|
Pearl Jewelry: |
| |
|
Shop Pearl Jewelry: |
| |
|
Jewelry Categories: |
| |
|
|
Pearl Necklace and Jewelry Terms
In order to understand pearls, here is a list of important terms to
know when shopping for pearls.
- Blemish: Defect found on the pearl surface. Blemishes can affect
a pearl's price. There are non-damaging blemishes, such as spots,
bumps, pits and wrinkles, and damaging blemishes, which may worsen,
include cracks, holes and chips.
- Button: Dome-shaped pearls with a flat bottom.
- Choker: Pearls and Necklaces that is 14 to 16 inches in length.
- Circles: Concave, concentric rings on a pearl's surface.
- Clean: Absence of blemishes on a pearl's surface.
- Color: An evaluation of quality used to describe the color of
a pearl.
- Collar: A pearl
necklace that is 10 to 13 inches in length.
- Grafting: The insertion, through human intervention, of an irritant
into the body or the mantle tissue of a mollusk, in order to produce
a cultured pearl.
- Luster: The combination of surface shine and the depth of inner
light refraction in a pearl. Luster is one of the great determinants
of a pearl's quality.
- Mantle Tissue: The layer of thin tissue adhering a mollusk to
its inner shell.
- Matching: Using luster, surface, shape, color and size to match
one pearl with another to create a piece of pearl jewelry, such
as a necklace.
- Matinee: Pearl
necklace that is 20 to 24 inches in length.
- Millimeter: The metric measurement used to determine the size
of a pearl. One mm equals 1/25 of an inch.
- Momme: The weight measurement for pearls in Japan. One momme
equals 3.75 grams, or 18.7 carats.
- Nacre: A calcium carbonate-based crystalline substance secreted
by a mollusk as a defensive device against the intrusion of a
foreign irritant into its body.
- Nucleus: A small bit of polished shell from an American freshwater
mollusk used as an irritant and inserted into the body of a saltwater
mollusk. By the same token, a small bit of soft mantle tissue
from one freshwater mussel is inserted as an irritant into the
body of another freshwater mollusk.
- Nucleation: Also called grafting or implementation, this is
the process of inserting an irritating nucleus into the body of
a mollusk so that it will secrete nacre to cover it, consequently
producing a cultured pearl.
- Opera: A pearl necklace that is 28 to 34 inches in length.
- Princess: Pearl necklace that is 17 to 20 inches in length.
- Rope: A pearl necklace over 45 inches in length.
- Shape: A quality evaluation, describing the shape of a pearl.
Round is the most prized shape in the industry, but saltwater
and freshwater pearls are produced in a variety of shapes, just
as they exhibit a variety of colors.
- Size: The diameter of pearls measured in millimeters and used
as a quality and price evaluation of pearls.
- Sorting: Separating pearls by surface, shape, color and size
prior to the jewelry matching process.
- Surface: A quality evaluation of the amount of blemishes on
a pearl, ranging from clean to heavily blemished.
|
|
|
