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The sparkling beauty of a strand of pearls has held the attention of brides for millennia. The ancient Greeks believed pearls would promote marital bliss and prevent newlywed women from crying. During the Crusades in the Middle Ages, pearls were the gift of choice for a knight to give to his lady. During the 14th and 15th centuries, royal wedding scenes closely resembled a sea of pearls. Everyone from the bride down to her male guests adorned with impressive pearl jewelry is a specific type of sea mollusk or oyster that produces a Natural Pearl. Available in an infinite variety of colors, depending on the variety of oysters, the water temperature, the presence of minerals in the seawater, the degree of salinity, the choice of the mantle added during the culturing process. Pearls, like any other products of nature, are never exactly alike. Although the thought of it as basically round, actually only about one percent is perfectly round. Pearls are available in an infinite variety of shapes, from the irregularly shaped Baroque, Biwa and Mabe to the more round natural and cultured pearl.

Cultured

Baroque

Biwa

Mobe

Abalone

Button

South Seas/Tahitian

A cultured pearl is grown in a mollusk/oyster that has been surgically implanted with an irritant known as the nucleus. Cultured pearls are genuine pearls as cultivated by man accounting for their uniformity in both size and shape. Most of the world's cultured pearl production occurs primarily in Japan, Australia, and the South Seas. A specific type of sea oyster produces a Natural Pearl. Available in an infinite variety of colors, depending on the variety of oysters, the water temperature, the presence of minerals in the seawater, the degree of salinity, and in the case of a cultured pearl, the choice of the mantle added during the culturing process.
Pearls, like any other products of nature, are never exactly alike. Although the thought of it`s as basically round, actually only about one percent is perfectly round. Pearls are available in an infinite variety of shapes, from the irregularly shaped Baroque, Biwa and Mabe to natural abalone and cultured pearl.

Baroque pearls are simply pearls that have an irregular shape. Cultured freshwater pearls are most commonly baroque because freshwater pearls are mantle-tissue nucleated instead of bead nucleated. Thus these pearls are rarely perfectly spherical and can appear oval or ovoid. Akoya pearls can also be baroque, but the Akoya pearl's baroque shape differs from a freshwater pearl. This is because Akoya pearls are bead-nucleated; they have a perfectly spherical bead within. So if a harvested Akoya pearl turns out to be baroque, it has a small tail that comes to a sharp point behind a rounded front. In other words, it is teardrop-shaped. The most valuable of baroque pearls are the South Sea and Tahitian pearls. These pearls are produced by the Pinctada margaritifera and the Pinctada maxima (black-lipped oysters and white-lipped oysters). Although these are a variety of cultured saltwater pearls, the amount of time that the pearls are cultured dramatically increases the depth of the nacre and the likelihood of producing a baroque pearl. Most Tahitian pearl farm harvests, for example, produce more than 40 percent baroque and semi-baroque pearls.

A pearl is a hard, roundish object produced within the soft tissue living as a shelled mollusk. Like the shell, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes of pearls (baroque pearls) occur. The finest quality natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries. Because of this, the word pearl became a metaphor for something scarce, very fine, very admirable, and very valuable. Almost any shelled mollusk can, by natural processes, produce some "pearl" when an irritating microscopic object becomes trapped within the mollusk's mantle folds. But virtually none of these pearls are valued as gemstones.

A dome-shaped cultured pearl cultivated on the inner shell of a mollusk rather than in its body. An assemblage of a cultured half-pearl and mother-of-pearl available in round, oval, and pear shapes.

A naturally cultivated pearl from an Abalone, which is a univalve mollusk.

The flat bottom is A dome-shaped pearl with a flat bottom.

South Sea cultured pearls are of impeccable quality. They are silvery-white in color. Smooth, large, and lustrous-these pearls are pretty desirable. These are usually 13.0 mm in size and have a round shape and flawless surface. However, slightly spotted ones with medium luster are available. These pearls come from the rare and gigantic Pinctada maxima oyster. Thus, cultivating these pearls is a difficult task, making them expensive. Tahitian pearls are "black" pearls. Their color ranges from metallic silver to graphite gray. They usually have blue, purple, and green overtones. These great pearls are about 13.0 mm, round, have a silky smooth surface, and are highly lustrous. Since these pearls are cultivated from the rare and sensitive black-lipped variety of the Pinctada maxima, they are costly. Nevertheless, extraordinary.

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