ALLBIDS Blog

How to care for your Pearls and other facts

Sunday, 31 August 2014 | Muhammad Awais

The use of any of the following products or actions will damage your delicate pearls.

* Do not use ultrasonic cleaners

* Avoid chemicals, especially hair spray, perfume etc

* Do not use stiff brushes

* Cleaning will often stretch the stringing

* Do not allow pearls to be jumbled around in a jewelry box with harder jewellery

Did you know natural pearls are virtually non-existent in today’s market?

Pearls are created by molluscs, a mollusc is a sea creature that has a hard outer shell and no backbone. Pearls can be made naturally or with man’s assistance, when men have played a part in creating the pearl, it’s called a ‘cultured pearl’.

Natural pearls are created when the mollusc coats a substance, usually sand. Although pearls look and feel smooth, they actually have a microscopically rough crystalline surface.

Freshwater pearls are created in a freshwater mussel. They have improved dramatically from the early “rice bubble” pearls to now rival the quality of salt-water pearls.

Cultured pearls are really the same, except that the irritant, often a bead of mother-of pearl, or piece of the mantle, is implanted in the mollusc.

Historically cultured pearls have been produced by saltwater molluscs, but over the past couple of decades, Freshwater Cultured Pearls have become a very important part of the market.

Saltwater pearls include Akoya (Japanese) South Sea and Tahitian. Fun fact: Tahitian pearls are really just black or very dark South Sea Pearls – they may not have come from Tahiti!

Did you know?

• Pearls are quite soft and require more care than most other gems. Pearls have around the hardness of a finger nail to a copper coin. Pearls have a hardness of a finger nail to the hardness of copper coin!


• Almost ALL pearls on the market today are cultured.


• It can be extremely difficult to identify natural pearls without using X-rays or an endoscope.


• Pearls can be bleached, dyed, heated, irradiated or coated. Most treatments are permanent.


• Freshwater pearls occur as white or pastel colours. Over-bright colours and black Freshwater Pearls have been treated, usually by dyeing.


• Pearl Grading is not an exact science. Grading depends on shape (round is more expensive) lustre, thickness of the skin, blemishes, colour and treatments.

www.newcastlejewellery.com.au-

This information guide is for our valued ALLBIDS clients, brought to us by Don Hansen FGAA, NCJV Valuer #380, based on over 45 years’ experience in the jewellery business and successful Gemology and valuation studies .