The beauty of the pearl is known to most people all over the world. Among other meanings the pearl is June’s birthstone. Anyone with a birthday in June or people who know some Taurus’ and Cancers might have an idea, but the general public has pretty much always thought that the birthstone of June is that purple stone everybody wears.
Alexandrite, is the alternate birthstone for June and while gorgeous, doesn’t have all the elegance and versatility of the pearl.
The pearl is enjoying a comeback thanks to being worn by a whole host of celebrities, such as Rihanna, Demi Moore, Katherine Heigl, and Kristen Bell to name a few. And it’s one of those trends that isn’t really a trend because everybody has pearls, whether they’re real or fake, an accent or the focus, single strand of matched pearls or funky multistrand of amazing colors.
A little bitty lesson on the difference between natural and cultured pearls:
A natural pearl actually begins as a foreign object, such as a piece of sand, caught inside an oyster’s inner body. The oyster goes into defensive action and secretes a substance called nacre around this foreign object (irritant) to protect itself. The oyster will continue to secrete nacre around the irritant, adding layer upon layer, to produce a pearl.
Natural pearls are extremely rare — in every 10,000 oysters, you might be lucky to find a single natural pearl. Just recently, a double-strand of 68 perfect natural pearls, known as the ”Baroda Pearls,” was auctioned at Christie’s Auction House for $7 million. Because of this scarcity, most pearls today are cultured pearls.
Cultured pearls are still actual pearls, sharing the same properties of natural pearls and growing organically inside of oysters in the same fashion as natural pearls. The only difference is a person carefully implants the irritant, a small piece of polished shell, in the oyster, rather than leaving it to chance. However, it’s still up to nature to create the miraculous beauty of a pearl.
Cultured pearls can be from saltwater or freshwater mollusks. Freshwater pearls are formed in freshwater mussels that live in lakes, rivers, ponds and other bodies of fresh water. Most freshwater cultured pearls sold today come from China. By contrast, saltwater pearls grow in oysters that live in the ocean, usually in protected lagoons, such as the Akoya, South Sea and Tahitian pearls.
Cultured and South Sea Pearl and Diamond Necklace
Kokichi Mikimoto patented the process of culturing pearls inside Akoya oysters in Japan in 1916. Once cultured pearls were developed and offered to the public in the 1920s, the “pearl craze” began — everyone wanted them, could afford them, and wore them. Because the culturing process occurs over several years, a perfect balance of conditions is required for the aquaculture, or growth in water, of pearls. It takes more than 800,000 oyster hours to grow cultured pearls considered of “high quality.” Japan dominated the industry until China became the leading producer of cultured pearls in the 1980s.
