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June
Highly valued as a romantic and famous gemstone, pearls are recognized for their timeless beauty and elegance. Pearls are the only gems created by a living creature and are characterized by their translucence and lustre and by a delicate play of surface colour called orient. Natural pearls are found inside oyster shells and are created by sand particles that act as an irritant. The oyster covers this irritation with layers of mother of pearl, which slowly builds up to create a smooth rounded lustrous mass. Cultured pearls are made exactly in the same way except that man deliberately puts the irritant inside the oyster shell. After 5-7 years, the oysters are retrieved and the pearls are harvested. They come in a bewildering array of shapes and colours. Different colours are achieved by adding different nutrients to their environment. Shapes include round, drop, oval, button, semi-round & baroque. Some breeds of mollusc tend to produce particular pearl colours. Black and Gold South Sea pearls are highly prized. Irregularly shaped pearls are known as baroque pearls. A blister pearl is a pearl that developed attached to the inside of a mollusc’s shell. This type of pearl must be cut off the shell, and is therefore hemispherical. Because of their shape, blister pearls are mostly used for earrings. Biwa pearls are freshwater pearls from Lake Biwa in Japan. These irregularly shaped pearls are smoother and more lustrous than most other freshwater pearls. Black pearls or Tahitian pearls are dark-colour pearls. They are produced by the large, black-lipped pearl oyster also called the Tahitian black pearl oyster, a mollusc found in the tropical Indo-Pacific Ocean. Black pearls come in many colours including light grey to almost black, peacock green, aubergine, and deep brown. The most valuable pearls are symmetrical, large, naturally produced, and have a shimmering iridescence called orient lustre. The biggest natural pearl, known as the "Pearl of Allah" or "Pearl of Lao-tse," weighs 14 pounds (6.4 kg). Throughout the ages pearls have been shrouded in mystery and coveted by tsars, maharajas, queens and emperors. The Greeks adorned their temples and statues with them and pearl beds were almost fished to extinction so laws were passed to curb demand. Queen Elizabeth 1st was a great pearl lover. For her they symbolized purity and she often wore ropes of them some reaching as far as her knees.