Pearls — types, grading and care

Pearls are the only gem produced by a living animal and the only one that
needs no cutting. The market splits three ways:

• Freshwater — mussel-grown, mostly solid nacre, wildly improved in
  quality; the affordable workhorse in every shape.
• Saltwater — bead-nucleated: Akoya (classic white rounds), South Sea
  (large, satin), Tahitian (naturally dark). Priced on lustre, surface,
  shape, size, colour — in that order of importance.
• Shell pearls — coated shell beads: legitimate fashion material when
  sold honestly.

Grading starts at lustre — sharpness of reflections beats everything
else; a small lustrous pearl outclasses a big dull one every time.

Care — last on, first off (perfume and hairspray are nacre's enemies),
wipe after wear, store soft and flat, re-string knotted strands
periodically.

The school runs dedicated pearl webinars — free — and pearls
appear throughout the gemmology course.

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Go deeper — free

Watch the free replays at the gem webinar library — the gem e-book is the written companion. When curiosity becomes commitment, the gemmology foundation course is the ladder's first rung (online entry: GT100e); dates on the calendar. Play Name That Gem to train the eye between sessions.

What students say

“I intend to contribute articles to jewellery magazines and hope that someday I can be an authority in this field. That's a dream.”

— Yen Ting C. (Singapore) · published student feedback

“If you want to understand about jewellery, come to JDMIS.”

— Darvina P. (Singapore) · published student feedback

Free ways to explore

No sign-up, no payment — start with any of these.

WWatch a free gem webinarFREE
Full recorded sessions — the best free starting point.JJDMIS on YouTubeFREE
Course previews, blended-learning explainers and school life.FFree jewellery webinar replaysFREE
Recorded sessions on design and the jewellery industry.DDownload the gem e-bookFREE
The school's free guide to gems — pairs with the replays.

Keep exploring

Opal — play of colour, care and buyingOpal explained — precious opal's play of colour, body tones, stability and the care rules Jewellery video library — webinars, replays and free learning resourcesFree jewellery video learning — the gem, jewellery and pearl webinar replay libraries fromSynthetic vs natural gems — the difference that mattersSynthetic versus natural versus imitation explained — same chemistry different origin, honTourmaline — the rainbow gem with a watermelon trickTourmaline explained — the widest colour range of any gem, watermelon bicolors, Paraiba ne

See the online and blended options

Gemmology can be started fully online, and every classroom course at JDMIS has a video-supported path.

Visit jdmis.edu.sg