Single Freshwater Pearl Necklace with Cubic Zirconia 9K Yellow Gold

Pearl Guide

June's birthstones is the pearl, representing wisdom through experience. It is said to facilitate engagements and love relationships. Pearls are used as love and healing charms to protect against fire and to ward off evil.

How Pearls are Valued

There is no industry-wide grading system for Pearls.  Generally, the value of pearls is determined by the following factors:

SIZE

Very little pearls (2-5 mm); bead pearls (5-5.5 mm); medium (5.5-6.5 mm); large (6.5-7.5 mm); extra large (7.5-8.5 mm) or super large (8.5 mm and up).  Just to put it in perspective a difference of only 1mm can double of triple the price of the pearl. The size of a pearl is determined by its diameter and is measured in millimeters.

NACRE

The thickness of the nacre depends on the growth period allowed for each pearl and its formation strongly influences the luster. If it is too thin then it looks dull and the value is low.

LUSTER

This depends on the translucence of nacre and the nacre layers.  The most desired luster is that of a mirror like glow.

SHAPE

Spherical or round pearls are the most valuable (all other factors being equal). However baroque pearls (irregularly shaped) can be valuable to some jewellery designers too.

COLOUR OVERTONE

Colour is influenced by the mollusk / Oyster itself and by the environment in which the mollusk lives. The main characteristics of colour are Body-colour and overtone.  Body-colour is the main color of the pearl. Overtone is the transparent colours that appear on the surface of the pearl.

SURFACE

Blemishes and other irregularities on the surface of the pearl influence its value.  The Pearls used by Diamond Treats are virtually surface clean which means that the pearl are very clean with very little blemishes.

Pearls are far from the simplistic natural gemstone that many take them to be, and in fact there are a range of differing pearls, which may each be farmed in a different way or naturally found, with each and every pearl subject to differing characteristics.  The overarching collection of pearls may be either Freshwater or Saltwater, depending upon where they are found or farmed. However beyond this there are Akoya, Tahitian, South Sea, Eyris or Baroque Shaped pearls.

Freshwater Pearls

Freshwater pearls are grown within lakes, rivers or ponds (which are mostly found within China). Whilst the majority of such pearls are white akoya type cultured pearls, they may also be farmed to specifically be another colour (which is generally a pastel). Finally, as they are freshwater farmed, they feature a nacre which is thicker than is found within akoya pearls.

Freshwater pearls are produced primarily in China, Japan & North America.  China has become the leader in this pearl type by developing new freshwater culturing techniques so nearly 96% of freshwater pearls today are produced in China with much higher quality, even making them comparable and indistinguishable from their saltwater cousins.

Freshwater pearls are normally available from 3mm to 11mm in size. 

Freshwater Pearls are very difficult to find completely round or near-round.  On average only 2% of Freshwater Pearls become round!

Saltwater Pearls

Saltwater pearls are, as their name would suggest, created naturally by oysters within seas around the world (most commonly within regions such as Thailand, Australia and Tahiti).  The akoya pearl is the most common of all saltwater pearls. They are near perfectly round, featuring a bright yet neutral colour and may be the stereotypical pearl that you would think of if asked to imagine a pearl necklace or set of pearl earrings.

What is the difference between 'Natural' and 'Cultured' pearls?

Many of our clients ask us what the difference is between 'Natural' and 'Cultured' pearls, and in fact the defining difference is simply a matter of where they’re farmed.  Natural pearls are, as you would assume, found naturally within the seas, most commonly within the Persian Gulf. However what is not so obvious is the fact that they have mostly already been discovered and are therefore incredibly rare (as well as expensive).  Cultured pearls are then, in comparison, grown within pearl farms, where pieces of mantle tissue or round beads are placed into molluscs to begin the natural process where layers of nacre form around the foreign body; at the end of this process there would then be a pearl.

Ten lesser known yet completely intriguing facts about pearls

1. Pearls are the only gemstone in the entire world that are created by living animals.
2. In America first year wedding anniversaries can warrant the giving of pearls, rather than paper.
3. Each and every pearl is entirely unique.
4. Periculture is the official term for pearl farming.
5. The earliest known pearl in history dates back to 520 BC and was found upon the sarcophagus of a Persian princess.
6. Pearls may naturally come in a range of shapes including round, button, drop, semi-round, pear, oval and baroque.
7. Pearls within nature are produced as a result of a damage or injury sustained by a mollusc.
8. Pearls consist mostly of calcium carbonate.
9. The word pearl originated from the Latin word for thigh bone.
10. The girl’s name ‘Pearl’ was the 628^th most popular in the UK in 2014.

Pearls: A few myths and misunderstandings:

1. Far from being just white or ivory in colour, pearls can appear in pink, black, purple and sometimes (although rarely) even gold, deriving their colouring from their inner shell.
2. It’s commonly but mistakenly believed that pearls form from a single grain of sand that enters an Oyster’s shell.
3. The earliest of all myths began in ancient China where they believed that pearls fell from the sky whenever dragons went into battle.
4. Chocolate coloured pearls do not, as many think, come from sick oysters. The colouring of a pearl is instead entirely dependent upon the natural colouring of the shell.
5. Many believe that pearls can only be found within oyster shells, when in fact that can come from a wide range of other molluscs, including clams and scallops.