{"id":1493,"date":"2018-10-18T15:26:27","date_gmt":"2018-10-18T15:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pearlescence.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1493"},"modified":"2018-10-19T09:29:10","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T09:29:10","slug":"n","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pearlescence.co.uk\/blog\/a-to-z-of-pearls-all-you-need-to-know-well-all-we-know-anyway\/n\/","title":{"rendered":"N"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nacre<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

is composed of hexagonal platelets of aragonite ( a type 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. A freshwater pearl is made up of many layers of nacre and no bead.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n


The layers of nacre can be clearly seen in this freshwater <\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

solid nacre pearl which has split open<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Natural<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n

A pearl which is ‘wild’ ie one which has grown without any human activity or intervention is called a natural pearl. Natural pearls are very rare these days and so command high prices. There are still several wild colonies of freshwater mussels Margaritifera margaritifera<\/em> in the UK and they are protected by law under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Selling a UK natural pearl needs a licence. These molluscs can live for over 100 years. The earliest reference in Britain to freshwater mussels is by Julius Caesar’s biographer, Suetonius, who stated that Caesar’s admiration of pearls was a reason for the first Roman invasion in 55BC. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nacre is composed of hexagonal platelets of aragonite ( a type 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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[331],"tags":[392,393,389,241,388,391,390],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pearlescence.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pearlescence.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pearlescence.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pearlescence.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pearlescence.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1493"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pearlescence.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1547,"href":"https:\/\/www.pearlescence.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493\/revisions\/1547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pearlescence.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pearlescence.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pearlescence.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}