Pearl Jewelry: A Testament to Our Lives

Why do we wear jewelry? Usually, it’s because we like how it makes us look and feel – beautiful and confident. That’s not the only reason, though. Often times there are a much deeper meaning to why we choose to beautify our outfits with jewelry.

Why Our Ancestors Donned Jewelry

For almost 75,000 years, humans adorned themselves with jewelry for different reasons.

Jewelry was often worn by emperors, pharaohs, kings, and queens as a symbol of status, wealth, and power. Only the rich could afford valuable gems and metals like pearls, diamonds, gold, silver, and other precious stones. However, that didn’t keep the less fortunate from embellishing themselves: Throughout the ages, people often created jewelry from leather, wood, shells, seeds, feathers, and other beautiful items they could lay their hands on.

Jewelry was also believed to have supernatural and healing powers. One such example is the ancient Egyptians. A favorite, the Eye of Horus with a green or turquoise stone set as the pupil, represented protection and health.

Evil eye jewelry and talismans, which was first recorded about 5,000 years ago by the Mesopotamians, was believed to protect the wearer from evil forces. This symbol is found in Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu cultures.

The sapphire was priced as a sacred stone by the ancient Greeks who often wore this magnificent stone when seeking guidance from the Oracle of Delphi. Sapphires were also believed to promote wisdom and spiritual truth.

The Deeper Meaning of Jewelry

Today, jewelry is still symbolic to us. An infinity sign depicts everlasting love, and jewelry are often worn as a symbol of faith, like a cross to Christianity or yin-yang to Buddhists.  

We also wear real pearl jewelry as a way to express ourselves or to make a statement. With so many different designs and materials to choose from, we select something that we like, although we often can’t exactly explain why we like it.

We collect jewelry from our travels to remind us of the good times we’ve had and the people we’ve met along the way.

Jewelry often has personal significance, like the heirloom pearl necklace your Grandma gave you or a wedding ring passed down from one generation to the next. But jewelry doesn’t have to be passed down from a relative to have personal significance. A bracelet a husband bought for his wife or wedding jewelry you bought for yourself are representations of the love we have for each other.

Similarly, graduation jewelry is a symbol of our achievements and the endurance we had for sticking to our commitments even through difficult times.

Graduation Jewelry: A Testament to Your Achievements

Graduation Day is a significant milestone in many young women’s lives. Why don’t you choose pearl jewelry to stand testament to your achievements this year?

Visit our shop to find pearl jewelry to your taste to complete your outfit and to act as a reminder of what you’ve achieved.

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The World Is Your Oyster and You Are the Pearl Graduation Wisdom

“The world is your oyster” is a phrase that was created by William Shakespeare. And it’s a message that’s never truer than on the day you graduate from college.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this phrase can be interpreted as “one is in a position to profit from the opportunities that life, or a particular situation, may offer.” Or in other words, you can do anything and go anywhere you want.

You have spent years preparing for this day. No doubt there were a lot of stress, tears, and sacrifices you had to make to get to this point. And now, you’re faced with the choice of which road you’re going to take next.

Pearls and Oysters of Life

Pearls are formed from an irritation. A foreign object, like a grain of sand, finds an opening into the oyster. It’s painful and irritating to the oyster, and to protect itself, the oyster starts to cover the foreign object with nacre. Many layers later, a beautiful pearl is formed.

All oysters produce pearls though real pearl jewelry is rare at Timeless Pearl. Studying is not easy – it takes courage and hard work – and many don’t make it. But you persevered, you learned from the lessons life gave you, and you evolved into a beautiful, shining pearl.  

The world is full of opportunities – you just have to take it! You determine your own success.

How does success look like for you? How does your pearl look like?

·         Is it finding your dream job?

·         Is it making a lot of money so you can travel and see the world?

·         Is it making a difference in the lives of family members or in the community?

·         Is it finding meaning in life?

·         Or is it finding someone special to share your incredible life with?

Whatever that pearl looks like for you, remember that you can achieve anything you set your mind to. Yes, there are more difficult times and stumbling blocks that lie ahead. There are mistakes to be made and lessons to be learned. That is part of life.

But what matters is how you handle these obstacles and what you learn and how you grow from it.

Pearl Jewelry: A Reminder of Possibility

As you are preparing for your graduation ceremony, what better accessories to choose from than pearls? Visit our shop and choose pearl jewelry to remind you of your beauty and the possibilities available to you.

