July 17, 2007: Today’s tea was so successful that we had to bring in extra chairs! Although we ran out of the scones and Devon cream, we had plenty of other treats to fill the plates. Everyone enjoyed learning about and comparing a range of green gemstones, including peridot, chrysoberyl, emerald, chrysoprase, diamond (irradiated to bring out the green color), tourmaline, sapphire, gaspeite, green turquoise, and jade. A visiting gem cutter provided insights on the various stones and taught us just a bit about cutting gemstones. We were delighted to photograph a few of the ladies at the tea and their photos are shown below.

NEW: We’d love to photograph you in some our jewelry before (or after) you purchase it. We’ll post the photos on this blog site. Then you and a special person who might want to give you jewelry can see how great you look in it. This could be an experiment to see how a different piece looks, or it could be a way to show that special person a visual wish-list. This is a new idea and we’ll see how it works!

Becky arranged to meet with a foremost supplier shortly after a major harvesting of pearls. As we shared a meal with this pearl professional, he said that Becky had already chosen the best that he had to offer. He knew many others were looking for the unique and unusual pearls which she had selected. You, her customers, clearly enjoy wearing these distinctive pearls.

I'm not going to give my entire tea talk on pearls, but I can share a few interesting points from this expert: I asked how one gets the various colors in the fresh water pearls.  He said that the mollusk or mussel may produce many pearls – as many as 20 from a single mollusk! — with a range of colors! I then remembered the careful removal and color sorting in the pearl "factory" that we visited in China. Those skilled harvesters could not predict or explain the color either.

He also brought to my attention that the Japanese had developed disease-resistant (saltwater) oysters which were not susceptible to the disease that had previously dramatically reduced the production of Akoya Pearls. So, we should be seeing a rejuvenated production within the next year or two.