The story behind Drimano Pearl

I held that first pearl for a long time before I knew what to do with it.

Elara Drimano spent eight years working in the buying department of a large London jeweller before she left in the autumn of 2013 to spend three months in Japan. She had arranged a short apprenticeship with a pearl grader in Mikimoto's home prefecture of Mie, and she went expecting to learn about lustre grades and nacre thickness. What she actually learned was patience. The grader, a man named Tanaka-san who had been doing the work for thirty-one years, would hold a single pearl in diffuse window light for several minutes before placing it in a tray. That habit stayed with her.

Drimano Pearl opened in 2014 from a small studio in Bermondsey, south London. The first year was quiet. Elara made twelve pieces, sold nine of them, and remade two that she was not satisfied with. She kept a notebook of every stone she rejected and why. By 2017 she had established a direct relationship with the Shiga farm and was visiting Zhuji once a year to select freshwater pearls in person. The studio moved to a larger space on Maltby Street in 2019, where it still is. There are two people here: Elara and Mira, who joined in 2021 and handles correspondence and finishing.