Posted by
wholesale122 on Monday, November 09, 2009 3:12:13 AM
Choosing Pearls
A few things to keep in mind when buying pearls (whether as earrings, bracelets or necklaces):
- There are no international standard for
cultured akoya pearl grading or rating pearls;
size AA pearls in the United States may well be different in Europe or
the Far East;
- Quality factors for pearls are lustre, nacre thickness, size, shape, colour, blemish, and matching on the strand;
- If you’re buying seawater pearls, the thickness of
cultured pearl jewelry the nacre (or the
material which makes up the pearl) is important to stop flaking and
chipping;
- Bear in mind that pearls, even ‘cultured’ ones, are a natural product
– which means that there are no truly ‘perfect’ pearls. The only
‘perfect’ pearls you’ll find are probably fake, so expect some
imperfections even on the most expensive pieces;
- Naturally colored pearls will have small differences in shade along the strand.
Pearls were long known as the Queen of Gems, probably because of the difficulty of finding – and collecting – similarly sized gems of equal quality. Roman and Egyptian records mentioned pearls as prized items as far back as the 5th Century, B.C.; Chinese records go back even further.
The color of pearls varies with the
freshwater pearl necklace oyster (or mollusk) in which it was formed, as well as its environment. Colors of natural pearls range from black to white, of which the rose color of Indian pearls is the most prized, as well as delicate shades of yellow, cream, lavender, gray, green, mauve, and blue. Cultured pearls, however, are being made in all colors of the rainbow