Small irregular shaped pearls, created by the oyster's premature rejection of the grafted nucleus, have been given the Japanese name of keshi. The name was adopted by Japanese pearl farmers to describe tiny non-nucleated pearls, grown by accident, that were often found inside oysters at harvest time.
Keshi are found in all mollusks, including South Sea pearls from Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. South Sea pearl keshi are generally range in colour from white, silver and champagne to deep gold. Keshi are found in all mollusks, including South Sea pearls from Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. They tend to come from smaller pearl farms as larger pearl operations have found ways to determine shortly after nucleation if the oyster is going to produce a keshi or a cultured pearl. If it is a keshi they will generally start the nucleation process again.
Consequently, due to this practice, keshi are becoming more difficult to obtain and their price has risen sharply in recent years. Tiare Black Pearl has hundreds of Tahitian and South Sea keshi of all sizes. Price is determined by weight. Smaller keshi are sold at AUD$150 per gram and larger keshi (over one gram) are sold at AUD $250 per gram. Please take 33% off this price per gram for all loose keshi sold at our Pearl Studio in Mornington. Come and visit us and choose your keshi from a wide selection of samples and wait while we transform it into a ring, bracelet or necklace!