Keshi pearls have been in the spotlight recently in bridal magazines. A number of you have asked if these keshi are drilled by hand. Well the smaller pearls of about 2mm or less are indeed drilled by hand. Typically there are losses of up to 20% mainly due to the cracking of the pearl.
Keshi is a term traditionally used to describe natural saltwater pearls as well as pearls resulting as a byproduct of the Japanese culturing process. However today, the word keshi is now used to describe any pearl without a bead nucleus that is produced by the culturing process regardless of the ocean or freshwater body in which the pearl comes from.
After a long hiatus, we are back online posting.
Due to an overwhelming demand, the Pearl exporting Company has introduced chocolate keshi to the market place. These are natural Japanese Akoya keshi saltwater pearls that have been enhanced to chocolate color.