What are pearls, anyway? The snarky answer is: solid evidence of an irritated oyster. The scientific answer is: layers of aragonite platelets bound together by conchiolin.
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Where to start?
How about the thing that's irritating our oyster. A piece of sand gets into the oyster shell. The oyster can't spit it out or scratch so it coats the particle with something smooth - nacre.
Nacre is a combination of conchiolin and aragonite. Aragonite is the crystal form of calcium carbonate. Conchiolin is a substance similar to hair or fingernails that binds the crystals together.
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Pearls grow a bit like trees - in layers. Some years produce beautiful, thick layers, some years aren't so pretty. The color, layer thickness and texture vary between oyster types and environments.
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Over time, the pearl gets larger. The final diameter depends on the size of the oyster it's irritating. Shapes also vary.
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And now for some cultured, probably freshwater, pearl jewelry from our fabulous artists:
9 comments:
I'm a June kid and pearl is my "stone". Keep the info coming! I love to learn from you :-)
Great information thanks. I am a June baby too.
I have a whole series planned. Tahitian, akoya, and more.
My motto is "Diamonds are a girls best friend but pearls are her soul", I'm a pearl girl and love the last couple of blog posts you have done.
Love the pearl series., Andrea. Like Cat and Caron, I love pearls. They are beautiful on their own or mixed with other stones.
Very interesting, thank you. Great idea for a series.
Very interesting post! I wish I could make something so beautiful when I'm irritated! :)
Thank you so very much for the info and for featuring my work!
Wow, a Cellini spiral with real pearls! What a treasure!
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