Pearls: Luxury With Luster
Elegance and stoic beauty exude from one who wears pearls. Generally rated between 3.0 and 4.0 on the Mohs scale of hardness, pearls are soft in nature and offer a vision of delicate attractiveness. If you are striving for a look of stately luxury, pearls will provide that for you.
Pearls are produced from living shelled mollusks, such as oysters. The soft tissues within these living organisms become irritated with something as simple as sand, and over time, a pearl is created.
Pearls are calcium carbonate layers that have overlapped with time. A pearl’s luster depends upon these layers. The more layers there are, and the thinner they are, will produce a nicer luster.
Saltwater pearls are more expensive than freshwater pearls. Natural pearls are harder to find and are more valuable than cultured pearls. Several things affect the price of pearls. The luster, size, surface quality, and shape are all important. Round and smooth surface are the most desired features, along with a nice luster.
Most of the pearls on the market today have been cultured, or farmed.
Pearl is the modern birthstone for those who were born in the month of June.
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