Pearls: The Queen of Gems

Caring for your Pearls

The number one care tip we can give is that you must always remember that your pearls are organic and soft in gem terms. The surface of Nacre can be worn-down with constant rubbing or by chemical reaction to perfumes and creams.

Put your perfume on first before your pearls, hand cream before your rings etc.

After use wipe with soft damp cloth.             

Store your pearls in the boxes or pouches provided when you bought them, don't let them rub up against harder jewels in a drawer or box.

Periodically inspect and replace if necessary the 'string'. All strands should be knotted in case of accidental breakage.

Pearl Quality

Pearls are graded according to several characteristics- lustre, shape, colour, surface and size.

Lustre

The quality of a pearl's nacre gives the lustrous quality for which pearls are known.

Lustre depends on the quality of care given to the pearl in its early growing stages. The better the care the better the pearl.

A low luster will appear milky, whilest a high lustre will reflect light well, and show mirror like reflections.

Shape

Pearls come in a variety of shapes, the rounder the pearl the more valuable it is, the baroque or off-round shapes have become more popluar today, which puts the price of pearls with in the budget of a larger market. 

Round is generally the more expensive. A round pearl is symmetrical and will roll in a straight line, only a small percentage will be a true round shape. There are terms such as "near round", "off round" and "potato" all used to indicate that the pearl is "roundish".

Semi-baroque covers shapes of pearls, which are neither "round or "off round", they would include button, drop, rondelles and oval.

Baroque is a general term for an irregular shape, whilest they are less expensive, some, can be more valuable than round pearls.

Colour

Pearls come in a wide range of colours, many are dyed to suit fashion. Natural colours include the whites, creams, pinks, lilac, silver and gold shades, not forgetting the black Tahitian pearls.

Aswell as the body colour of the pearl, the more expensive will have colour overtones, a white pearl may have pale pink or silver overtones.