Our Lord Jesus Christ used pearls to describe the Kingdom of Heaven. There are a number of biblical references to this beautiful jewelry, the pearly gates for example. The twelve gates of New Jerusalem were reportedly each made of single pearl and the circular shape of the pearl was considered to represent love and knowledge.

Is it any wonder that pearl jewelry have been highly prized from the earliest of times? The pearl is a hard object produced within the shell of a living mollusk. The most valuable pearls occur in the wild but they are very rare. Today most pearls are cultured or farmed from pearl oysters.

Pearl jewelry from the sea are more valuable than the freshwater pearl. Jewelry made of the pearl has been prized throughout the ages and the metaphor for the word pearl has come to mean something fine, rare, and valuable.

How Are Pearls Formed?

Gemstone quality pearls are almost always nacreous and iridescent like the interior of the shell in which they are produced. They are made up of calcium carbonate in very fine crystalline form. This has been deposited in concentric layers as the pearl forms. Natural pearls form without any human intervention.

Many hundreds of oysters or mussels have to be gathered and opened to find just one pearl. This is why they were so valuable before pearl farming was common.

The saltwater pearl grows in pearl oysters. Freshwater pearls grow in river mussels. Both are now farmed to produce cultured pearls. Many cultured pearls are from China. In fact China is the largest exporter of cultured pearls.

Pearls: Shapes and Colors

The luster of pearl jewelry depends on the reflection of light from the numerous translucent layers. The larger and thinner number of layers produces the most lustrous pearl. The iridescence is caused by the overlapping of the layers.

Pearl jewelry come in eight basic shapes: round, semi-round, button, drop, pear, baroque, and circled. Perfectly round pearl shapes are the most rare and valuable. The jewelry also come in many colors, pink, black, brown, and even yellow. They have been used in jewelry and even to embellish clothing for years. There is nothing more classic and lovely than a string of pearls.

Pearl earrings are amongst the most common type of pearl jewelry you can find around. The painting of the Girl With a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer is a beautiful example of pearl jewelry. Vermeer featured pearl necklaces, earrings and bracelets in many of his paintings.

Margherita of Savoy owned one of the most famous pearl collections and is depicted wearing necklaces, a bracelet, and matching pearl earrings.

Pearl Earrings: My Little Adventure

Classic pearl studs are a part of many women’s earring wardrobe. My grandparents gave me a set for my eighteeth birthday and I still have them. Drop pearls make beautiful earrings and are often paired with other gemstones. My husband took me to a place in Florida where you could open mussels to find pearls. I did find two very small ones and they made them into earrings.

Half round pearls can be used to make the classic button earrings. With the advent of colored pearls, you can have pearl earrings and bracelets to match any outfit. Just check QVC when they have the Honora pearl shows. My goodness, they have some beautiful things and the prices are not bad on some of them.

Pearl Earrings: Now Available To All

Pearls used to be only for the very wealthy. Natural pearls are rare and a matched set would cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The culturing process has made pearls available to everyone. They can be had at almost every price point, so there is no reason not to treat yourself to a set of pearl earrings or a beautiful pearl bracelet.

Japan was the first country to produce freshwater pearls that are cultured in Lake Biwa using the Biwa pearly mussel. Pollution caused this operation to cease to exist. Other attempts in Japan have been unsuccessful. Interestingly enough there was also a cultured pearl center in Tennessee, but it remains open today only as a tourist attraction. China is the primary producer of cultured freshwater pearls.

Early cultured freshwater pearls resembled Rice Krispies cereal, but the triangle pearl mussel and hybrid mussels today produce almost perfectly round pearls. This is done by grafting small pieces of the mantle of a donor mussel into the pearl mussels.

This is done by trained technicians and typically 16-20 grafts per side of the mussel are performed. Saltwater cultured pearls are made by the implantation of beads, and do not produce as many pearls.

How Freshwater Pearls Are Formed

A pearl naturally forms when an irritant or parasite enters the mussel. Nacre is what produces shell and the mussel starts to produce the nacre in layers to wall off the intruder and a pearl is formed.

Any kind of mollusk is capable of producing pearls, but most are worthless. There have been reports of pearls in clams and other mollusks, but most are kept just as a curiosity. The largest known pearl was found in a giant clam in the Philippines in 1934. This is not pearly, but has the appearance of porcelain and weighs an astonishing 14 pounds.

Getting Large Supplies of Freshwater Pearls

China is the world leader in production of freshwater pearls. Through increasingly advanced technology the resulting pearls are quite beautiful and rival natural pearls. They come in many colors and are widely used in jewelry making, with fashion colors being very popular. They are certainly much more affordable than natural pearls so we can all enjoy pearl jewelry.

The Chinese today are experimenting with implanting rejected pearls back into the mussels and early results have been promising. The resulting pearls have been tested and are hard to distinguish from a naturally formed pearl. With continued advances, we may soon be able to afford a beautiful strand of freshwater pearls.

Coin pearls get their name from the coin shaped implant used to create them. The implant is made from a round flat disc of mother of pearl. Once inserted into the mollusk, a coin shaped pearl results. Hence the name coin pearl jewelry.

