearl shape, on the other hand, become difficult to notice once you step back a little.

If there were no limit to your budget, there would be very few compromises to make when choosing pearls.

 

 

But everyone has a budget.

One of the easiest ways to reduce the price of pearls is simply to choose baroque shapes instead of perfectly round ones.

If you are also willing to accept some wounds, the price can fall further.

I think of it as taking the money saved on perfect shape and perfect surfaces and putting it instead into luster and nacre thickness.

That makes it easier to find pearls with deep, powerful luster while staying within your budget.

In other words…

Pearls rather like the ones in this necklace.

There is also an article on the Flower Jem website with some advice about choosing pearls, so please have a look if you are interested.

Demystifying Pearl Beauty: The Six Factors You Need To Know

Pearl Bless You

 

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