Pearl Jewelry – The Timeless And Elegant All-Occasion Jewelry

Pearl jewelry are preferred by many because they are simple and yet elegant adornments to complete any outfit for every occasion. Pearl is considered the symbol showing deep love and is the birthstone for June. It has become a metaphor for something very admirable, very fine, very rare and very valuable. It is valued as objects of beauty, not just because it’s timeless and elegant, but hip and modern as well.

A pearl is a hard, roundish object produced within the soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. It is secreted by the epithelial cells of the mantle, a curtain of tissue between the shell and body mass. It is made up of calcium carbonate, which is also a common substance found in rocks and shells of mollusks. Calcium carbonate found in pearls is in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers.

A pearl is formed inside when a parasite or an irritating microscopic object becomes trapped within the mollusk’s mantle folds. The mollusk, being irritated by the intruder, secretes the calcium carbonate and conchiolin to cover the irritant. This process is referred to as encystation, which eventually forms a pearl. This secretion process continues such that the pearl keeps increasing in size, as long as the animal lives.

Nacre, also known as mother of pearl, is an inner shell layer that is strong, resilient and iridescent. Secretion of nacre around the irritating object builds a pearl within the body of the mollusk. But not all mollusks have nacre, some mollusks have an inner shell layer that is porcellaneous. This type of mollusk can also produce pearls, which may even be highly valued commercially.

There are freshwater pearls and saltwater pearls. Freshwater pearls, as the name suggests, are a kind of pearl that comes from freshwater mussels. Saltwater pearls are produced by several species of marine pearl oysters. Pearls from the sea are valued highly than freshwater pearls.

Valuable pearls are those that occur in the wild, but these are scarce. An because of its scarcity, culturing or farming of pearls has become successful. Cultured pearls are pearls grown in pearl-producing mollusks. Though produced with the aid of human intervention, they are also considered genuine pearls as they do not differ from their natural pearl counterparts.

There are saltwater cultured pearls and freshwater cultured pearls. Saltwater cultured pearls are pearls cultured in a saline environment. They are produced by introducing a rounded bead of freshwater mussel shell into the gonad of a host mollusk. Freshwater cultured pearls are produced by creating small incisions to the mantle organ of a host mussel.

There are different shapes of pearls such as round, rice-shaped, pear-shaped, button-shaped or baroque (irregular). But the ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth. Pearl as gemstones, are valued for their delicate play of surface color, luster and translucence.

Pearl grade or the quality of the pearl, is determined by luster, color, orient, size, shape and surface perfection. A pearl’s luster is finer if it has thinner and numerous layers. If successive layers overlap, the pearl displays iridescence due to the breakup of the falling light on the surface. Luster depends upon the diffraction, refraction and reflection of light from the translucent layers.

The largest pearl was discovered by an anonymous Filipino Muslim diver in Palawan, Philippines in’34. It was found from a non-nacreous giant clam. The pearl has a china plate like gloss but is not pearly as it did not come from a pearl oyster. It has a weight of– lbs. or 6.4 kilograms. It is known as the “Pearl of Allah”.

A pearl is an organic gem and is the oldest known gem. For centuries, it was considered to be the most valuable. It is the only gem created by a living creature and the only gem that requires no cutting or polishing before use. Though it is delicate, it has been successfully used in jewelry for thousands of years.

Author Fred Gagnon is an expert on providing tips and information on jewelries. He owns a wide collection of beautiful, glamorous and fashionable jewelries. To learn more about jewelries, accessories, precious metals and gemstones, visit Black Pearl Earrings and Hip Hop Jewelry.