| Pearls, beautiful, lustrous, glowing pearls. And to think it | | | | Salt water is more expensive. |
| all started with a grain of sand. | | | | Colors range from white, yellow, pink, to gray. South |
| The mollusk, that' s oyster to you and me, opens it's | | | | Sea Pearls, sometimes called Tahitian pearls, are some |
| shell to pass fresh water over itself and snag tiny bits | | | | of the most expensive pearls. They are larger, |
| of food. Sometimes what it snags is a grain of sand or | | | | because the mollusk is larger, and the colors are |
| piece of shell. If the mollusk can't get rid of the bit of | | | | iridescent black, purple, and dark gray. The pearl looks |
| grit it begins to coat it with a substance it produces | | | | like a rainbow is playing against the dark surface. |
| called nacre. Coating the grain of sand makes it less | | | | Natural pearls are very expensive and difficult to find in |
| irritating. As time passes the grain is coated with many | | | | jewelry since the Japanese began culturing pearls. |
| layers of nacre. Eventually you end up with a lustrous | | | | Cultured pearls are simply oysters in an oyster bed |
| pearl. | | | | that has been seeded with a nucleus. |
| Not all pearls are gem quality. The pearl can be | | | | Good cultered pearls have been left in the oyster over |
| lopsided, have an irregular surface, or the coloring of | | | | several years to build up layers of the pearl. Cheap |
| the pearl is grayish instead of glistening. If the | | | | cultured pearls start with a much bigger seed core and |
| irregularity is only on one side and the pearl looks good | | | | then left in the oyster only long enough to gather a |
| otherwise it can be set in jewelery with the flaw at the | | | | few layers. Those layers can wear off. |
| back of the piece where it won't be noticed. | | | | The value of a pearl is based on 5 factors: cleanliness, |
| Pearls can be from fresh water or salt water mollusks. | | | | shape, luster and orient, and color. |