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| Pearl A - Z |
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Akoya--A pearl from the akoya oyster (Pinctada Fucata Martensii). This is a salt water mollusc. Most cultured sea pearls are akoya pearls which are made with a bead nucleus, so that they usually have a good round shape. Any irregularities tend to be tails. They also tend to have a good lustre. Smaller (under 8mm) akoya pearls tend to come from China while Japanese akoya pearl farmers are concentrating on producing larger high quality pearls (made-up necklaces marked Made In Japan may have been made with Chinese pearls if under 8mm) Akoya pearls are harvested after only 9-16 months.
Abalone blue pearls – just being developed in New Zealand. The abalone produces a distinctive and stunningly irridescent blue pearl but is very hard to nucleate as its blood does not clot, so any damage will kill it
Baroque -Baroque pearls strictly all non-round pearls but the term is usually applied to pearls which are not round but which nevertheless have a good rounded surface all over. shape. Freshwater pearls are most commonly baroque as freshwater pearls are mantle-tissue nucleated instead of bead nucleated. So the pearls are almost never round, although more are being produced round.
The most valuable baroque pearls are South Sea and Tahitian pearls which are produced by Black-lipped and White-lipped oysters (Pinctada margaritifera, and the Pinctada maxima ). Commercial baroque pearls tend to be bigger pearls – there is a balancing act for the pearl farmer between leaving the pearl in the mollusc with the chance of a big round pearl and the likelihood that the pearl will go out of round and become baroque and therefore less valuable
Biwa- or sometimes biwi-A freshwater pearl grown in lake Biwi in Japan. Not in the present as the pearl farms were closed due to pollution. Now often applied to any stick pearl
Blister--A pearl that are attached to the inner surface of a mollusc shell
Button – a roundish pearl which has been squashed in – anything from an oblate spheroid like planet Earth to something which is close to a coin pearl. Often rounded on one side and flat on the other. Sometimes also called a fastener pearl
Colour. Natural pearls tend to be shades of white through to pale pinks and peaches. The intensity of the colour depends on the species and strain of host mollusc plus the farm water and food. There are now many very brightly coloured pearls available also. These are dyed.
Coin – usually a round flat pearl shaped like a coin, also used to describe fancy hearts, squares, lozenge and other shaped pearls
Cross – the cross can be diagonal or cruxifix. Some cross pearls which had formed nacre between the limbs have been sold as butterfly pearls
Cultured--A pearl formed after a human puts a bead nucleus or mantle tissue into a mollusc. Any farmed pearl is cultured. Any real pearl feels faintly gritty when rubbed gently on your teeth and the drill hole tends to be very small (because pearls used to be sold by weight)
Faux Pearl--A false pearl bead manufactured by coating the inside of a hollow glass sphere or the outside of a solid glass or plastic sphere with a pearlescent coating which is sometimes pearl powder. Faux is a fancy word for fake. Also called shell pearls. They are of course perfectly round in shape, with great lustre and even colour. White shell pearls are very white, which is a give-away. All fake pearls feel smooth when rubbed on the teeth and the drill holes tend to be larger.
Freshwater--A pearl grown in a freshwater river, lake or pond margaritifera mollusk. Often more irregular in shape and more varied in colour than salt water pearls
reshwater mollusks are nucleated by creating a small incision in the fleshy mantle tissue and inserting a piece of mantle tissue from another oyster. This process may be completed 25 times on either side of the mantle, producing up to 50 pearls at a time. The mollusks are then returned to their freshwater environment where they are tended for 2-6 years. The resulting pearls are of solid nacre, but without a bead nucleus to guide the growth process, the pearls are rarely round.
Gold-lip oyster--A large oyster (variety of Pinctada maxima) used in some countries to produce South Sea cultured pearls; it produces a yellowish nacre, and pearls that typically range from off-white to rich, deep gold in colour.
Half-drilled--A pearl which has only been partly drilled, as for rings or stud earrings. These sell for more than those which are fully drilled. The best have a flawless domed side.
