Tag Archives: pearl

Lombok And South Sea Pearl

South Sea Pearl

South Sea Pearl

South Sea pearls are among the largest commercially harvested cultured pearls in the world. The average size of a South Sea pearl is 13 mm, with most harvests producing a range of sizes from 9 mm to 20 mm. The South Seas lie between the northern coast of Australia and the southern coast of China. These waters are the native habitat of a large oyster known as Pinctada maxima. This oyster grows up to 12 inches in diameter, and can be nucleated with a much larger bead than other saltwater oysters such as the Akoya.

There are two varieties of Pinctada maxima, the silver-lipped and the gold-lipped. The two are distinguished by their distinct coloration of the outer edge of the interior. This type of shell is also known as mother-of-pearl, and is responsible for the coloration of the cultured pearls produced.

There are four reasons South Sea pearls can grow to such large sizes, dwarfing many of their other saltwater pearl counterparts. These reasons are: the large size of the Pinctada maxima, the size of the implanted bead, the length of time the pearl is left to grow in the oyster, and the oyster’s environment. Due to the size of the oyster, it is able to accept a large bead.

In Indonesia, Lombok pearl being honored as producer of foreign exchange in the country. Because Lombok pearls are produced by the scenic island which is included in the category of south sea pearls in the world. So, no wonder that pearls of Lombok is been looking by pearl lover, both inside and outside the country.

Lombok nowadays is deserved to be proud for outperforming other pearl producing countries such as Australia, Tahiti, Myanmar, and Philippines. Even, the data of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries said that Indonesia is now the leader of the exporting country of sea water pearls. No wonder because Lombok has been producing pearls since long time ago and become a major pearl producer in the country.

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Organic Gemstone

Organic Gemstone

Organic Gemstone

Organic gems are a group of gem stones whose creation is associated with living organisms which are formed from once living material changed over time into a stone.

Organic gemstone jewelry was popular with the Victorians in the 19th century. Shells were carved to make cameos, delicate seed pearls were used to make elegant parrures or sets of jewelry consisting of pendant earrings, bracelets, and necklaces. Coral was also fashioned into parrures or coral beads with red and pale pink being the most popular colors.

Some stones which we refer as ‘Gemstones’ were once living organisms or were formed by living organisms. In other words, Organic gemstones are gems that are derived from animals, plants or other organisms while they are living or after they die and the usually do not have cleavage as do rock gemstones.

There are several types of Organic Gemstones used to make Gemstone Jewelry. The gems in this category are pearl, amber, coral, ivory, ammolite, shell and jet.However, the most popular among these stones is Pearl. Red Coral is also a popular choice of many.

Types of Organic Gemstones

Amber

Amber is the fossilized resin of a tree. The color of Amber varies from transparent to semitransparent and generally from light yellow to dark brown, but can be orange, red, whitish, greenish-brown, blue, or violet. This stone resembles and is named after ambergris, a sweet smelling secretion of the sperm whale once used in perfume making. Amber has a hardness of 2-2.5 Mohs scale. Amber was the much preferred jewelry of Victorian era. This gemstone is considered as a good luck stone.

Jet

Jet is a shiny black stone and is formed from the remains of wood in a similar process by which coal is made. Jet is also called lignite. This stone has a hardness of 2.5-4 Mohs scale. This stone became extremely popular as mourning jewelry after Queen Victoria wore it on the death of her husband Prince Albert in 1861. This stone is considered as a gem for spiritual enlightenment.

Ammolite

Ammolite is the fossilized remains of ancient sea anemones. Ammolite is similar to the opal in appearance and often has a cracked or mottled surface. This cracking can give the stone the look of ‘dragon scales’ or a stained glass window.

