The original organic gem, natural #Pearls were once the most treasured and rarest jewels of all. Now, #CulturedPearls have become much more accessible, but they undoubtedly remain just as mysterious.

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PEARLS, INCLUDING MELO MELO AND CONCH PEARLS VISIT: [ Ссылка ]

TO LEARN ABOUT HOW TO BEST CARE FOR AND CLEAN PEARLS, VISIT: [ Ссылка ]

How are Pearls Formed?

Just like Coral and Jet, Pearls are considered an #organicgem because they’re made from living organisms. #NaturalPearls are formed when a foreign object gets stuck inside the soft lining of an underwater mollusk, usually an oyster or a mussel. In an attempt to protect itself, the oyster or the mussel coats the foreign matter in smooth layers of nacre—the same material that coats the interior of their shell, aka Mother of Pearl.

What are Cultured Pearls?

The biggest reason for the decline of natural Pearls, was the invention of Culturing. While it’s believed that several people in Japan and Australia were developing the process of culturing Pearls around the same time, one of the most famous and successful, especially with his marketing techniques, was Japan’s Kokichi #Mikimoto. By the 1890s, cultured Blister Pearls, which are essentially half-Pearls grown on the inside of the mollusk shell, were being sold in both Japan and Australia. Mikimoto opened his first Blister Pearl shop in Tokyo by 1899, but was also culturing whole Pearls by 1908. By the twenties, and the peak of the Art Deco period, when interest in exotic travel and culture was the height of fashion, Mikimoto was marketing his Pearls and #PearlJewellery around the world with supreme success.

The Current Pearl Market

Today, the Pearl market mainly consists of four types of cultured Pearls: #FreshwaterPearls, #AkoyaPearls, #SouthSeaPearls and #TahitianPearls. Akoya, South Sea and Tahitian are all saltwater Pearls that are farmed with oysters, while Freshwater pearls are farmed with mussels. Saltwater Pearls are cultured by surgically inserting a small bead along with a piece of donor tissue from another mollusk, into an oyster’s tissue to encourage it to mimic the natural process of depositing nacre onto the bead. Each oyster will only produce one Pearl, with the exception of Akoyas, which can sometimes produce up to five. For freshwater Pearls, the mussel is implanted with multiple pieces of donor tissue, and can produce up to 32 Pearls each.

What Makes Some Pearls So Much More Valuable than Others?

Now that cultured Pearls are so widely available, and with high-quality Chinese freshwater varieties saturating the market (China produces more than 10 times the amount of freshwater Pearls than all other markets combined), Pearl jewellery is now available at nearly every price point. Keep in mind, due to the sheer size of production, even the best quality Chinese freshwater pearls are relatively inexpensive when compared to Akoya, South Sea or Tahitian Pearls in their best qualities. Not only are the latter generally much more difficult to successfully culture, it is incredibly time-consuming, with the single-Pearl producing oysters usually having to be 24-36 months old before they can produce their first Pearl (versus the 6-12 month maturity needed for multiple freshwater Pearls.)

When evaluating any Pearl, the following factors affect the price the most: size, ideal round shape, the thickness and quality of the nacre, orient, overtone, and how well they’re matched in a necklace, bracelet or earrings.

As mentioned, lustre is one of the most important characteristics of a Pearl, and refers to its shine and how well it can reflect light. While Akoya Pearls are the smallest of the saltwater group, they are known for being the most reflective, and can sometimes have nearly mirror-like shine. Overtone is the subtle, secondary colour you can sometimes see when light reflects off the Pearls. While the main bodycolour is traditionally white or cream, the overtone can be pink or “rose” (the most valued) or greenish. Tahitian Pearls are the most famous not only for their large sizes, but for having dark, exotic colours with many possible overtones. Their unique and highly valuable colours are so sought-after, that even slight differences in hue play a very important role in their value. Lastly, orient, like overtone, is a valuable characteristic that not all Pearls possess. Similar to Diamond, it’s the ability of the Pearl to break light down into multiple colours, which gives the Pearls a beautiful and other-worldly iridescent effect.

свернуть