Did these pearls catch your eye?

 

 

These are natural blue Akoya pearls.

They have a beautiful drop-like shape. Both pearls have a strong luster, and their surfaces are very smooth.

One of the pearls has a very slight whitish film-like appearance on part of its surface. Because of this, the two pearls may appear to have slightly different colors.

However, their luster, strength of appearance, and smooth surfaces are very similar.

 

 

They are pearls, of course, but I think you may even enjoy the way they feel to the touch.

By the way, these earrings were made in September 2024. They are one of 20 pairs of earrings that I made around the same time.

The 20 pairs were labeled from A to T, and this pair of earrings is E.

 

 

Twenty pairs were selected from several hundred individual pearls. I then decided where to drill each pearl, drilled the holes, attached the fittings, and completed the earrings. Almost the entire process was recorded on video.

 

If you are interested in the story behind these earrings, please have a look.

Incidentally, when I select pearls for earrings, luster is my first priority.

Whether a pearl is round or baroque, if its luster is weak, I feel that much of its appeal as a jewel is lost.

 

 

My next priority is the thickness of the nacre. When the nacre is thick, the luster gains greater depth.

I do not place quite as much importance on small surface blemishes or shape.

Once you move a little distance away from a pearl, small blemishes are usually no longer visible. What you can still recognize from farther away is the strength of its luster. The exact shape of a pearl also becomes much less obvious from a little distance.

 

 

Of course, pearls with very noticeable surface blemishes are not ideal for earrings. However, when a pearl has strong, deep luster, small blemishes can sometimes become almost irrelevant.

I prefer pearls where, at first glance, the luster and color attract your attention before any small blemishes do.

The opposite also exists. There are many pearls where your eye is drawn to the blemishes before you notice the luster. I think those pearls are often better suited for necklaces rather than earrings.

I am also not particularly concerned about pearls being perfectly round.

One reason is that baroque pearls can allow you to obtain a higher-quality pearl within the same budget.

 

 

You can see this quite easily if you compare the best round pearl and the best baroque pearl you could buy with a budget of $100.

As you probably know, simply being round increases the price of a pearl. So within a limited budget, a round pearl may not have particularly strong luster. If it is both round and highly lustrous, perhaps it will have more surface blemishes instead.

With a limited budget, something usually has to give.

With a baroque pearl, on the other hand, the price is already reduced simply because the pearl is not round. In other words, you can spend less on perfect shape and more easily obtain a pearl with stronger luster.

 

 

If you love perfectly round pearls, this way of judging pearls may not be particularly useful to you.

But if your criterion is simply “an attractive pearl,” perhaps it may be useful.

There is also something important I would like to mention.

The shape of a pearl is not related to its quality.

When considering the beauty of a pearl, I think there are three different elements: quality, value, and personal preference.

 

 

Luster, the condition of the surface, and the thickness of the nacre are related to quality.

Size, color, and shape are matters of preference.

However, these characteristics can still affect the market value of a pearl. Pearls are traditionally traded by weight, so when all other conditions are equal, larger pearls generally command higher prices.

I discuss these subjects in much more detail in articles on my website, so if you are interested, please have a look.

Demystifying Pearl Beauty: The Six Factors You Need To Know

Now, this has become a rather serious discussion about pearls.

So, back to these earrings.

They were made in September 2024 and were once listed for sale, but for unavoidable reasons I later had to take the listing down.

 

 

Today, August 19, 2026, I finally listed them again.

For roughly the past six months, I have been very busy making custom orders, so relisting my finished pieces has been considerably delayed.

Of course, being busy was a happy thing for the shop.

Recently, those orders have slowed down. That makes me a little lonely, but it also makes this a very good time to work on relisting everything.

If possible, I would like to work toward having more than 100 items listed in the shop.

I wrote something similar around the end of summer last year. But soon afterward I became busy again, and at one point the number of items in my shop fell to only four.

 

So, even if you find something you would like to buy, please be patient and wait until there are 100 items in my shop.

 

 

 

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