life style
TIMELESS CLASSIC
Wear pearls and the world is your oyster
PEARLS aren’t just the world’s first gem, they’re also the most enduring and alluring. Their form and lustre have enchanted civilisations throughout history.
According to Greek mythology goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite created the tiny wonders from her tears of joy as she rose from the sea. Ancient Egyptian royalty prized them so highly they were buried with them.
Elsewhere, sacred Hindu writings equated pearls with weddings and the beginning of a new life. Ancients in the Middle East believed them to be droplets of moisture from the heavens.
Meanwhile, in early Chinese myths, pearls fell from the sky when dragons fought among the clouds. They have been loved by czarinas and queens, empresses and American
presidential wearers spouses, power
wives and Hollywood A-listers. Iconic
include Coco Chanel,
Jackie O, Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and Princess Diana. Even now pearls remain wildly popular, prized as one of Earth’s most beautiful, covetable and magical treasures.
There is nothing more flattering. Men like them. Women love them. Pearls are the ultimate make-up as they add luminescence. But you don’t need dragons snarling in the heavens or weeping deities to come by pearls.
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Many believe they are formed when an oyster ingests a grain of sand. However, as they live in the sea the shellfish are constantly guzzling and spitting out sand.
Only when something becomes lodged - like a piece of shell, bone, coral or parasite - does the process begin.
The oyster seals the object in a cocoon of a substance called conchiolin, which triggers the production of nacre.
These are microscopic crystals of calcium carbonate which also give the oyster’s shell its mother-of-pearl sheen. Layer upon layer covers the irritants, sometimes over years.
Amazingly, only one in 10,000 to 20,000 oysters contain a perfectly round pearl suitable for fine jewellery.
A pearl diver could spend a lifetime and not find enough matching gems for a single necklace.
These days, due to over-fishing and pollution, stocks are depleted. Only about half a per cent of the world’s pearls are natural.
Most of these are recycled from the past, and few come on to the open market. They change hands among private collectors.
Instead, pearls today are lovingly cultured by farmers across Japan, China and the South Pacific. They are cultivated in freshwater lakes and rivers or seawater
rafts. Pearls come in a bewildering variety of shapes, colours and sizes.
Just as a diamond is evaluated by colour, clarity, cut and carat, a pearl is judged by various characteristics that determine its quality, beauty and value.
The luster of a good pearl should be bright, not dull and chalky.
You should be able to see your reflection clearly on the surface.
The cleaner the surface, the more
valuable the pearl.
Cleanliness refers to the absence of disfiguring spots, bumps or cracks.
Cultured pearls come in
a variety of colours, from rose to black - but no-one can predict what colour will be produced in the hatchery.
Rose or silver-white pearls tend to look best on fair skin while cream and gold-toned pearls are flattering to darker complexions.
Cultured pearls are measured by their diameter in millimetres.
They can range from one-millimetre seed pearls to 20 millimetes for big South Sea pearls.
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