Blueish lavender pearls

[pearlescence]

Dyed pearls can be uniform..but not often. Consider the variety of colours in a lot of black pearls. They can be green, blue, red, purple, pink, gold, grey, aubergine or peacock. Depends on the colour of the pearls you start with, how each pearl's nacre absorbs the dye....

 

[pearlescence]

Graduate Gemologist degree.
Is that a proper from-a-university-after-three-years-study degree or something lesser? (sorry to be so pedantic but I am a bit pedantic about standards etc for academic values.
I also trip up on that pesky common language. You graduate from high school. We just leave them. Here we only graduate from a university which is licensed to award degrees by the Crown, which monitors standards. (and incidentally people only get to be a Professor after a long and outstanding academic career. Not automatic once employed by university)

 

[mrsadm]

Graduate Gemologist degree.
Is that a proper from-a-university-after-three-years-study degree or something lesser? (sorry to be so pedantic but I am a bit pedantic about standards etc for academic values.
I also trip up on that pesky common language. You graduate from high school. We just leave them. Here we only graduate from a university which is licensed to award degrees by the Crown, which monitors standards. (and incidentally people only get to be a Professor after a long and outstanding academic career. Not automatic once employed by university)

The GIA web site refers to their "Graduate Gemologist" program.

 

[pearlescence]

Well, I'm just an academic old fart but to me, unless it is a proper degree programme from a proper university with proper academic oversight and quality control it is not a graduate programme. Or even a Diploma programme. Or a certificate programme. It is a course, which you might pass. My first question with all such courses from all such offerers is 'how many fail?' If no-one fails and everyone passes then...
That is not to decry the GIAs courses and the people who have taken them and passed. Smooth your ruffled feathers please! I'm grumbling a load of hot air over nomenclature.

 

[pattye]

From the GIA website:

"Established in 1931, GIA is the world’s foremost authority on diamonds, colored stones, and pearls. A public benefit, nonprofit institute, GIA is the leading source of knowledge, standards, and education in gems and jewelry. "

Wendy, (my friend and "old fart" from another old fart), to my understanding, and looking at the GG requirements, it does take a number of years to complete the courses. It's not a "lesser" degree, but different. In the US there are many types of accredited schools that offer diplomas and degrees that are not universities or colleges. Just the way the system has been organized here. And of course, we have no Crown to monitor standards, lol, rather departments of the government.

 

[pearlescence]

Thanks for that Pattye. It is a pity because it diminishes the value of an actual degree. there is a lot of academic hoop-la over here about grade inflation, and some places do scatter firsts around like confetti, which diminishes the achievement.
I suppose I would think it is a good thing.
We have Gem A here
which is older and they actually offer a BSc course with Birmingham city university (Birmingham has a big jewellery industry)
details https://gem-a.com/index.php/education/courses/further-study/gemmology-degree

 

[pattye]

I feel it is a cultural mindset that an "actual degree" is more valuable. How any formal education is applied depends on the individual person anyway. And that is possibly a cultural mindset of mine, to be a bit irreverent, having been raised and lived in the (wild) west all my life. Often peeps careers evolve to a field unrelated to their degree.

Pattye gets down from soapbox before she falls off ~ let's get back to bluish lavender pearls

 

[SpookyAL]

im loving the conversation about degrees. no worries here

 

[amti]

im loving the conversation about degrees. no worries here

Lol! I have one from college but I don't know where it is. It may still be in the mailing tube they sent it in. I paid a lot of money for that dang piece of paper!

 

[SunSeeker]

haha, Pattye, you crack me up! Interesting convo, but regarding the pearls, I love the purple color! Spooky AL, you have some beautiful strands.

 

[SpookyAL]

Thank you so much SunSeeker! Well thank you all again for the great help and fun conversation.
Alas, i just looked these bluish lavender pearls up again to find that they were sold. Sigh, my endless search continues..and let's face it ..half the fun is the chase!..lol