Natural Pearls
posted on 29 January 2011 | posted in
Fashion
Pearls are the only gemstones which are found inside living creatures and require no cutting or polishing before they can be formed into beautiful jewellery. The other distinctive feature of pearls is that they are worn almost exclusively by one gender – women – peals are still the most feminine of all gemstones. Pearls are officially the June Birthstone and are almost all brides will be found wearing pearls of one type or another. The commercial process of pearl farming which has given rise to an increase in the amount of freshwater pearl jewellery available started in Lake Biwa in Japan in the late 1920’s. They did have problems with pollution and viral diseases but progress has been made in this area in breeding resistant molluscs so there may be a return to the production levels which were once seen there. The centre for production now is China and advances in farming techniques there have seen a steady rise in the quality of the gems and therefore the quality of the freshwater pearl jewellery produced.
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