Jewelry Care Resources Directory

How are Pearls Formed?


People use pearls for jewelry even though a pearl is not made out of a crystal or metal. Unlike a diamond or gold, pearls are formed and found in a living animal. Many people think that a pearl is made only in an oyster, but in reality pearls can also be formed and found in clams and mussels, but that is pretty rare. Oysters can produce pearls in both fresh and salt water. How does the oyster form a pearl, well here it is. Oysters normally have their shells open, unless it is threatened.

The way an oyster forms its pearl is when a tiny form object enters its shell. What the oyster does automatically after that is to cover up that tiny object that entered it shell because it will irritate it. When covering up that irritation he is also protecting itself. The mantle will cover the irritation with layers of the same nacre that is used to create its shell. This tiny object eventually turns into a pearl. Pearls are priced by its roundness, the rounded pearls are the move valuable ones. Not all pearls are round, the pearls that do not come out round are called baroque pearls.

Maybe people think that there are only two colors for pearls, and that those are white and black. This is wrong. There are six different colors for pearls and those are white, black, gray, red, blue and green. You can find pearls all over the world, but the black pearls are indigenous in the South Pacific. To determine the quality and worth of your pearl there are six main factors that you need to consider and keep in mind. Those are nacre, luster, surface, shape, color and size.

The amount of nacre on the pearl determines how valuable your pearl is. When the object enters the oyster and the oyster starts to nacre the dirt, the nacre gives the smoothness of the pearl. The thicker the layer of the pearls nacre the more valuable your pearl is.

Good quality Akoya pearls should have a nacre thickness of approximately 10-15% of the diameter of the pearl, in comparing pearls from Tahiti those pearls may have up to 50% nacre. So getting a pearl from Tahiti with 50% of nacre on it will be more expensive. In lustering, your pearl will have a glow that normally comes from within the pearl. This glow is produced by the light that is entering the pearl and reflected back through the layers of nacre.

A good pearl should allow you to see your reflexion in the pearl and a dull color means a poor quality pearl. Because like most other gem jewelry pearls come from mother nature. Most pearls have a few blemishes or marks on the surface of your pearl. Most pearls are round shaped but on rare occasions which is about 5-10% of pearls that are harvest will be considered baroque pearls. Color of a pearl does not really affect the price of a pearl.

The size of a pearl can range from 1mm to 20mm and these pearls come from South Sea. Cultured pearls range from 6 – 7.5mm and these pearls are most common. If a pearl is over the 6 – 7.5mm the price of your pearl will go up with each half millimeter from 7.5mm. The largest recorded pearl found in the South Sea is 26.95mm.

 

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