And after graduation, every time life throws you a curveball, you can wear your pearl jewelry to remind you of your strength, what you’ve endured and accomplished so far, and that you can do anything you set your mind to.

Let the pearl that is you shine unapologetically.

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Everything You Need to Know about Tahitian Black Pearls

Exquisite, exotic, and mysterious – black pearls have captivated hearts for centuries.

Natural black pearls are extremely rare, and only the super-rich were able to afford these magnificent gems. But a few decades ago, all that changed. Black pearls are now cultivated and farmed for the enjoyment of the everyday woman. Although still rare, compared to the total amount of cultured pearls produced in the world, it is now within reach of more women.

The jewelry we wear contribute to the richness of the story of our lives, and no gem more so than black pearls. In this blog we discuss everything you need to know about Tahitian and other black pearls, so you can also enrich your life with these exquisite black pearl gemstones.

Types Of Saltwater Pearls

Tahitian pearls are saltwater pearls, in other words, they’re grown in the ocean. Saltwater pearls tend to be more lustrous, or glossy, than freshwater pearls, which makes them more valuable.

There are four common types of saltwater black pearl necklace from TimelessPearl

Akoya pearls: The classic white pearl cultivated off the coast of Japan.

White South Sea pearls: Rare, valuable, and large pearls grown primarily in the waters of Australia, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

Golden South Sea pearls: The same origin as White South Sea pearls, but with a richer color.

Tahitian black pearls: Dark and exotic black saltwater pearls cultivated around the French Polynesian islands. They’re also called Black South Sea pearls.

Where Do Black Pearls Come From?

Although we’re most familiar with Tahitian black pearls, that’s not the only type of black pearl that is produced. There is another location also situated in the south-central Pacific Ocean:

95% of the world’s black pearls are produced around Tahiti Island, French Polynesia. This pearl is called the Tahitian Black Pearl.

4% of black pearls are produced in the Penglin Island and Manihiki Island, which are part of the Cook Islands.

The Symbolism Of Black Pearls

There are many legends and myths surrounding black pearls. The most famous is the one of Princess Bora Bora. As the story goes, the god of peace and fertility, Oro, gifted the princes with a black pear to symbolize his eternal love.

Read more about this legend.

Black Pearl History

Throughout history, the European royal families have always loved pearls, as can often be seen in old pictures and paintings. In these portraits, white pearls are most prominent, but black pearls were also popular, but very rare.

In the mid-19th century, a large number of fishing boats traveled from Sydney, San Francisco, and Chile to Tahiti to catch the Pinctada margaritifera, also called the Black-lip pearl oyster, in which black pearls are commonly found.  

Not only did they open the shells to gather the pearls, but they also used the shells themselves to make buttons. Before buttons were made primarily with plastic, shells were cut to use as buttons. The black inner layer of these black pearl shells made the most beautiful buttons.

However, after more than a century of overfishing, by the mid-20th century, the black-lip pearl oysters in Tahiti were on the verge of extinction.

A New Dawn: Tahitian Black Pearl Farming

The pearl culturing experiment started in Tahiti in 1961, using Japanese pearl farming techniques, but, it took a few years before black pearl culturing became successful.

In 1966 the first pearl farms were built, but they weren’t very successful. It was only in 1972 when the first Tahitian black pearls were exported to other countries – about 1,563 kilograms.

  

How Are Black Pearls Formed?

Tahitian pearls take more than 24 months to form inside the oyster shell. A small bead is surgically inserted into the pearl sac, and during its growth period, hundreds of thin layers of nacre and vermiculite crystals are secreted to envelop the beads and to finally form the pearl.

Once the nacre covering the bead is thick enough, the pearl farmer would open the oyster with the black pearl inside to remove the gem.

Black Pearl Colors

Contrary to popular belief, not all Tahitian cultured pearls are black. These pearls come in a remarkable range of colors, including creamy white, green, iridescent peacock green, blue, purple, gray, silver, blue-black, gray-black, brown-black, iron gray, and of course, deep black.

Pearls get their colors from the shell they grow in. The black-lipped oyster has a thick inner black shell and secretes this dark nacre to cover the bead implanted in the shell sac, which is why some pearls are black. The nearer this bead is to the shell wall, the darker the bead will be. The darker the color, the higher the value and the price.

