![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/pearlsapractical.guide/f=auto/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/group.jpg)
Travelling the world to find the best pearls in the world sounds like a dream of a job. And it is, most of the time. It is a job which has taken me to countries and places I never thought I would see. I think the exemplar of this is getting VERY excited to see paddy fields the first time I was in mainland China. The native chinese I was with understandably thought I was insane. Paddy fields are normal to them. But to me they were school geography lessons of something far away remote.
I was with a wholesaler good friend to see the pearl processing family firm factory in Guangdong. That was a learning day and I was also bemused that every time I turned around a different nephew or uncle appeared. It really was a family firm.
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I trained as a journalist on local papers and then magazines before going to university to study law. That led to teaching law at universities (much to my surprise) while I revived my interest in silversmithing and jewellery design. Then I fell in love with pearls. The rest, as the cliché has it, is of record and here we are.
![](https://cdn.statically.io/img/pearlsapractical.guide/f=auto/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/9-Farm.jpg)
Working here is work, really it is.
An Indonesian south sea pearl farm on a tiny remote island a 40 minute boat ride from a main island