Guide to Pearl Types

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PEARL TYPES

One might be wandering about how many different types of pearls are there after browsing all of our beaded jewelry designs. A great amount of consumers still have a notion that pearls are only white and round. In fact, white color has always been strongly associated with pearls. For example, a person would say that somebody's extraordinarily white teeth are pearly white.

The truth about pearl's color could not be more different. Our beaded jewelry designs show that pearls can and do come in a myriad of colors and shapes. As is the case with most things in this world, pearls could be categorized on multitude of criteria: size, origin, color, shape, and more.

In this guide, we form categories of pearls based on their most fundamental physical traits other than size, and briefly examine them. Even though certain snail species can also produce pearls (abalone pearl being the most popular of such kind), we are going to limit our categorization of pearls to the ones that come only from more "traditional" sources such as oysters and mussels.

Categorizing pearls based on the type of environment that they come from would be the most logical way to start. Pearls are produced by various oysters and mussels that live in a certain body of water. This body of water can be either saltwater or freshwater. Therefore, pearls can firstly be categorized as being either saltwater or freshwater.

Another way of categorizing pearls is according to the way they were produced. A pearl creation process gets initiated when a foreign body (small fish, worm, mud or any other type of irritant) enters the mollusk. The mollusk starts producing nacre (a pearly substance) that cocoons the intruder. Together with the surrounding nacre, the intruder eventually turns into a pearl.

If that foreign body enters the mollusk accidentally, then the pearl that gets created in such a way is classified as natural. On the other hand, if a man intentionally inserts that foreign body, then the pearl gets classified as being cultured. Kokichi Mikimoto, the founder of the world famous Mikimoto company, pioneered the technique used to insert an irritant into the mollusk in 1893.

Natural pearls are extremely hard to come by due to the accidental nature of their creation. A great majority of pearls that a typical consumer comes in contact with are almost always cultured. In fact, all of the pearls used in our beaded jewelry are cultured.

As mentioned previously, pearls come in a myriad of colors and shapes. Pearl's color is not usually uniform. It has a main color that industry experts commonly refer to as the body color, and overtones which are additional colors that spread over pearl's surface.

It is also generally agreed that there are five main body color categories: pink, white, light cream, cream, and yellow. Pearls of pink and white color are generally the most coveted ones while the yellow ones are sold at the biggest discount. Furthermore, some overtones can affect the perceived quality of the pearl. Generally, a pearl with a pink overtone is considered to be more valuable than the one with other overtones.

When it comes to their shape, most pearls can be put into one of these three categories: round (spherical), symmetrical (slightly oval & egg shaped), and baroque (shape poorly defined, very irregular). Generally, round ones typically command the highest prices while the pearls of baroque shape are generally frowned upon, and sold at a very big discount.

However, it must be noted that some of the most famous and valuable pearls (e.g. Pearl of Allah) are of baroque shape. Therefore, everything is relative as baroque pearls can also be extraordinarily beautiful, and can command an astronomical price.

Generally, saltwater pearls tend to be of nicer round form compared to freshwater pearls which have a tendency to be of more oval shape.

Besides categorizing pearls based on their most fundamental physical traits as we have done so far in this shopping guide, further subcategorization is possible based on their geographic origin, type of oyster that produces them or even the company that markets them (e.g. Mikimoto pearls).

Some parts of the world are renowned for their pearl production. Pearls coming from such an area are typically grouped into a category and labeled the same even though they may differ drastically when it comes to overall quality, color and/or other traits. Several such "categories" must be mentioned due to their sheer importance: Oriental pearls (natural saltwater pearls that originate from West Asian sea territories such as the Persian Gulf), South Sea pearls (saltwater pearls from East Asian sea territories such as Indonesia, Australia, and Oceania), and Biwa pearls (pearls that are cultivated in Lake Biwa, Japan).

There is still a great amount of relevant information about pearls that was not covered by this guide. However, we do believe that we were able to communicate about the abundance of pearl jewelry configurations available to the consumer that is seeking to enhance her personal look. Check it out for yourself:

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