Pearls!

[Dano]

Hello,
I was wondering if someone can enlighten me about pearls? I know about fresh water pearls but what are other pearls?

Basically, I've bought a few, some that were called grade A glass pearls which were good quality and other pearls I bought that were just called pearls and they appear to be some kind of cheap coating on a white bead. What should I be looking out for?

Also can anyone recommend somewhere I can buy good quality white round pearls in different sizes?

Much appreciated.

the thing about pearls is that a proper seawater lucky find natural pearl is rarely ever perfectly spherical (like billions to one odds), they can be any shape really but they tend to look like wee potatoes, they are also crazy expensive (moreso the closer they get to perfectly round).

for something that actually looks like a pearl stick with freshwater cultured pearls. they're made in the same way a pearl is, by molluscs and oysters, but there's a bit of tampering by man in the process. the bit of grit that the pearl forms round is implanted and the molluscs get turned over and things like that. not synthetic, but not really naturally developed either. it is chemically a pearl but it's ...too perfect? if that makes sense?

cookson do a quite nice line actually, i got a couple of 5mm ones for a project and i was pretty pleased with the result.