However, the process of making this does not happen overnight though. You need a mature mollusk about three years of age and it takes another three years or so for the coin pearl to form completely.

Why Jewelers Like Coin Pearls

A lot of jewelers take to the coin pearl jewelry for one simple reason: these type pearls can be set in many different ways. They can be drilled from the side or the center. As their popularity grew, other shapes became available. Crosses, squares, drops, and flowers are some of the other shape varieties you can get from a coin pearl.

Coin pearls are less expensive than their round counterparts, but take care when purshing them. Due to the length of time it takes to create them, some farmers harvest them before they are fully grown. This results in a pearl with very thin nacre.

Hold the pearl up to the light to check for thickness and be sure that the implant is not visible. These are signs that it was harvested too soon. The making of coin pearls may involve dying to get many different colors as the jeweler may want.

The Cost Of Coin Pearls?

Coin pearl jewelry is an affordable option for those who love pearl jewelry. They can be made into coin pearl necklaces, coin pearl bracelets, pins, rings and earrings in a variety of settings alone or combined with gemstones.

Getting your hands on coin pearl jewelry should not be a problem at all. Due to their popularity, coin pearls are much readily available from your favorite jeweler, and a simple online from merchants can get what you want.

The teardrop shaped pearl makes pearl pendants elegantly beautiful. Alone or as the centerpiece of a string of pearls, this shape is popular. Pearl necklaces have been around forever. Paintings in the early 1600′s depict women wearing pearls.

Pearls were a sign of vanity and of virginity in some cultures. It was believed that wearing pearls on her wedding day would promote marital bliss.

Margherita of Savoy was known as the queen of pearls, and indeed, in every portrait she was wearing a pearl necklace or several necklaces as well as matching bracelets and earrings.

Most Notable Pearl Pendants

When I was growing up every well dressed lady had a string of pearls. Who could forget Babara Bush’s signature pearls? Jacqueline Kennedy had a matched set of yellow pearls given to her by the president of Venezuela.

I have my grandmother’s pearl necklace and my mother’s. I don’t wear them often, but I love looking at them. I tend to wear pearl pendants with the little diamond given to me by my husband after our wedding.

Whatever your taste, pearl pendants or other style of pearl necklace will add a touch of class to your wardrorbe.

Natural pink cultured pearls are extremely rare. The Caribbean pink pearl is produced by the queen conch. The conchs are extremely sensitive creatures and efforts to farm them and culture pearls have been unsuccessful. They are also endangered so natural pink pearls are likely to remain very rare.

The good news is that pink is the second most likely color of cultured pearls after white, so those who have their heart set on pink pearl jewelry can easily obtain it.

Wartyback mussels, sand mussels and washboard mussels are all likely to produce pink cultured pearls. After the pearls are harvested they may be dyed or chemically treated to enhance the color. Pearls may be treated with silver nitrate and then exposed to sunlight or hydrogen sulfide to deepen the color.

Pink Cultured Pearls And Dyeing

Pearls take to dyeing very well. Their porous and slightly rough surface makes them ideal for using organic or inorganic dyes to create whatever shade of pink desired.

Pink pearls, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets are very popular with brides and bridesmaids for their soft, feminine appearance. Saltwater and freshwaters cultured pearls maybe pink in color.

Color Varieties Of Pink Cultured Pearls

Freshwater pink cultured pearls are more durable and less expensive than the saltwater variety. The color depends on genetics, species of mussel, the quality of water and the position of the pearl within the mussel. Although colors may range from silver white to bronze or green, pink, rose, and lavender are the most desirable colors.

Pink freshwater pearls also come in interesting shapes. They are hard and shiny and make beautiful jewelry. The naturally colored pearls will have slight variations when used as a strand of pearls, but dyed or treated cultured pearls have a uniform color.

If you’re a fan of pink like I am, pink cultured pearl jewelry is sure to find a place in your collection. It’s beautiful and affordable so we can all enjoy pink pearls, although it might be difficult getting your hands on pink cultured pearls.

First off, Tahitian pearls come from the island of Tahiti, which just screams lush and exotic vacation paradise. Tahitian pearls are likewise, symbols of luxury and beauty. The black-lipped oysters produce black, greenish black and grey pearls.

Black pearl cultivation began in 1965 by French Polynesian farmers and pearl farming has spread over thousands of miles around Tahiti. Tahiti’s government promotes black pearls and the demand for them increases yearly.

The quality of the pearls is determined by the thickness of the nacre. The thicker the nacre, the longer the pearl will last. The government has set a minimum of .8mm of nacre to export pearls as Tahitian. Pearls with less than .8mm of nacre may not be exported.

What Makes Tahitian Pearls So Great?

The other thing that sets Tahitian pearls apart is their luster. High quality pearls have a mirror like finish. Tahitian pearls range in size from 8mm to 14mm. The largest Tahitian pearl is 21mm for a round pearl and 22mm for a semi-round pearl. These are rare and very valuable.

