creative Beading 15pearls after they have been formed is by x-ray;
natural pearls show a solid centre with growth
rings, while cultured pearls show a solid centre
without growth rings.
natural pearls were thought to have been
first discovered in prehistoric times, while our
ancestors were walking along the shorelines
looking for food, and pearls have played
a huge part in religion and medicine since
those times. in rome, pearls were seen as the
ultimate symbol of wealth and social status;
roman women were said to wear them to
bed so as to be reminded of their wealth as
soon as they woke up, and laws were passed
forbidding anyone outside of the nobility from
wearing pearls.
The native americans of the atlantic coastal
and mississippi river basin regions were the
first to collect freshwater mussel pearls, which
were then turned into decorative items suitable
for both men and women to wear. The shells
of the freshwater mussels were also used in
the jewellery they produced, which included
armlets, pendants and earrings, and the pearls
were also used to adorn clothing and as
decoration on the knives of hunters. For many
years, america was one of the best producers
of the pearls which supplied europe with
substantial wealth. however, with wealth came
greed and the ever growing demand for pearls
led to the depletion of almost all of america’s
pearl producing oysters in the 17th century.
before the development of cultured pearls
became commonplace around the 20th
century, pearls were harvested by pearl
divers. divers manually pulled molluscs from
the ocean floors and river bottoms, before
checking them individually for pearls. pearl
diving was a very dangerous way to earn a
living, as it involved free-diving often for up
to 30 metres (one hundred feet) to search
for a mollusc on the sea bed, so quite
often slaves were used as they were easily
replaceable and required no payment. divers
were exposed to the many dangers of the
sea, including sharks and drowning and, due
to the random natural creation of pearls,
were often left empty-handed. pearl divers
operated in many parts of the world, ranging
from the open waters of the indian ocean
and the caribbean to the calmer waters of
various lakes and rivers in ohio, mississippi
and Tennessee. The waters of the sulu
archipelago, located near the philippines,
often produced the largest pearls, and were
considered to be the best in the world.
There are few natural pearl fisheries left in
the world; the seas off bahrain and western
australia being the major two. australian
pearl fisheries use pearl divers to dive for
south sea pearl oysters to be used in the
cultured south sea pearl industry. significant
numbers of natural pearls are found in the
australian indian ocean, due to intelligent
farming procedures in place by the pearl
farmers. The natural pearls found today are
required to undergo x-ray examination to
verify that they are not cultured.natural pearls
are not just
limited to
being white
or off-white
in colour, the
melo pearls
are found in
bright orange
shades,
Tahitian pearls
can range
from light
silvery grey
to black, with
a peacock
green being
the most
valuable,
while south
sea pearls
can be gold
or silver.Big and small cultured pearls