One of my absolute favorite material to work with is the pearl. It's so amazing to me that they are grown inside of a gooey little ocean creature. Oysters are so ugly on the outside but produce this amazing little lustrous pebble.
And now we have learned to do so many things to the pearl..put in the oyster certain shapes so that it covers that shape in the lustrous nacre and we end up with coin pearls, square pearls, even heart pearls...
My favorite interesting shape is the petal keshi pearl (aka 'corn flake pearls') Actually keshi is a Japanese word for something very small, like a grain of sand. Now in the jewelry world its used to refer to a pearl with no nucleus or center. It has all nacre and is the result of the mollusk rejecting the nucleus yet it continues to make the pearl. They are very beautiful and very sought after so can be quite pricey.
Color enhancement has even doubled the fun with jewelry designing and mixing and matching with other stones and crystals.
Pearls like other stones have also been the center of many legends. The ancient Chinese thought that pearls were conceived in the brains of dragons. Certain Hindu writers have linked pearls with clouds, elephants, snakes, wild boars, fish but only sometimes with oysters. The Greeks and Romans thought pearls were born in oysters as a result of a drop of rain or dew having penetrated between the layers. The Persians thought the same but they believed that if a pearl was imperfect it was because of thunder in the sky. Stories like this certainly add to the intrigue for many pearl lovers.
The layer of irridesence that shows over the base color is what intrigues me. You can have two of the same base color pearl..but one has a certain color of luster and it totally changes it's look. And it can pick up a different hue each way you turn it.
Always stay tuned for beautiful and unusual pearl jewelry from
Jonara Blu Maui!
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1 comment:
PJ's rock. I only have cows and dogs.
I need to get shopping!
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