Pearls

The sun is shining and the temperature is starting to rise- it must be June!

June is the start of the summer and the start of the wedding season- so it seems very appropriate that the birthstone for the month is Pearl. This beautiful gem is unique in so many ways;  Diamonds, Emeralds and  every other stone that you see in our Gem window- have all been enhanced in some way, mainly by cutting and polishing the gemstone to  make sure that the beauty of the stone is shown off. Pearls are not like that, they are not crystalline, they are organic. We open a mollusc and there they are- beautiful and unique. Of course, this refers to natural pearls which are rare and expensive. Most pearls in jewellers windows are either cultured or cultured freshwater – still natural, but helped along by man’s ingenuity………..

A natural pearl is made when some grit or an irritant gets into an oyster or mussel. To protect itself the mollusc coats the irritant with nacre (a beautiful substance with a unique lustre). 

A cultured pearl is produced when a mother of pearl bead & a piece of mantle tissue is inserted into the mantle tissue of another oyster. This stimulates the host oyster into covering it with pearly nacre and the resultant pearl is usually perfectly round. The quality of the pearl is judged by the depth of nacre which depends how on long it is left inside the mollusc, and the colour, which can vary from white, through slightly rose or greenish tints to creamy yellow.

In the case of a cultured freshwater pearl, only a piece of mantle tissue is inserted into the host oyster, which is of a different species of mollusc. The resultant pearl is often less spherical and somewhat ‘potato’ shaped and also tends to be less lustrous than a cultured pearl.

Sales of pearl jewellery are often targeted at women, however there is a wide range of Mother of Pearl set jewellery available for men; from cufflinks, to tie pins and pens set with Mother of Pearl detailing.  Why not browse our online store at www.gatwardsofhitchin.co.uk or pop in to Gatwards of Hitchin to see our collection of pearl jewellery.