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Pearls have fascinated people all over the world for hundreds and hundreds of years. They have magic and mystique, a warmth and glow, and are the only gem created by a living organism.
Pearls are found in pearl oysters, although it wasn't until the late 19th century that people fully understood how pearls were created. It was then that the relationship between pearl oysters and parasites was discovered.
It is when a foreign body of some sort, such as a grain of sand or a parasite finds its way into the oyster that it reacts. It coats the irritant with layer upon layer of the pearly substance known as 'nacre', and this gives the pearl its unique appearance and iridescent beauty.
This is the natural pearl, but its rarity and high price could not satisfy the demands of the consumers. What was needed was a way to guarantee a steady supply, and this lead to the discovery of the cultured pearl.
Culturing is a way to entice oysters to produce round pearls on demand. In this case, humans rather than nature introduce the irritant. The secret is to insert a piece of oyster epithelial membrane (the lip of mantle tissue) with a nucleus of shell or metal, into an oyster's body. This causes the tissue to form a pearl sack, and that sack then secretes nacre to coat the nucleus, thus creating a pearl.
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Chimere Pearl Characteristics
Chimere cultured pearls are commonly known as Black Pearls; concretions that are secreted inside the black-lipped Pinctada Margaritifera species of pearl oysters and cultivated in the lagoons of Western Australia's Abrolhos Islands.
Each Chimere pearl consists of thick pearly layers of nacre, comprising organic substances and calcium carbonate, primarily calcite and aragonite. They are characterised by a diversity of shapes, sizes, qualities and natural colours, which has a strong influence on their value.
Pearl size:
Pearls are measured in millimetres and by the shortest diameter. Chimere pearls generally range between 8mm and 14mm. However, smaller pearls (2mm to 8mm), known as Keshi pearls are occasionally found in the pearl producing oyster at harvest. These small natural pearls have no nucleus and have formed by accident as part of the culturing process.
Although Keshi pearls are technically not natural pearls, they are virtually identical to natural pearls, having formed just as natural baroques do in the wild.
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Pearl shape:
Traditionally, shape in pearls is defined by three categories: spherical, symmetrical and baroque. The most valuable is the spherical or round pearl. Teardrop or pear-shaped pearls showing good symmetry are more valuable than baroque pearls, which are irregular shaped pearls. With many different and interesting shapes being produced in pearls today, the popularity of a particular shape often determines the value of the pearl.
Pearl colour:
The colour of a pearl is affected by many factors, including the thickness of the nacre, the host oyster, the environment in which they are grown and the colour of the tissue inserted from another oyster's mantle. The colours more commonly reflected from Chimere pearls are Piatella Green, Lagoon Blue, Coral Mauve, Bomie Burgundy, Staghorn Gold and Pearl Grey.
Pearl surface:
When examining the surface of a pearl, experts look at the degree to which a pearl's skin is free of blemish (spotting) and the presence or absence of imperfections in pearls. Most pearls contain some blemishes that are visible to the naked eye. These small imperfections are natural characteristics of real pearls and do not always detract from appearance.
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