Natural Pearls

Natural Pearls all have a lifetime, some lose their luster in ten years.... some in fifty years.....but the Pearl of soul, of beauty, those Pearls live Forever in the History of Pearls...

When people say, a string of pearls is perfectly matched, they think the pearls are matched for size and shape. Any jeweler's boy can match a pearl for size and shape. This is called, mathematics.

The secret is that you match Natural Pearls so that all the pearls in the string of pearls age at the same rate. That is not easy, if one pearl changes color before the rest, it decreases the value of the pearl necklace. Matching pearls is not a science but an art.

Because pearls are not very high on the Mohs Scale it is critical to store pearls away from all other types of jewelry and protected from any dust. All types of pearls, including bead nucleated Cultured Pearls, are allergic to dust! Dust contains tiny particles of quartz which is a mineral a lot harder on the Mohs hardness scale and over time the quartz in dust will scratch and age a pearl.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is said to favor pearls although she has some of the finest and rarest diamonds, rubies and sapphires.

The value of a pearl has become nearly all but lost. In the game of pearls today, it is more about how deceptively close one can cultivate a pearl to match the qualities of a true pearl.

Precious natural pearls have what is called Lasting Quality. Some pearls have a short life, others pearls last forever. And then you look for beauty.

Nobody can tell you what beauty is. A woman can be flawless, immaculate and have no soul. Such a woman is not beautiful. So it is with a pearl. It is in a pearl's soul wherein its' beauty lies.

Some people are born with an eye for a pearl. Even experience in the trade is not enough.

Some people have what others cannot learn, the gift of knowing. They are born with an eye for a pearl, as some people are born with a gift for music or art or touching the heart of a man or woman. "A novice has much to learn but that he cannot learn".

Gem Quality Pearls - One in A Million

From the list of gemstones on the earth, it is the natural wild pearls born of the sea, I find completely irresistible. Perfect at birth, its natural beauty needs no improvements.

The skin of of these cool flames glows rather than gleams and its' qualities are far more subtle than the cold surface of faceted gemstones.

From the brilliance of diamonds, the pink gemstones, even including the rare Argyle Pink Diamonds you turn to a string of natural Pearls with a sense of relief and the eye rests upon its' quite repose and its' soft white gleam.

While other precious gemstones receive careful treatment from the lapidary and owe much to his art, wild pearls, owe nothing to man; an absolute gift of mother nature.

Pearls are formed when, in an effort to protect itself from an intruder, the oyster coats the irritant with layers of nacre, also known as mother-of-pearl, the same substance it uses for shell building.

Formed for the same reason that Natural Abalone Pearls are formed when:

A foreign object, usually a parasitic organism, gets lodged inside the mollusk. Contrary to popular belief, it is never a grain of sand.

The supreme masterpiece of marine pearls are the Baroda Pearls formerly owned by the Maharaja of India and La Peregrina Pearl acquired by Richard Burton for Elizabeth Taylor who sadly passed away on March 23rd, 2011, aged 79 years.

Throughout the ages, pearls have been the common lingua-franca denoting purity and elegance. It's no wonder that cathartic pearls are the talisman wedding gem in classical mythology and the symbol for traditional 30th wedding anniversaries.

A Natural Pearl is a natural choice for a Promise Ring. Discover The Meaning of the Promise Ring...

If you're swooning over these incomparable 'pearls-par-excellence' then you may like to consider investing in Georgian jewelry. You may be lucky enough to find one or two natural pearls, among fine Antique Jewelry of the Georgian period.

Maybe you would like to know the best way of caring for pearls? Learn about caring for pearls Here!

Many love affairs with jewelry start with a good book. Looking for some good books on jewelry? The Pearl by John Steinbeck, was one of my text books, back in my old schools days and a love for natural pearls has just kept growing ever since.

Natural pearls are very rare and extremely valuable and whenever I get the chance to hold one of these little pearls in my hand, I feel quite privileged.

And what of the Big Pearls - such as the Giant Dubai Saltwater Pearl; the very rare aragonite pearl specimens, those types of pearls on the well..large size. See also the Arco Valley Pearl - The Second Largest Pearl in the World Here!

Natural Pearls and Beautiful Women

The famous painter, John Singer Sargent (b.1856) who painted wealthy belle Époque beauties, including the Duchess of Portland, (in the portrait above) certainly had an eye for pearls. He used seven brushstrokes, each stroke using pigment of a different color to create a realistic painting of a single round pearl white.

An earlier artist with an eye for Pearls, was the seventeenth-century Dutch master, Johannes Vermeer whose absolute masterwork, 'Girl With the Pearl Earring' captures the precise realism of the gem.

The actual body color or hue is no part of the connoisseurship equation, according to Richard W. Wise, author of "Secrets of the Gem Trade."

No particular hue or color is more beautiful than another. What Richard describes as Simpatico or Compatibility with the skin of the wearer, is what's important.

Identifying Natural Pearls isn't easy, and then grading natural pearls can be as simple as it is complex. Old- timers would look primarily at their Shape, Symmetry, Skin, and Complexion. Complexion is compared to a pearl's lustre. The luster and its delicate play of colors, depend upon the perfection of the pearl's surface.

The surface is not perfectly smooth. Under Jewelers Loupe magnification, preferably using a jewelers loupe 10 x you will see that the surface of this type of pearl is delicately rippled. The iridescence comes from the light striking up at different angles from the rippled layers.

The light, striking on these infinitesimal ripples refracts into a play of colors. It has no intrinsic color in itself. Its' delicate play of colors, depends upon the perfection of its surface, of the light reflection from the overlapping platelets of aragonite.

The oyster secretes the nacre which makes up the Pearl in layers, like the inside of an onion and the reflection from the buried surfaces through the outer transparent layers, determines the beauty of the stone.

The quality of the nacre depends on the positioning inside the shell. The choicest gems are mostly found in the softest parts of the oyster.

Latitude, metereology, sea conditions, nature of plankton of the surrounding area, soil of the ocean floor, genetic originality of its' mother and the health of the oyster determine the quality of a pearl.

Today, because of over-fishing and pollution, pearl stocks are depleted. Only about half a per cent of the world's pearls are natural. They change hands among private collectors. Most of these natural pearls are recycled from the past and tend to gravitate towards the world's treasuries. There are few natural pearls available on the open market.

See K.C. Bell, pearl expert, talking historic pearl...

Have You Seen The Jewel-of-the-Month Yet?

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