Creative Beading – October 2019

The word pearl, or perle as iT is spelT in French, reFers To a

small rounded bead ThaT is Formed wiThin The shells oF cerTain

Types oF mollusc. pearls are considered To be one oF The

world’s FinesT and more valuable gems, and now more Than

ever adorn The necks oF one and all. sarah ezzy-dickson

dives inTo The hisTory oF pearls and un-shells some

inFormaTion abouT The pearl’s many imiTaTors.

Pearls are the only gem created by a

living creature, and of the approximately 8000

species of mollusc, only around 20 of them are

able to naturally produce pearls. pearls occur

when a particle – sometimes sand, but more

likely a parasite – enters the shell of the mollusc

and irritates the soft tissue. The particle picks up

epithelial cells which then form into a sac (known

as the pearl) which secretes a substance called

nacre, the substance that makes up the interior

of the mollusc shell. The layers build up around

each other around the irritant which in turn

becomes a pearl. The whole process can take

eight months, depending on the size of the pearl.

when pearls are formed naturally they often

take on the shape of the irritant that began

the pearl. very rarely is a perfectly round pearl

found to have grown naturally, and those that

are found attract a far higher value, which is

the reason that pearls over the centuries have

only adorned the very wealthy or persons of

high society standing. The high demand for a

gem that is so rarely created “perfectly” led to

the development of cultured pearls. The only

difference between cultured and natural pearls

is that the foreign object that initiates the pearl’s

beginning is planted within the mollusc by hand,

intentionally beginning the process. This way,

pearl farmers can induce the creation of many

more pearls than would occur naturally, thus

supplying the demand. The only way to tell the

difference between cultured and naturally formed

P earl;

I t ’s French for Bead!

FeaTure

14 creative Beading