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The same farm where I took the photo in post 20 which shows circlés, many colours, rosebuds, fireballs.

The farm is owned by a pearl wholesaler which does its own processing.

Dyed. The source is impeccable

Strange, I've never had a problem with any sort of pearl. And I've had pearls sit in the goop for days and even weeks when the finding was an exceptionally good fit so it couldn't seep in easily

PearlescenCe!

I'd completely forgotten I have this one strand in stock. Very definitely akoya as bought direct from the farm 6mm to 10.3mm and it's a long strand too 46cm so won't strangle anyone!

She won't thank you for 'old' Douglas!

The ring shank is It's the ring shank which is engraved, not the pearls. What certification?

The 'cartier' looks really rough, like it was done with one of those hand engraving machines used for dog name tags etc

Could just be unskilled drilling

How do you know they were not drilled with a machine?

D you mean natural as in not fake/manufactured? Because to pearl people natural means wild, unfarmed, no human activity. No pearl with a bead is a natural pearl. Hard to tell from the photos. Those could be low end thin nacre akoyas or shell pearls . Probably the former as there are flaws. Some...

It will probably be the nickel layer in some plating processes which affects your skin. If you select findings made to EU standards (no nickel) you will probably be okay.

I've never seen an earring finding like that. Really unusual.

Get some glue dissolver (usually sold along with superglue or available on ebay and similar). Slosh the dissolver around the finding then put it into a small ziplock bag and wait. Take out every couple of days and very gently wriggle to see if it has come loose. If not top up the dissolver and...

Hardness varies from pearl to pearl. Even within one pearl there can be different resistance as one drills. There was a time, when bead nucleated pearls were getting started, that some growers seemed to be using rock hard nuclei. Drill bits would blunt in seconds and be red hot. Even now some...

Plus some buyers will simply bulk buy while others - to the dismay of the wholesalers I'm sure, will wade through bags to select one or two strands. While I was doing the latter last september in Heng Mei another buyer came in and within ten minutes had bought three huge bags of fireballs...

Don't they look amazing! So many pearls but these were outstanding.

Is the Lord President of the Council, Penny Mordaunt, wearing fireball earrings? (The woman has arms of steel!)

Depends on whether the pearl will need to be drilled and if the drill hole can be placed there to obliterate it. Sometimes Mum nature helps lowly pearl jewellers by marking pearls with a big 'drill here'