Pearl

Pearl is considered the king of all organic gems and is formed inside the shells of oysters and mussels. Pearl has a hardness of 2.5-4.5 in the Mohs scale. Natural pearls come in various shapes: round, pear, drop, egg, and others. They also come in various colors, such as white, cream, light rose, cream rose, black, gray, bronze, blue, dark blue, blue green, red, purple, yellow, and violet. Pearl Jewelry is considered as the Symbol of Beauty and Elegance and was part of the royal jewelry.

Ivory

Usually the elephant’s tusk is referred to Ivory but these days’ teeth of hippopotamus, walrus, wild boar and some other mammals also serve as ivory. Ivory jewelry was popular during the Victorian period. Since many animals that have ivory tusk were killed to get their tusk the import and sale of ivory is strictly banned in many countries of the world.

Coral

Coral is the skeletal remains of marine animals. Coral has a hardness of 2.6 to 2.7 in the Mohs scale and is found in semi translucent to opaque and occurs in white, pink, orange, red, blue, violet, golden, and black. Coral is used to make figurines, cameos, carvings and beads

Everything is beautiful…

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Mother Of Pearl

Mother Of Pearl

Mother Of Pearl

Mother of pearl, also called nacre, is an iridescent layer of material which forms the shell lining of many mollusks. Pearl oysters and abalone are both sources of mother of pearl, which is widely used as an inlay in jewelry, furniture, and musical instruments.

These mollusks are found around the world from the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia to the Gulfs of Mexico, Panama and Venezuela.

Nacre is the same substance that is deposited around an object that becomes lodged in the mollusk–either naturally or inserted by humans–to become a pearl.

Although pearls are popular today, some past cultures regarded colorful pieces of mother of pearl as more desirable decoration for jewelry and other objects.

Jewelry made from mother of pearl is in the group called organic jewelry, which includes all jewelry that originates from a living creature, plant or other living organism.

Nacre appears iridescent because the thickness of the aragonite platelets is close to the wavelength of visible light. This results in constructive and destructive interference of different wavelengths of light, resulting in different colors of light being reflected at different viewing angles.

Two substances actually combine to create mother of pearl. The first is plates of aragonite, a material which is secreted by the mollusk. Aragonite contains calcium carbonate and conchiolin, a natural protein. Alone, the plates are very hard, but also very brittle. As a result, the organism also secretes organic material similar to silk to layer between the plates. The result is a strong, flexible material which can withstand hard use.

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What A Pearl

Pearl Gemstone

Pearl

Pearl is a hard object of gemstone, which produced within the soft tissue within the mantle of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is made up of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers.

The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes of pearls are occur, sometimes being called as baroque pearls. The finest quality natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries, and because of this, the word pearl has become a metaphor for something very rare, fine, admirable, and valuable.

The color of pearls varies with the mollusk and its environment. It ranges from black to white, with the rose of Indian pearls esteemed most. Other colors are cream, gray, blue, yellow, lavender, green, and mauve. All occur in delicate shades.

There are many types of pearls:

Natural pearls are pearl that made without human interference.

Cultured pearls are made when a foreign substance is intentionally inserted into a living oyster. This method was first used in 1893. Cultured pearls are being produced in virtually every color of the rainbow.

Baroque pearls are the pearls that have irregular shapes

Biwa pearls are irregular shaped pearl which forms in the freshwater of Lake Biwa, Japan

Blister pearls are pearls which grow attached to the inside of the shell

Black pearls are having the color of gray to black pearls

Freshwater pearls are pearls which form in fresh water mollusks and resemble puffed rice

Mabe pearls are cultivated blister pearls

Seed pearls are small, tiny pearls used in Victorian jewelry and sewn on clothing.

The finest Oriental pearls are found in the Persian Gulf. Other notable sources of fine-quality pearls include the Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka, the waters off Celebes, Indonesia, and the islands of the South Pacific. In the Americas, the Gulf of California, the Gulf of Mexico, and the waters of the Pacific coast of Mexico have yielded dark-hued pearls with a metallic sheen as well as white pearls of good quality.

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