We started day 3 with a mission to hunt down 2 Edison pearls for a good customer, one purple and one white. So back to Grace pearl we went to see if they would allow us to cherry pick from one of their AAA lots. Overall the quality was not great and very few had the dark purple I knew my customer needed. We started by pulling every pearl that was in the right color range and then inspected each for inclusions and defects. After about an hour we had found the winners, including one extra, fancy color piece to help bring the price down.
FYI we asked if there was any price they would accept for the display only pearls we showed you in our Day 1 post, and the answer was $15,000 - $20,000 per pearl - we politely declined.
After we had the Edisons taken care of, it was time to sit down and replenish our inventory of metallic drops. With a bin of several thousand pearls in front us, we pulled about two dozen of the very best.
While on the hunt for more free form baroques nuggets, we came across some small, super metallic, fancy color souffle pearls - just perfect for earrings. I'll be honest these were the most frustrating items to photograph, partly because of the super metallic luster and partly because of the bizarre blue lighting this booth chose to use.
With the day winding down, we decided to put buying on hold, take a walk around the show floor and shoot a few interesting pieces that caught our eye earlier. FYI, that last pic(ombre strand) caused a small international incident, with the shop owner using her body as a human shield and a brief encounter with security. Lucky for me Alana has a cute smile and speaks enough Cantonese to get us off the hook.
