Pearls are an investment.As such, proper care should be used protect the luster and beauty of your pearls, while providing many years of enjoyment. Below are a few tips to help you care for your pearls.
*Store Pearls Separately
Pearls are much softer than the majority of gemstones and precious metals. If stored with other jewelry, they can become easily scratched or damaged.
*Store Pearls In Soft Material
Ideally, you should store your pearls in a soft cloth pouch, linen cloth, or soft lined jewelry box. These will help prevent the pearls from being scratched or damaged.
*Minimize Contact With Personal Products
Personal care products, such as hairspray, makeup, and perfume, contain chemicals that can harm the pearl's surface and dull the pearl's luster. To minimize this type of contact, use personal care products first before putting on pearls.
*Minimize Contact With Perspiration
Perspiration contains natural acids that can harm the pearl's surface and dull the pearl's luster. To minimize this, remove pearls before exercising or doing strenuous activity.
*Clean Your Pearls After Wear
Gently wipe your pearls with a soft damp cloth after wear. This will help to remove any build-up on the pearls. Do not use anything abrasive as this may damage your pearls.
*Periodically Wash Your Pearls
Periodically wash your pearls to help remove harmful build-ups. Dirty pearls can be cleaned with a mild soap and water solution.(try Ivory Flakes)
Freshwater vs Akoya
Freshwater and akoya pearls, while both genuine pearls, differ greatly in value and composition. The three main differences are the culturing process, the nucleus, and the shape.
Freshwater pearls are mantle-tissue nucleated, whereas akoya pearls are bead-nucleated. Instead of inserting a mother-of-pearl bead and a piece of mantle tissue into the gonad of a freshwater mussel, as is the process with an akoya mollusk, only a piece of mantle-tissue is used, and this is inserted directly into the mantle tissue of the freshwater mollusk. The result is a pearl composed of solid nacre.
Although harvested freshwater pearls are solid nacre, and akoya pearls may only have .1 to 2mm of nacre over a bead-core, akoya pearls are generally considered more valuable.
Freshwater pearls are nucleated in the mantle tissue on either valve of the shell. This tissue is much larger than the gonad of an akoya mollusk. A tissue graft will typically be inserted 12 to 16 times per valve, producing up to 32 pearls. An a akoya mollusk is nucleated by inserting a shell bead and tissue piece into its gonad. When a large bead is used only one insertion is performed. Most shells, however, receive two insertions, one bead slightly smaller than the other. An akoya may receive up to five beads, but only when the shell is large and small beads are used. When producing 5 small pearls, what the farmer lacks in size he will recoup in volume.
Freshwater pearls are also much easier to farm than akoya. The mortality rate is much lower than that of the nucleated akoya mollusks, and freshwater farms rarely deal with natural disasters such as typhoons and red tides that plague akoya pearl farms. Freshwater pearl farms dot the landscape of China with small farms run by families and large farms run by huge corporations. The grafting operation is also much easier with a freshwater mussel, and hands on training may only last a week before a nucleating technician is considered adept. Akoya nucleating technicians, on the other hand, study for months and take years to master the trade.
Akoya pearls will average higher quality attributes than freshwater. Freshwater pearls are rarely round, whereas akoya pearls are generally round. Freshwater pearls do not typically have the sharp luster and high shine found in high grade akoya pearls, but can exhibit orient in their highest grades - something akoya pearls cannot.
In the last decade, Chinese freshwater pearl farms have increased the quality of their harvests tremendously due to increases in technology and the recent use of Triangle shell mussels instead of the Cockscomb. Today it is possible to find strands that are of comparable quality to a nice akoya strand. Although the price is still substantially lower, they are quite valuable. And these strands, being solid nacre, will be much more durable over the course of wear.
