Cultured Pearls

Cultured pearls have been NUCLEATED artificially by man. Ok. So what does "nucleated" mean anyway? Basically, it's a little bit like artificial insemination, except the end result is a little pearl and not a beautiful little baby.....

The History of C. Pearls tells us, in a nutshell, or to be more accurate, in a mother-of-pearl-shell, that this type of pearl's nucleus is foreign to the oyster.

These types of pearls are generally more affordable than Natural Pearls, although they are not your "cheap types of pearls" either. The price of the Mikimoto pearl necklace further down on this page, is evidence of that. It's beyond most peoples budget. Like in the millions!

Wear these moonlight orbs with responsible excess, with jeans and a T-shirt or lightly caressing the shoulder of that little black dress. Whether it be pearl antique engagement rings or strands of pearls, these gems will forever be, moonlight rays of light to highlight your natural beauty.

Unfortunately the market-place is full of Pearl Imitations.

Always purchase pearls from a trusted source. Be especially careful when buying over the internet as you can't handle the pearls and never accept at face-value what a salesperson tells you. Read up on the subject. BTW you can find my favorite books about pearls here.

Not sure if it's a genuine string of pearls or fakes? Get info about identifying cultured pearls from faux pearls here.

The Pearl Grading System will bring you up to speed and have you grading your bucket of pearls just like the experts.

Faux pearls or imitations, were the preference of French designers in the 1920s. Coco Chanel always wore a pearl necklace and often incorporated imitation pearls or faux pearls into her own costume jewelry designs - Chanel costume jewelry. Pearls were also a perfect gem for inclusion into the naturalistic style of the earlier Art Nouveau Jewelry design.

The origins of both Natural Pearls and cultured gems are from the sea and only one little pearl is ever produced by an oyster in it’s’ lifetime. It's a lot of hard work for an oyster to produce a pearl!

The traditional round pearls are usually cultured from saltwater pearl oysters, different from edible oysters, which do not produce the same pearly nacre.

Artisans who create handmade wedding jewelry often choose pearls to add elegance and classicism to a piece of handmade silver jewellery.

When it comes to cultured pearls, MIKIMOTO Pearls is the industry benchmark when it comes to Pearl Grading.

Some pearl companies have conveniently devised their own pearl grading system. Tread with caution, especially when buying new pearl jewelry and also if the price "seems to good to be true".

How Cultured Pearls are Made

To induce the oyster to make a pearl on command, a skilled technician inserts a tiny round bead. typically made of shell taken from an American freshwater mussel and a piece of mantle tissue from another oyster inside the host oyster's gonad.

This causes a pearl sack to form around the irritant bead. The sack begins to secrete nacre, coating the bead. After a period of time, a pearl is ready to be harvested.

Pearl Connoisseurs say the queen of cultured pearls, are the South Sea Pearls. Click Here For Information on South Sea Pearls.

As for Natural Pearls - an American skyscraper once exchanged hands for the price of a pearl necklace!

The most popular and convincing substitutes for natural pearls are the Akoya cultured pearls commonly seen in pearl necklace strands, earrings and solitaire rings.

Akoya pearls and Mikimoto cultured pearls are the specialty of Japanese pearl farms.

It took Mikimoto 10 years to find just the right Mikimoto pearls for this $1,000,000 Mikiomoto Pearl Necklace that you see here.

It set the record for the highest price ever paid for a cultured pearl necklace strand at $2.3 million, auctioned by Sotheby’s in 1992. The 17-inch strand had 23 pearls with diameters ranging from 16 to 20mm, and a bead-shaped platinum clasp of 60 round diamonds.

To give you a comparison, a 16 inch strand of white South Sea cultured pearls can retail for $40,000 to $50,000.

Click Here For Further Info About Grading Pearls. The size of the pearl has to do with the age and the type of the oyster that created the pearl (the more mature oysters produce larger pearls) and the location in which the pearl was cultured.

The best pearls are those that come from an oyster that dies after the pearl is removed. Oysters that do not die after the pearl has been extracted produce what are referred to as “Biwa” pearls. Generally but not always, Biwa pearls fetch a lower price.

How to Weigh a Pearl

How much does your bucket of pearls weigh? The measurement for weighing cultured pearls is the CARAT and the GRAIN and the MOMME. And in India Jewelry pearls may be weighed in CHAV; an India term for weighing pearls, we discovered from one of our visitors from incredible India.

The momme is an old Japanese measure of weight still used for all pearls. One momme is equal to 3.75 grams or 18.75cts.

The exception is the baroque pearls which are usually impossible to measure because of their irregularity. Consequently, baroque pearls are measured by sieve.

A rare type of pearl is produced by the abalone and are called Abalone Pearls. These pearls are not cultured though, but are natural pearls and are highly collectible because they are natural and often come in unusual shapes and have unique tints.

Click Here to Find Out How To Care For Pearls.

Saltwater & Freshwater Pearls

Cultured freshwater pearls (CFWP) is another type of pearl altogether and is causing a lot of excitement in the pearling industry at present.

Of all the natural saltwater pearls, South Sea pearls are the most rare and for some collectors, the most revered. Born when a foreign particle makes its way into a host oyster, in the pristine salt waters where the temperature is gentle and the atmosphere nurturing, this pearl with a strange perfection bears the fingerprints of forever.

Photo by Courtesy:

www.adin.be

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