The most popular black pearl colors are the rainbow-like colors, like peacock, rich purple, and sea blue. The strong metallic luster on these pearls changes as you rotate the pearl. These pearls are more valuable, and also more expensive, with peacock green at the top of that list.

Matching black pearl beads to form a string of black pearls is extremely difficult as most beads have a different color or shade.

Black Pearl Luster

The luster of a pearl refers to the intensity of the reflection on the surface of the pearl. Pearls with great luster are glossy and you can even see your own image on the surface of the pearl, like a mirror. The greater the luster, the higher the value of a black pearl.

Pearls with a more matt-like luster look a bit dull and therefore have a lower value.

Black Pearl Sizes

Tahitian black pearls are typically between 8-14 mm in size, which is much larger than the classic white Akoya pearl.

Most black pearls are between 9-10mm. A black pearl larger than 15mm is rare, and those exceeding 17mm is a rare treasure.

Black Pearl Shapes

Pearls are rarely perfectly round, but as can be expected, round pearls are the most popular shape and therefore also the most expensive.

Tahitian pearls typically come in five different shapes:

Circular or semicircular

Oval or button-shaped

Drop-shaped

Circle-shaped

Semi-Baroque or Baroque

The Surface Of Black Pearls

The surface of pearls often has little bumps, threads, wrinkles, and spots, which makes it part of their beauty.

Of course, the more perfect the surface, the higher the value.

Where To Buy Black Pearls?

If you’re ready to enrich your life with the mysterious black pearl, you can check out our online shop for black pearl jewelry:  

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The Latest Breakthrough in Pearl Research: Dark Golden Edison Pearls

In Chinese folklore, golden pearls are said to bring luck and prosperity to their owner, and in Chinese artwork, you’ll often find a dragon holding a golden pearl in their mouths or claws.

Myths and legends often originate around rare objects, and these golden pearl legends are no different. Golden-colored pearls are extremely rare and valuable, and up until a few years ago, golden pearls could only be found in the South Sea at a very steep price. Until the creamy-gold cultivated Edison pearls emerged about a decade ago.  

What Are Edison Pearls?

Edison pearls are the brainchild of Weijian Zhan. His company, Grace Pearls, worked in collaboration with the Zhejiang University for years to develop a new cultivation process that helps them grow almost perfectly round, high-quality pearls in large sizes – with a wide range of exquisite colors including cultured pearls from Timeless Pearl

Recently, they brought us yet another breakthrough: after nine years of research and development, the first batch of natural dark golden Edison pearls was harvested in November 2018.  

How Do Pearls Get Their Colors?

A pearl’s color is determined by the type of mollusk the pearl grows in and the color the mollusk’s nacre. For instance, black pearls are formed inside the black-lipped bivalve mollusk named Pinctada Margaritifera, which has a think, black inner shell. Pearls that form inside this mollusk can vary from almost black to dark gray to a light silver, and everything in between, depending on how near the pearl is to the shell’s wall. The water and the initial nucleus or core of the pearl can also affect the color.

 

Pearls are also often dyed after harvesting to follow fashion trends. But after this new breakthrough in the cultivation of Edison pearls, pearls wouldn’t need to be dyed anymore to get this lustrous dark golden color.

Their secret? No-one knows. They guard it with their lives.

We don’t care how they do it, we’re just excited about the possibilities of this new color and the beautiful pearl jewelry we can soon expect to come out of Zhuji – the pearl capital of the world.

Have a look at the Edison pearl jewelry designs in our shop – we’ll soon add more dark golden colored Edison pearls to our range.

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Embrace Optimism, Energy and Warmth with Living Coral, the Pantone Color of 2019

Every year, the Pantone Color Institute announces a color for the year ahead, and this year, they chose Living Coral.

Living Coral is an orangy pink color with golden undertones. It’s a vibrant, playful, but warm color – exactly what we need in 2019.

The Pantone Color Institute analyzes color trends and looks for color influences all over the world in areas like art, fashion, travel, entertainment, and lifestyle. According to Pantone, “symbolizing our innate need for optimism and joyful pursuits, PANTONE 16-1546 Living Coral embodies our desire for playful expression.” What better way to enter and to make the most of 2019?

Not only do we love the color, but we can stand behind what Living Coral symbolizes. We love the optimism, energy, and authenticity it embodies. We also love that living coral can be found underneath the ocean, similar to where pearls are formed. Coral reefs, just like pearls, need a healthy environment to thrive in. If the water is polluted, both coral reefs and oysters will die. 

