Pearls, Pearls, Pearls…Pearls!

It doesn't get much more classic than pearls. These popular keepsakes manage to be dainty & sweet, yet bold at the same time. Freshwater cultured pearls are the most commonly produced pearls & they are one of the most popular pearl types among shoppers and jewelry designers. 

We want to deliver quality pearls at great value for our customers. That is why we produce all our beautiful jewelry using cultured pearls, sourced from suppliers with high quality standards.

Pearls are the result of a biological process within living sea creatures like an oyster as it protects itself from foreign substances. An oyster has two shells. Inside the shells, there is an organ called mantle. Mantle covers and protects all of the internal organs of the oyster. Whenever any foreign substance like a grain of sand or a parasite makes its way into the oyster & gets stuck in between the shell & mantle, the mantle’s natural reaction is to cover that foreign substance to protect the oyster’s internal organs. For this , the mantle secretes a mineral called nacre around the foreign substance in layers. Over time, layer upon layer of nacre(mother of pearl) leads to the formation of a pearl.

The growth of natural pearls form in the bodies, or mantle tissue, of certain mollusks, usually around a microscopic irritant, & always without human help of any kind.

The growth of cultured pearls requires human intervention & care. Today, most of the mollusks used in the culturing process are raised specifically for that purpose, although some wild mollusks are still collected & used. Since pearl-formation is a natural process of pearl oysters, the type of oyster can greatly influence the pearl's color, shape, size & even luster.

There are five main varieties of pearls: Akoya, FreshWater, Tahitian, White & Golden South Sea, Sea of Cortez.

The color of the pearl depends on the color of the inside of the shell it comes from. The classic familiar colors are white & cream. The palette of pearl colors extends to every hue: blue, gray, yellow, green, pink or orange hues; even black. The soft overtones of those colors also show the iridescent phenomenon known as orient. It is a myth that all pearls are round - in fact, there are five primary pearl shapes: round,  semi-round, drop, baroque, & circle baroque. The word ‘baroque’ comes from the Portuguese term barroco which meant imperfect, coarse or uneven pearl. Pearls can range in size between 1mm-21mm, depending on the rate in which the mollusk produces nacre & can take anywhere between 6 months to 4 years to form.