We hand select all our pearls from responsible pearl farms from around the world.

 

THE GRADING OF PEARLS

Pearls are the result of millions of years of evolution of certain mollusc families. They are formed when a mollusc, an oyster or mussel, is invaded by a foreign substance be it a small piece of grit or parasite. The mollusc will then immediately start to build a natural defence, by secreting a calcium carbonate substance referred to as ‘Nacre’ around the offending item. Over several years, the build-up of nacre forms a natural pearl which are often very irregular and small.

Cultured pearls are still real pearls, grown organically inside a mollusc through the science gained over the last 150 years primarily by introducing a bead nucleus into the mollusc’s pearl sac by a technician on a pearl farm as opposed to relying on the natural irritant that is responsible for the pearl growth in nature. These culturing techniques are now used in 99% of pearls on the market and such pearls are given the name cultured so one can distinguish them from natural pearls.

Like most Gemstones, Pearls are graded internationally.

Pearl terms and what to look for:

LUSTRE

Put simply this is the most important quality grade of a Pearl. It describes the brightness and shimmer projected from the pearl.

SURFACE QUALITY

This describes the appearance of the pearl skin. Being organic all pearls have some degree of surface blemishes. These natural imperfections are quite acceptable, even desirable. The highest grade of pearls often exhibit virtually blemish free surfaces.

SHAPE

Pearls come in a variety of different shapes. The most difficult and hence more expensive to acquire is a perfect round. Other renowned shapes are rice, baroque, coin, tear drop and potatoe.

COLOUR

At my-pearl, our jewellery is made using natural colour white, pink, and peach pearls. We also offer most offer our designs in treated Peacock and silver grey pearl colour. These two treated colours are accepted by the international pearl trade. They are achieved by a combined technique of silver nitrate and heat treatment processes which dyes the entire pearl body and is a permanent colour alteration that will not fade or change.

Here at my-pearl we do not use any surface dyed pearls which can often suffer from colour bleed and are generally a poor commercial grade.

SIZE

The larger the pearl the greater the growth period and hence the greater the investment from the pearl farm.

Pearls generally range in size from 2mm through to 22+mm.

As pearls exceed 10mm in diameter the grade of the pearl is much harder to maintain.