As a company, Timeless Pearl supports sustainable real pearl jewelry farming practices and we only buy from farmers who care about the environment they operate in. Read this article to understand how pearl farming works: The ABC’s of Pearl Farming, and this article to learn more about the effects of pearls on the environment: Pearls and the Environment: Sustainable Pearls.and we only buy from farmers who care about the environment they operate in. Read this article to understand how pearl farming works: The ABC’s of Pearl Farming, and this article to learn more about the effects of pearls on the environment: Pearls and the Environment: Sustainable Pearls.

Here are some of our favorite playful and ocean-inspired pearls, as well as jewelry that will complement your outfit when wearing the color, Living Cora.

Blog Resources:https://www.timelesspearl.com/embrace-optimism-energy-and-warmth-with-living-coral-the-pantone-color-of-2019/

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Real pearl jewelry Pearls for a New, Prosperous Year

Pearls are believed to attract wealth, are known for their calming effects, is said to strengthen relationships, and they also symbolize purity. What better gem to have near you than a pearl to enter the New Year?

Whatever you wish on yourself or your loved ones, there is a reason to venture into 2019 adorned with pearls. Here are just some of the reasons why pearls make great gifts:

 Pearls And New Beginnings

At the start of each year we look towards the future, make plans and set our goals. We start off with a blank slate, pure and untainted by mistakes and mishaps. Pearls are pure, and a great reminder that we can embrace each day with a clean slate and not let the mistakes of yesterday pull us back.

Pearls And Relationships

A pearl symbolizes the precious bond between two people, like a mother and child, a husband and wife, and special friends. Remember and celebrate the bonds you have with them through the gift of pearl jewelry.  

Pearls And A Calm Demeanor

Touching the cool pearl beads have a calming effect on the mind. Dowager Cixi, the only female Empress in the history of China, used to touch the beads of her freshwater pearl necklace Timeless Pearl whenever she had to make difficult decisions. A string of pearls is the perfect gift to a special woman in your life who is under a lot of stress or who has to make difficult decisions at work every day. And yes, that special woman can be you!

Pearls And Wealth

Pearls are said to attract wealth. Whether that’s true or not, there’s no danger in adopting this belief! Wish a prosperous 2019 on the women in your life with a gift of pearl jewelry.

 Pearls And Strength

It takes years, dedication, and grit to form a new pearl – from a mere irritation into a beautiful gem. Bestow a loved one you admire, or a young woman entering a new stage in her life, with the gift of pearls so that she can take courage and strength from them every day of the new year.

Let’s Celebrate 2019!

“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.” C.S. Lewis

Let’s take our cue from C.S. Lewis and embrace 2019 with a determination to make it our best year ever!

Browse our shop for our classic pieces or the latest pearl jewelry additions that you can take with you wherever you go – the boardroom, a coffee date with the girls, or a glamorous night out.

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Cultured pearls, the Perfect Christmas Gift

Christmas is almost here! Just like pearls, this joyful holiday carries a message of love, new beginnings and joy. Like pearls, it is timeless, a tradition inherited from generations of families. And the jewel and the holiday have another thing in common: traditionally, they are white.

Here are some gorgeous pieces that will make a special Christmas gift to a loved one.  

Pearls and Snowflakes

Pearls and snowflakes may be completely different things, but they have more in common than you think. For one, they are formed under difficult circumstances: either extreme cold or an oyster trying to make the best out of something implanted within its shell. What’s more, they reflect the most brilliant colors and each one of them is unique, which just ads to the beautiful message. This Colourful and these Frozen Queen Snowflake Cultured pearls Earrings make for ideal gifts to aloved one.  

Pearls And Christmas Animals

With pearls taking center stage here, you might think oyster. But no, we’re talking about deer. This playful Double Deers Pearl Brooch and this elegant Golden Snow White Elk Pearl Brooch remind one of the reindeer pulling the sleigh of Father Christmas – but they are understated and classy, so that they’ll be beautiful no matter what time of year you wear it.  

Keep It Timeless

Of course, a Christmas gift doesn’t have to be Christmas themed. These Shining Stars Pearl Earrings and this Timeless Pearl Necklace are beautiful, period. No matter what the fashion, no matter how old – or young – the recipient, it’s classy. In fact, why not use Christmas to start your own heirloom pearl tradition?

Blog Resources:https://www.timelesspearl.com/pearls-the-perfect-christmas-gift/

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