What types of freshwater pearls are there?
Freshwater Pearl Freshwater pearls hail primarily from China and can vary greatly in colour. Typically, they come in pastel shades of peach, lavender, pink, and white. They are often treated with special dyes to enhance or change their colouring.
What type of pearl do I have?
Use a jeweler’s loupe to examine the pearls. If each pearl on the strand is identical, they are not natural pearls. Look inside the pearl’s drill hole with a jeweler’s loupe. If you notice a dark line that separates the nacre from the bead nucleus, it is a cultured pearl.
What are the four types of pearls?
There are four main types of pearls that come in a variety of shapes, colours, and sizes.
- Freshwater pearls. Freshwater pearls are the most common and least expensive.
- Akoya pearls. Deemed the classic pearl, these come to mind when you think about the perfect pearl.
- Tahitian black pearls.
- South Sea pearls.
What is the rarest color of freshwater pearls?
Blue pearls from the South Seas that occur naturally are probably the rarest of all naturally occurring pearl colors. Unlike other pearl types, blue pearls are said to get their color from a metabolic disorder that the mollusk has.
How do you tell Akoya from freshwater pearls?
For Akoya pearls, you’ll mainly notice pin prick blemishes, lighter or darker areas of organic conchiolin build up visible just under the surface crystal, and small, white wrinkles in the surface nacre. Freshwater Pearl Inclusions are mostly dull white “chalky spots” and subtle ridges on the pearl surfaces.
What are Akoya pearls?
The akoya pearl is a saltwater cultured pearl from the akoya oyster (Pinctada fucata martensii). Because akoya are the most abundant type of saltwater pearl with the longest cultured history, information on akoyas is abundant!
How can you tell the difference between Akoya and freshwater pearls?
Both the Akoya and Freshwater pearls differ mainly in their luster. When comparing the luster, the Akoya pearls have a brilliant superficial luster than the Freshwater pearls. Another difference that can be seen between the two pearls is that the fresh water pearls have thicker nacre than the Akoya pearls.
What are twin pearls?
These pearls start forming as two separate pearls and then they fuse together. A pearl sac forms over the nucleus. With twin pearls the two nucleus fuse together and form a double pearl. Twin pearls can occur in any type of pearls.