Sunday, June 01, 2008

Pearls and their Legends - Birthstone for June


One of my absolute favorite material to work with is the pearl. It's so amazing to me that they are grown inside of a gooey little ocean creature. Oysters are so ugly on the outside but produce this amazing little lustrous pebble.



And now we have learned to do so many things to the pearl..put in the oyster certain shapes so that it covers that shape in the lustrous nacre and we end up with coin pearls, square pearls, even heart pearls...




My favorite interesting shape is the petal keshi pearl (aka 'corn flake pearls') Actually keshi is a Japanese word for something very small, like a grain of sand. Now in the jewelry world its used to refer to a pearl with no nucleus or center. It has all nacre and is the result of the mollusk rejecting the nucleus yet it continues to make the pearl. They are very beautiful and very sought after so can be quite pricey.



Color enhancement has even doubled the fun with jewelry designing and mixing and matching with other stones and crystals.




Pearls like other stones have also been the center of many legends. The ancient Chinese thought that pearls were conceived in the brains of dragons. Certain Hindu writers have linked pearls with clouds, elephants, snakes, wild boars, fish but only sometimes with oysters. The Greeks and Romans thought pearls were born in oysters as a result of a drop of rain or dew having penetrated between the layers. The Persians thought the same but they believed that if a pearl was imperfect it was because of thunder in the sky. Stories like this certainly add to the intrigue for many pearl lovers.

The layer of irridesence that shows over the base color is what intrigues me. You can have two of the same base color pearl..but one has a certain color of luster and it totally changes it's look. And it can pick up a different hue each way you turn it.

Always stay tuned for beautiful and unusual pearl jewelry from
Jonara Blu Maui!


9 comments:

Kimberly said...

pretty cool.

lovin' that last one..

I want to send you Lucas' necklace...will you fix it? I have no clue how too. Maybe I should even see if it still fits him...he's grown.

Belle Adorn said...

These informative posts are wonderful! A great little read, especially for us pearl and jewelry lovers. That's half the population, right?!!! Tina

Jonara Blu Maui said...

Yes yes! Of course you should send it to me. If he's grown out of it..I'll see what I can do to add to it to make it bigger for him.

Jonara Blu Maui said...

Thanks Tina! I have no idea if it's half the population? really? Thats a really interesting statistic!

Unknown said...

You certainly have a way with words, dear lady. I should hire you to write my blog! These jewelry pieces are all just stunning.

Christina J. said...

You make the prettiest pearl jewelry.

Jonara Blu Maui said...

Haha Marjorie! I am always fumbling all over myself and feel like a dork when I type a blog post..but oh well I figure..thats just me! I don't even try to keep up with real blogsters ;-)

Jonara Blu Maui said...

Awwww..thanks so much Christina! You are pretty awesome yourself!

Belle Adorn said...

When I say half the population, I'm thinking all the females, lol.....I bet I'm right too. :)