A pearl is a hard, rounded object produced by certain animals, primarily mollusks such as pearl oysters. Pearls can be used in jewelry and also crushed in cosmetics or paint formulations. Pearls are valued as a gemstone and are cultivated or harvested for jewelry. They are also the birthstone for the spring/summer month of June.
Irradiation is a treatment used in pearls, using gamma rays, which reacts in Freshwater Pearls to darken the layers of nacre on the pearl. Any of the brightly colored pearls you see on the market are, in fact, dyed. For that reason, we always recommend you thouroughly rinse your pearls in fresh water before stringing them. Once they are strung on silk do not submerge them in water, or the silk will stain.
History
For thousands of years, most seawater pearls were retrieved by divers working in the Indian Ocean, in areas like the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and Margarita off of Venezuela. Spanish conquistadors discovered an extensive bed of Margarita pearls, which are uniquely yellowish in color, off of the Venezuelan coast. One of them they called the Peregrina was offered to Spanish royalty, and later purchased by Richard Burton for his wife Elizabeth Taylor. A Margarita necklace was given by Venezuelan President Romulo Betancourt to Jaqueline Kennedy when she and her husband, President John F. Kennedy, visited Venezuela.
Diving for pearls in a natural bed is quite an undertaking. Divers would manually retrieve oysters from ocean floors, individually checking them for pearls. In a haul of three tons, only three or four oysters might produce a perfect pearl.
Almost all pearls used for jewelry today are cultured by planting a core into pearl oysters. The pearls are harvested after one year for Akoya, two to four years for Tahitian and South Sea pearls, and two to seven years for feshwater pearls. This way of making pearls was developed in Japan. The first successfully produced commercial crop of pearls was produced after years of experimentation and research in 1928. Both Japan and China produced pearls this way for years, even using an oyster that was a hybrid of oysters from both countries.
Freshwater Pearls
Other countries that have in recent times produced freshwater pearls include Australia, Burma, the United States, Fiji. They are characterized by the rainbow iridescence in their luster.
Imitation Pearls
Many of those in the jewelry and beading industry sought a cost-effective supply of beads that looked like pearls with their qualities of durability and luster. A company in Austria by the name of Swarovski successfully manufactured such a pearl. Being manufactured, the size, color and shape are virtually endless. The special coatings on the pearls are lead-free, resistant to perfume, sun rays, perspiration and wear. They come in pear shape and round, and asymmetrical (freshwater look) and range from 3 mm to 12 mm, and colors include mystic black, Tahitian look, peach and rosaline.
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