Tears of the Manmade Earrings no.4

A single pierced earring with small hand-crafted glass pearl.


'Tears of the Manmade'
A glass pearl jewellery collection as a result of exploration into how imitation pearls obtain their own unique value, beyond that as substitutional mimicry of natural pearls. The glass pearls used in this collection are delicately handcrafted by artisans in Izumi, Osaka, a city with over 100 years of history in producing imitation pearls. An artisan slowly immerses a glass kernel into a pool of pearlescent fluid and slowly pulls it up – glass pearls come into existence from repeating this process again and again, accumulating layers of glowing film over an extended period of time. If natural pearls are called ‘Tears of Mermaid,’ glass pearls can be called ‘Tears of the Manmade,’ a crystalized form of the artisans’ sweat, tears and craftsmanship. Each glass pearl in this collection contains a wish that such craftsmanship should not go unnoticed and be hindered by the word ‘imitation’.