Irradiation has differing effects from freshwater to saltwater cultured pearls. The gamma rays do not affect the nacre layers of a saltwater cultured pearl, but in fact darken the nucleus of the pearl. An irradiated saltwater pearl appears to be gray or blue. The nacre of freshwater irradiated pearls, on the other hand, if affected by the gamma rays and can become very dark. Some of these freshwater treated pearls will also have an intense metallic sheen and iridescent orient over their surface.
Keishi or Keshi--Japanese word meaning "something as tiny as you can imagine", such as a grain of sand; used originally for very tiny gems that resulted by accident as part of the culturing process; now used to refer to all-nacre baroque pearls produced when something goes wrong in the process of culturing so that the seeding nucleus is ejected from the half formed pearl.
South Sea keshi pearls can be very large; Japanese keshi pearls can be miniscule. The shape ranges from resembling a cornflake (so they are also called cornflake pearls) to something more like a slighly deflated balloon. Because they are made of all nacre with no nucleus they tend to have fabulous lustre
Lustre--The radiance of a pearl. The greater the lustre the greater the value. High lustre gives almost mirror-like reflections.
mabe--A blister pearl which has been hollowed out and filled with a substance and backing. Mabe pearls are often made into earrings A mabe is a hemispherically shaped pearl which is grown against the inside of the oyster's shell, rather than within its tissue Blister pearls are worked by cutting the pearl out of the shell with a circle-bit drill. The nucleus is then removed and replaced with a resin. The back of the pearl is capped with a piece of mother-of-pearl to complete the mabe pearl.
Majorica pearl--A high-quality fake pearl manufactured in Spain by Majorica, S.A. These nuclei are dipped in high quality essence d’orient ( varnish made up of the scales from bleak, shad, herring and salmon. 2,000 fish make one litre of essence, which is an organic substance similar to uric acid.)
Nacre is composed of layers of calcium carbonate (in a crystalline form) and conchiolin (an organic protein substance which provides bonding). The specific lustre, iridescence, and colouring of nacre -- and, therefore, of any pearl which it forms -- depends on the number and thickness of the various layers, as well as on whether or not the layers overlap one another.
Parure--A matched set of jewellery, which might include earrings, a necklace, brooches, rings, and other pieces.
Peanut – a peanut pearl is formed when two nuclei in a seeded pearl stick and then grow together to make something which resembles the shell of a peanut
Pearlescence--Resembling pearl or mother-of-pearl in iridescence and lustre (or, of course, an excellent source of all things pearl)
Potato – any mis-shapen pearl is a potato pearl because it resembles a potato
Popcorn pearls are pearls of any shape on which the surface nacre has a granulated appearance so that they look like fresh popcorn
Rice – oval shaped pearls
Round – the more perfectly round a pearl is, the more valuable. A good quick way to assess roundness is to gently roll a strand of pearls. Irregularities will show easily to the eye
Seed pearls--Tiny naturals weighing under 1/4 grain, usually less than 2mm
Shape
The rounder the pearl, however, the more valuable it is.
Size Generally, the bigger the pearl the more valuable, however a smaller more perfectly formed round pearl will be more valuable than a big baroque one
South Sea cultured pearls: Large South Sea cultured pearls (up to 13 mm), farmed in Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, range in colour from white to black. They can have a perfectly round to slightly asymmetrical shape and medium to high lustre Price varies depending on lustre. South Sea pearls are harvested after at least 2 years. unique, satiny lustre that comes from the rapidly deposited nacre and warm waters of the South Seas. South Sea pearls also have a subtle array of colours, typically white, silver, and golden,
Stick – any long thin and stick or twig like pearl, They can be drilled at the top or middle and through the wider or narrower faces to produce different looks.
Surface. The smoother and more perfect the surface of a pearl, the higher the value
Tahitian pearls are produced by the black-lipped oyster (Pinctada margaritifera) in the islands of French Polynesia. The oyster itself is quite large -- sometimes up to 12 inches across and weighing as much as 10 pounds -- which often results in much larger-than-average pearls. The pearls are unique because of their natural dark colours. Most "black" Tahitian pearls are not actually black, but are instead gray, silver, charcoal, or similar shades. Truly black pearls are extremely rare.
Top drilled asymmetrically drilled pearls, often oval. If strung un-knotted they tend to move around against each other on the silk and then are called dancing pearls |
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