Black-lipped oysters produce the natural black color of the Tahitian pearl. They also produce body colors of blue, gray, green and brown. Body colors are enhanced by at least one overtone color. These may be blue, gold, silver, pink, and reddish purple.

What You May Not Know About Tahitian Pearls

There is a legend that the pearl oyster was offered by man by Oro, the god of peace and fertility. Oro is thought to have presented the pearl from this oyster to the princess of Bora Bora as a sign of his eternal love.

That is romantic and it makes you want a Tahitian pearl, doesn’t it. There are a few things to test if a Tahitian pearl is real. They are cold to the touch, gritty when rubbed against the teeth, have overtones of hue and are heavy to hold. Imitation Tahitian pearls have none of these qualities, so be sure you’re getting the real thing.

Akoya pearls are saltwater cultured pearls. History has it that they were the first pearls to be cultured in the early 1900′s. Kokochi Mikimoto was the first person to successfully grow round pearls in the akoya pearl oyster.

These pearls are the classic pearls, lustrous white pearls with pink overtones. Black akoya pearls are treated chemically to achieve their color. The akoya pearl isproduced by implanting a bead made of polished shell into the oyster. Along with the bead, a small piece of mantle tissue from a donor is also implanted into the gonad of a saltwater mollusk. These pearls are grown one at a time and harvested after one year.

Natural Japanese Akoya Pearls Can Be Expensive

A natural pearl necklace can cost tens of thousands of dollars, while an akoya pearl necklace will cost around a thousand dollars. Smaller pearl strands can be had in the three hundred dollar range. In years past, every well dressed lady had to have a strand of pearls and the cost was significant.

Today we can have cultured pearls in many colors and at an affordable price. The original cultured Japanese pearls known as akoya pearls, were produced by a small variety of oyster and rarely exceeded 10mm in size. Today the akoya pearl mollusk is used in both China and Japan to produce Chinese akoya pearls as well and larger ones are available.

How To Get Akoya Pearls

Japan maintains her status as a pearl processing center and imports many of the loose akoya pearl from China. They are sorted, matched, and exported as a product of Japan. These akoya pearls can be bought from your favorite jewelry dealer or you can find reputable online merchants to buy from.

South Sea pearls are formed in the pinctada maxima pearl oyster. This is one big oyster, often the size of a dinner plate, and is the largest of the pearl oysters. The pearls are known for their large size and luster.

The colors of South Sea pearls are determined by the color of the host. They can be white, cream, silver, pink, gold or any combination of these colors and may include overtones of any color of the rainbow present in the oyster shell itself.

South Sea Pearls Can Be Expensive

These oysters are sensitive to changes in their water temperature and environment and are harder to culture than smaller oysters. For this reason even the cultured South Sea pearl is more expensive. Saltwater pearl oysters are usually cultured in protected lagoons or volcanic atolls.

Australia, New Guinea, Burma, Indonesia, and the Philippines are the usual sources for the South Sea pearl. South Sea pearls can be from 9mm to 20 mm in size, with average size being around 12mm.

South Sea Pearls: A Bit Of History

We have all heard about pearl divers and indeed they were used in early pearl production in Australia. Aboriginal women were the first divers because they had large lung capacity enabling them to stay underwater for longer periods of time to retrieve oysters. In the early 1900′s the process was mechanized by using air fed suits, allowing to divers to harvest many more oysters.

The first cultured South Sea pearl was also produced in Australia. The first farms were in the Broome region in 1956 and today almost 60% of the cultured South Sea pearls are from Australia.

Black freshwater pearls are frequently referred to as black Tahitian pearls. Before the process of culturing pearls was used, black pearls were extremely rare and hard to come by. The black pearl oyster is found in Tahiti and the pacific islands and is used for culturing black pearls.

These pearls are still rather scarce as the culturing process usually produces a smaller yield. They cannot be mass produced. The oysters are sensitive to changing water conditions, climate and the process of culturing them sometimes fails, so the black pearls from oysters are still limited.

Two Types Of Black Freshwater Pearls

The Chinese freshwater cultured pearls are much more abundant. There are two categories of cultured pearls. One results when the mussel is implanted with a bead, which is a polished sphere of shell. They are grown one at a time.

Non beaded black freshwater pearls are grown in the mantle of the mussel and up to 25 grafts may be implanted at once. The quality of these pearls has improved greatly in recent years.

Black Freshwater Pearls Used To Be Rare But…

In the past they produced rice shaped pebbles and today they produce nearly round pearls. China is the world’s largest producer of black freshwater pearls that are cultured. Water pollution has been tough on the cultured pearl industry and many lakes previously used are no longer suitable. With crossing different species of mussels and improved pearl farming techniques, the cultured pearl industry is thriving today.

You don’t have to be a billionaire today to afford black freshwater pearls jewelry. Freshwater cultured black pearls are more widely available than their ocean counterparts and no one has to know you did not pay a fortune for them.

The best place to get these rather scarce black freshwater pearls is use the Internet to find merchants that are close to you, or where you could look them online and have them delivered to you by post.