“Grand Illusion”

My Chinese Apothecary Chest:   in 1994, it arrived via container to California from Hong Kong, where I discovered beading during my husband’s ex-pat assignment.   Serves as the repository for my beads.  Handcrafted.  It has 52 Drawers, mostly sorted by color.

2017 Challenge: Create a Necklace a Week, using only the Beads from one Drawer at a time. Voila!  52 Necklaces!

Week 41/Drawer 41: October 11, 2017: “Grand Illusion”

I have two pearl drawers: last week’s was white and this week’s has grey, gold and pink-apricot tones in its three compartments.  Most of the grey have a lot of iridescence and spoke loudly to me.  I was not hearing them; my ears and eyes loved the tender quiet elegance of the silver grey.

And their muted tones rewarded me as I researched them because I learned about a class of pearls about which I knew nothing—Keshi (sometimes spelled Keishi.)

Recall from last week that the freshwater pearl is born when an irritant is placed in the mussel shell: the Keshi as developed by the Japanese were the smaller pearls that grew in the same shell when the irritant was rejected. They are pure nacre. The Chinese pearl farmers don’t leave Keshi to chance—they do a second harvest to create only Keshi.  This product is not plump and full like the first harvest which is from a young mussel producing a lot of nacre to coat the irritant.  Again, see last week’s image of lovely plump pearls.  Second harvest mussels are older, producing flatter, thinner pearls.

The true Keshi in this necklace are the nacre-only, long skinny pearls in a beautiful silver color. I spaced them with tiny sterling silver seed beads.  The small sized pearls in the second strand are high luster Akoya freshwater (first harvest) pearls, almost always a light grey.

I added a pewter centerpiece in a basketweave pattern (2.25″ long) and a sterling silver clasp. Wear your favorite silver earrings with this necklace which measures 19.5”.  $79.