Job's Tears: partial harvest

Up until now, every Job's Tear I picked would look fine for a while, but then shrivel and turn white and feel like paper. I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong. But now, some tears are suddenly looking different while still on the plant. The are brightly colored (instead of just green), have a noticeable sheen, and are hard-shelled. They also separate from the stem with ease. Now I'm only picking ones that look like this while still on the vine:

Notice the blues, grays, greens, and browns.
Still too few to bead anything with.

These are ones that didn't make it. Not a good ratio.