A trip to Paradise (and Hong Kong)

My apologies for being a bit late on the Hong Kong pearl report. Shortly after Hisano and I arrived back in Los Angeles I had to leave again to attend my son's graduation from Delta Flight Attendant Training. We once again have a flight crew member in the family!

Hong Kong was fantastic as it always is, but the best part of the trip was our visit to Paradise - Jewelmer's pearl farm in Tay Tay, the Philippines. It was my second trip to the farm and while it wasn't a leisure trip, it certainly felt like it.

We brought a GoPro camera and shot quite a lot of video, including from a helicopter over the farm and underwater where Hisano and I swam a full line as the panel nets were being flipped. Video always takes a lot of time to piece together, so in the meantime here is some eye candy to enjoy!

It requires breathtaking beauty to grow perfect golden pearls

It requires breathtaking beauty to grow perfect golden pearls

Click the image to zoom in and see the actual pearl lines.

Click the image to zoom in and see actual pearl lines.

This is why pearl farmers MUST be environmentalists. This is the purity required to grow pearls.

This is why pearl farmers MUST be environmentalists. This is the purity required to grow pearls.

We took a "Pearl Line Selfie" at 20 meters :)

We took a "Pearl Line Selfie" at 20 meters :)

Each panel filled with pearl oysters is flipped

Each panel filled with pearl oysters is flipped

Somewhat eerie yet so beautiful.

Somewhat eerie yet so beautiful.

DCIM118GOPRO

Yes, those are fish - thousands of them.

Yes, those are fish - thousands of them.

It was difficult to leave, and the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong immediately following serene paradise was bit of a adjustment, but there were pearls to be found and only three days to find them. We missed the first two days of the show while in the Philippines.

Apart from the regular shopping list items we did stumble accross some special things! We picked up some insanely colored Edisons including a dark purple strand and matched up a bunch of giant ripple pearls to create a colorful monster.

We also discovered a small Japanese company that had not come to the show before and one we'd never seen in Kobe. They're niche is very specialized - baroques. In the past I had only been interested in the natural-color silver blue baroques but only because the whites that I'd seen were borderline rejects. The white strands they had were different - lustrous with great colors and visibly thick nacre. They were also big - 9.5-10.0 mm. They didn't have many of the large strands available but we ended up taking all of them inlcuding their natural-color silver-blues.

To understand the size of these pearls, that center ripple is 18 mm.

To understand the size of these pearls, that center ripple is 18 mm.


14 comments


  • Rene Soto

    Hi,
    I’m looking for equipment (price) to start a pearls farm in the Caribbean, also information on how a can found a company that sales the mussels (Oyster). The variety that is for this type of salt water in the Caribbean.

    Thank you for all the information you can share..


  • Sheila Clary

    Hi, I am trying to find where I can purchase pearl oysters? Either freshwater pearls or Akoya pearls. The oysters with pearls inside them, for a business I am trying to get started.

    Thank you and God Bless
    Sheila


  • Alexander Porgursky

    It is exactly that case, when the baroque pearls look so well. I mean the last photo. I would pay a visit Philippines during my next visit in Asia. I’ve already observed the pearl farms of Thailand and Sri Lanka, but I have to visit Philippines as well.


  • Pregcurious

    The strand of purple Edisons in the middle is stunning. Thank you for sharing your trip with us so we can live vicariously.


  • Jeremy Shepherd

    Hi Mary,

    Yes, those are the white baroques. We’ve never found good white baroques before so they are definitely fun!


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