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Pearl Earrings

June 22nd, 2009
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Pearl Earrings

Whether it is your mother, sister, daughter, aunt, wife, or girlfriend, giving gifts such as pearl earrings can relay the perfect message to any or all of those members of your life or family.

There are four main types of pearls that you can consider and look for while shopping for your gift, such as Freshwater, Akoya, South Sea, and Tahitian pearls.  Each of these types of pearls are unique in their own way, and you should consider the type of pearl when preparing to purchase a set of pearl earrings for your loved ones.

Freshwater Pearls

These pearls come from freshwater mussels, and they are not distinctly round in a variety of colors.  Most believe that these types of pearls are exactly round and white in color, but this is not always the case. There are close to 31 states that have freshwater pearls available for production.

Akoya Pearls

These pearls come from akoya oysters that can be found in Asia.  Their default color is white, but they can be a cream, rose, or silver color also.  They are also smaller than most pearls, ranging from 2 to 11 millimeters in size and are distinctively round.

South Sea Pearls

These pearls are much larger in size than the others above because the creature producing the pearl can grow to be quite large also.  They come from an oyster called Pinctada maxima.  The range on the size of these pearls is anywhere between 9 to 20 millmeters, and the colors range from white, gold, and silver that is much different from the other types of pearls.

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Pearl Earrings

June 21st, 2009
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When you think of classic jewelry for yourself, your mother, or grandmother, pearls always come to mind. There is something so timeless about pearls. Whether it was Jackie O wearing them with a sweater set, or Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The simplest way to wear pearls is by dressing up your ear lobes with a gorgeous set of pearl earrings.

Pearls are an unique piece of jewelry because they are completely organic, being produced from a tiny piece of grit or sand that has made its way into a clam or oyster. Because pearls come from so many different of these mollusks, they are classified by their origin and shapes. Pearl come from four different locations, natural, cultured, freshwater, and saltwater pearls. Because of the rarity of pearls, they are quite expensive and are usually sold by carat weight. Due to the cost of pearls, most pearls in today’s market are considered to be vintage pearls.

The shape of the pearl should also be taken into consideration when choosing your new pearl earrings. They come in spherical, symmetrical and baroque shapes. The rounder the pearl shape, the more desirable and the more expensive thus making the spherical pearls the most expensive you can find.

Symmetrical pearls are not as expensive as the spherical pearls. They include the pear shaped pearls and those that have symmetry from one side to the next but are not round.

Baroque pearls are the most affordable of all pearls because they are irregularly shaped. If you are looking for pearl earrings that are unique, these can be your best bet as they all vary from one pearl to the next but are just as beautiful. Baroque pearls are as unique as the person who is receiving them.

Pearl earrings are a great gift for any occasion such as a wedding present, a birthday, Mother’s Day, or as a heirloom to be passed down for generations to come.

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Pearl Necklaces

June 15th, 2009
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A pearl necklace is a hard object that is created within the shell of a mollusk. it is made up of calcium carbonate in a crystalline mineral form. The usual pearl is perfectly round, but sometimes a baroque pearl can be found. Although pearls can be found in freshwater areas, pearls from the sea tend to cost more.

In more modern times, pearls are harvested, and some are just cheap, inexpensive imitation pearl necklaces. The natural ones, found in the sea, are very rare. Even more rare are natural ones of gemstone quality, which are almost always iridescent and/or nacreous. Centuries ago, a pearl necklace would belong most likely to someone of royal descent.

The rarity of gemstone quality pearls makes them ridiculously expensive when compared to the cultured ones. The difference between natural and cultured pearls is seen when carrying out an X-ray examination. Cultured pearls, when compared in X-rays with a natural pearl, reveal that the nucleus of the pearl is “pre-formed” or planted inside it to make it look like a natural pearl to the naked eye. The natural also has concentric growth rings while the cultured pearl has a purely solid center.

Pearl necklaces are especially popular today, but a great deal of them are harvested pearls. The value of a natural pearl can be determined in the same way you would determine the value of another precious gem — quality of surface, shape, size, luster and orient. There is a very small number of stranded, matching pearl necklaces that exist. The largest provider of “fake” pearls at the moment is china, closely followed by Japan, although the entirety of this industry has had to mostly cease it’s production due to pollution.

There are three famous ways a person could wear a pearl necklace: the “collar” way, where the necklace sits right against the throat, the “choker” way, which are at the base of the neck, and the “princess” way, where it is located just below the collarbone. The word “pearl” could be used to describe something very rare, and for a good reason.

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