Our crafts

The hands, and what they know how to do.

The maison's jewels are made entirely by hand by the finest Italian artisans. Computer-aided design and 3D printing are used solely at the prototyping stage, to turn an idea into a first model more quickly. From that point on, making and finishing are entrusted to artisanal mastery.

Selecting the pearl

Selection takes place in the places of origin, where the maison buys directly from the producers. Size, shape, colour, lustre, surface, the quality of the nacre and the harmony of the assortment are all assessed. A pearl is accepted only when its lustre, structural integrity and shape match the MIMÍ master pearls.

Composing a strand is a craft in itself. Pearls are matched by similarity of lustre, even before size, and a well-made strand can be recognised from a distance.

The setting workshop

All of the maison's creations are produced in Italy. Setting is entrusted to an Italian workshop that works exclusively for MIMÍ, under the maison's direct supervision, and brings with it forty years of specialisation in pearls. The gold and silver components come from Italian suppliers certified by the RJC.

Two crafts, in a print of 1694

In 1694 the Dutch engraver Jan Luyken published Het Menselyk Bedryf, one hundred plates devoted to the trades of his day, one for each. Two of those hundred concern this house closely: the one who cuts the stone, and the one who sets it.

The tension system

The system has been patented for more than twenty-five years and holds the pearl suspended in the setting by geometry alone: the pressure of the metal retains it, and the surface of the gem remains free. It was born of long research, guided by a single question: how to show a pearl while intervening on it as little as possible.

Drilling rare gems

Conch and melo are hard gems, and drilling them is difficult: the heat produced by the bit damages them. The hole is therefore opened under a thin stream of water, which carries away the heat as the tool advances. Very few people in the world have the training this work requires. The maison drills South Sea pearls and all exceptional pearls in Italy.

Knotting

Akoya, South Sea and Tahitian strands are knotted by hand, pearl after pearl, on silk thread, in the maison's own offices. The knot between one gem and the next prevents rubbing and, should the thread give way, keeps the pearls in place. With wear the silk stretches: a strand worn often calls for periodic checking.

Quality controls

Every pearl passes through three formal inspections: at the producer, on receipt in Italy and on the finished jewel. The gems are checked one by one, and their dimensions measured with a precision gauge to 0.01 mm. Final approval rests with the maison's in-house quality control, which authorises dispatch.

The way the maison chooses its gems can be read in The art of the pearl; the seven factors by which a pearl is read, and the MIMÍ Pearl Standard that applies them, in How a pearl is judged.