Pearls, all the rage!

Pearls are back in fashion! Colourful, long, short, freshwater, cultured and they come in so many different shapes these days.

These three short pearl necklaces, are now available through my website. They are newly made, to bring some colour into our lives. You could be the first to own one by contacting me, see my contact form.

Most pearls available these days are freshwater pearls. These are man assisted, by placing a piece of mother of pearl in freshwater mussels, for the mollusc to coat it in pearl nacre. Freshwater mussels don’t require such intensive care whilst growing and are quicker, hence they are a lot cheaper to produce.

Cultured pearls are produced by the same process but in seawater oysters. These rafts of oysters require a lot of care to reduce stress. They have to be moved inland when storms are approaching and are lifted regularly for cleaning the outer shells. Any stress causes ridges and mis-shapes to the pearls. To produce good quality cultured pearls, the oyster takes between 3-5 years. As you can see, this is a more intensive process, therefore more expensive. However, nothing can equal the fine lustre of a cultured pearl!