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Although it is widely believed that pearls are formed from a grain of sand lodged in a mollusk, this is more myth than reality. Instead, a pearl typically forms when an irritant such as a parasite, wayward food particle or other organic matter becomes trapped in the mollusk. This causes the mollusk to coat the object with layers of aragonite and conchiolin, forming a pearl.

With cultured pearls, instead of waiting for a natural irritant, a pearl farmer insets an irritant, such as a mother-of-pearl bead, into the tissue of a pearl bearing mollusk. Once inserted, a cultured pearl grows the same way as a natural pearl.

There area number of tests you can do to help determine if your pearls are real. First, if you take one of the pearls and rub it gently against the biting edge of your front teeth and feel a gritty feeling, the pearl is probably real. Second, if possible, find a pearl that you can see into the drill hole (on a necklace or bracelet, look for a where the knot between the pearls is more stretched). Look into the drill hole. If you can make out a nucleus, chances are it is a cultured, real pearl. As a third test, you can examine the luster of the pearl. The surface of a real pearl has a deep luster that comes from within the pearl. This can usually be easily differentiated from a ceramic or glass pearl that only has a surface shine.

Of course, none of these tests will give you an absolute answer as some of these can be faked to a certain degree. The best way to confirm your pearls are authentic is to have them evaluated by a pearl expert – ideally a person who is GIA certified in pearls.

Pearls are one of the more fragile and delicate gems, so proper care must be exercised to prolong the life and enjoyment of your pearls. You should:

1. Store your pearls separately from other jewelry, ideally in a soft cloth pouch, linen cloth, or soft lined jewelry box. Do not store your pearls in a plastic bag or an extremely dry place (next to a heater) as these could cause your pearls to become brittle or crack.
2. Minimize contact with personal products including makeup, perfume, hairspray, and other personal care products; use personal care products first before putting on pearls.
3. Minimize contact with perspiration as your natural acids can harm a pearl’s surface over time and dull the luster. To minimize this, remove pearls before exercising or doing strenuous activity.
4. When you take your pearls off, gently clean them with a soft damp non-abrasive cloth.
5. Periodically wash your pearls in soapy water using a mild liquid soap (not a detergent). Once washed, gently rinse and place on soft towel or cloth to dry. Do not hang pearls to dry as this may stretch the silk thread.
6. Have your pearls restrung periodically.

Today I took a beginners PMC course with fantastic tutor Di Osman. I had so much fun and I don’t think I’ve ever been so pleased with something in such a short amount of time.
The best thing about taking a course (as opposed to experimenting at home) is that I gained the confidence (and had the resources in front of me) to try more unusual techniques; for example dipping the finished piece in liver of sulphur to get a marvellous effect (in the top left pieces in the picture)
We found out the effect varies depending on how warm the water you add the sulphur to is. As I used it later on; the water had cooled quite a bit and gave this almost golden effect. If used in warmer water the effect is a bluey purple one.
Who would have thought you could get a chunk of silver by moulding clay, baking it for 3 minutes with a hand held torch and polishing it off!
Finding materials and stamps to get certain effects will be my new quest. In the class we used rubber stamps, pastry cutters, leaves and leather to get fantastic results. Little tubes can be used to cut holes or make patterns like on my star.
PMC is expensive but I made all this with still some left over out of a 30g pack with costs around £30. I’m sure I have enough left for at least another pair of earrings or a pendant. That works out at £6 per set and considering your end result is a chunk of 99.9% silver I think it’s fantastic value for money.
Best of all we all achieved these sort of results just on our first day and there is so much more to learn. We don’t need to invest in lots of equipment, just a small blow torch (very cheap) and some files, cutters (also dead cheap) You can find textures outside such as leaves, pebbles, bark, stone etc…
I would definitely recommend having a go with PMC!

This month jewelry artist and breast cancer survivor Eri Attebery is offering four beautiful, unique tutorials for breast cancer awareness jewelry.

Here you can see two of the projects taught in these video tutorials:

Beaded pink ribbon puffy heart, by Eri Attebery

Breast cancer awareness earrings, by Eri Attebery

Eri, also known as the Jewelry Making Professor, teaches a variety of jewelry techniques and projects through her high-quality videos.

For the month of October, you can access four of Eri’s lovely breast cancer awareness jewelry tutorial videos here – for free:

Free Breast Cancer Awareness Jewelry Project Videos

Eri says, “The more people wearing pink ribbon jewelry, the better!”

Thank you, Eri, for making these great projects available!  :)