Pearl Jewelry – The Object Of Beauty

Pearl jewelry is timeless and elegant as well as hip and modern. They are often preferred by many because they are simply the most elegant adornment to finish off every outfit for every occasion. Pearl has been valued as objects of beauty and became a metaphor for something very admirable, very valuable, very fine and very rare. Pearl is the June birthstone and is also considered as a symbol showing deep love.

A pearl is a roundish, hard object found within a soft tissue of a living shelled mollusk. The epithelial cells of the mantle secrete it. It is a curtain of tissue in the middle of shell and body mass. It is made up of calcium carbonate, a common substance in rocks and shells of mollusks. The concentrated layers of calcium carbonate deposits found in pearls are in very tiny crystalline form.

A pearl is eventually formed through a process called encystations. This process begins when a parasite or an irritating microscopic object is trapped inside the mollusk’s mantle folds. The mollusks, being irritated by the intruder, secrete the calcium carbonate and conchiolin to cover the irritant. As long as the animal lives, the pearl keeps growing because the secretion process continues.

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 saltwater pearls and freshwater pearls. Saltwater pearls come from marine pearl oysters. A freshwater pearl of course comes from freshwater mussels. Saltwater pearls are valued higher than freshwater pearls.

Pearls can be cultured or farmed, but valuable pearls are those that occur in the wild. Culturing or farming of pearls has become successful because of its scarcity. Cultured pearls are pearls grown in pearl-producing mollusks with the aid of human intervention. These are also considered genuine pearls as they do not differ from their natural pearl counterparts.

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

Pearls are considered to be gemstones and are valued for their translucence and luster and for the delicate play of surface color. Pearls come in different shapes. There are round, rice-shaped, pear-shaped, button-shaped, or irregular (baroque). But, the ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth.

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 known is the “Pearl of Allah”, which weighs– lb or 6.4 kilograms. It was discovered in Palawan, Philippines in’34 by an anonymous Filipino Muslim diver. It was found from a giant clam, which is a non-nacreous mollusk. The pearl is glossy like a china plate and not pearly as it did not grow in a pearl oyster.

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 chic jewelries. To learn more about jewelries, accessories, precious metals and gemstones, visit Black Pearl Earrings and Hip Hop Jewelry.