PEARL PROFILES Bangor ME

Once upon a real and recent time, the pearl world was one of black and white. Mostly white.

When selecting a pearl necklace or earrings, your decision would have been simply a matter of size, shape, and quality factors like luster and complexion.

But today, cultured pearls are colored gemstones. The Akoya cultured pearl has been joined by black, gray, eggplant purple, peacock green, cobalt blue, and bronze brown pearls from Tahiti, golden and cream pearls from Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, as well as apricot-orange, blush pink, and dusty plum-purple pearls from China.

Given the wide assortment of pearl hues, it is not surprising to see pearl strands frequently mixed rather than matched for color. Even pearls of different origins are blended together in strands that span the spectrum. Multicolor pearl jewelry is one of today's hottest pearl trends.

Not only do pearls have different origins and hues, there is now a wide selection of jewelry featuring pearls: strands, earrings, pendants, rings, brooches, pins—you name it. There has never been such pearl variety and versatility. Today, there are pearls for every taste, need, and budget.

And pearls today appeal to a new customer too, one that appreciates the versatility of the new world of pearls. Pearls are increasingly purchased by a woman, for herself. With style icons like Nancy Pelosi demonstrating that a strand of premium pearls is a fast route to the best-dressed list, women are choosing a wardrobe of pearls to add power to their style.

So let's tour the world of pearls, variety by variety, so you can guide your customers through all the must-have picks of the new pearl plenty.

AKOYA PEARLS

THE MOTHER OF INVENTION

According to Islamic mystical legend, God's first creation was a tablet on which was recorded every event that would take place until Judgment Day. His second creation was a perfect sphere some 70,000 leagues in size which he covered with ocean so that all life could emerge. Both the tablet and the sphere were made of pearl.

Given that kind of veneration for this organic gem, it is hardly surprising to learn that men have been prying open saltwater oysters and freshwater mussels for thousands of years in a constant, usually vain, quest for pearls. Rome, whose leaders thought pearls as good as gold, sent troops to occupy what are now England and Scotland in part because its lakes and rivers were then the habitat of pearl-bearing mussels.

Because supply of natural pearls has always lagged vastly far behind demand, men have long tried to make mollusks grow pearls on command. This persuasion technique is called culturing and was first successfully employed in 13th century China. A villager named Yu Shun Yang discovered that by affixing either mother-of-pearl semi-spheres or tiny lead Buddha-figures to the inside shell of freshwater mussels, then putting these implanted shellfish back in the water for several months, both types of insertion would be covered in the same mother-of-pearl secretion called nacre of which natural pearls are composed. Millions of nacre-coated beads and Buddhas were produced a year, making them the first forerunner of the modern cultured pearl.

The next triumph in pearl growing came six centuries later. In 1893, Kokichi Mikimoto (1858-1954), the father of Japan's pearl industry, developed a similar technique to that used in China to make saltwater oysters grow what are known as mabe or blister pearls attached to the inside of their shells. Twenty-three years later, after considerable trial and error, Mikimoto perfected a technique to grow perfectly round cultured pearls that is still in use today.

Pearl culturing begins with a surgical procedure as delicate and precise as any performed in a hospital. Highly trained technicians called nucleators place a bead nucleus made from crushed and compacted Mississippi mussel shell, along with a small strip of mantle tissue from a donor oyster, in the gonad region of a two-year-old host oyster (the oyster used in Japan is called Pinctada martensi). After this implantation, the oyster is placed in the water where, if all goes well, it will secrete a substantial layer of nacre around the nucleus.

Because the oyster used for pearl growing in Japan is very small compared to species used elsewhere, sizes of Japanese cultured pearls are no greater than 10mm. As consumer tastes have shifted to larger sizes and production costs have mounted, Japanese pearl farmers have concentrated more on producing profitable sizes from 7 to 10mm. To fill the need for still-popular 6 to 7mm sizes, Japan's pearl industry has been relying on pearl farms in China, many of them owned by Japanese companies. Just within this decade, China has become the dominant producer of Akoya pearls in sizes from 5 to 6.5mm. China's emergence as a major producer of medium-sized cultured pearls is a blessing for consumers because it has kept supplies of decent-quality cultured pearls steady and their prices very affordable.

Nevertheless, there are subtle aesthetic differences between Japanese and Chinese cultured pearls, ones having mostly to do with color and luster. Because Japanese pearls grow in colder waters, nacre buildup is more varied in tempo and structure due to greater extremes of water temperature. As a result, better Japanese pearls exhibit higher luster (the sharpness of surface light reflection and refraction) and a cooler, less creamy white color than their Chinese counterparts.

To understand the difference between high and low-luster pearls, think of what happens to a smooth pebble when you place it in water. Suddenly, it takes on a highly reflective sheen. The best of Japan's Akoya pearls have an unrivaled shining, silken, almost liquid luster.

FRESHWATER PEARLS

BARGAIN BEAUTIES

Impossible. Won't happen in a million years. Freshwater mussels don't produce pearls that are perfectly round, or nearly so, on a regular basis. And these pearls will remain the smallest members of the pearl family. So went the conventional wisdom about cultured pearls.

Then, late in the 1980s, China started producing round pearls in its lakes with a consistency that left dealers flabbergasted. Then recently, China began producing sizes up to 12mm in fine qualities, sizes that remind you more of South Seas than the petite pearls of years past.

Besides being grown in bright, lustrous white colors, China's freshwater round-to-oval pearls also come in unique pink, peach, lavender, cinnamon, and even butter colors. Indeed, China's freshwater paint box of colors is in a league of its own.

China's vast gains in pearl size, roundness, and color variety stem from a switch to the larger triangle-shaped hyriopsis cuminga mussel around 2001. As a result of this changeover, dealers expect to see ample supplies of sizes up to 15 millimeters by 2010. At the same time, they also expect to see a much more evident emphasis on quality.

The trade is still reeling from this revolution in pearl culturing. True, round large pearls in fine qualities represent less than 1 percent of China's overall production. Beautiful strands in lovely pastel colors command thousands of dollars because they are rare, even today.

But when you have at least 1,200 tons of material to comb through annually, as is expected this year, splendors are no longer needles in a haystack. They are promising, if not yet common, occurrences.

Unlike saltwater cultured pearls, which consist mostly of a shell-bead nucleus around which an oyster has secreted nacre, China's freshwater pearls are all-nacre, which is the closest a cultured pearl gets to be all-natural.

At least they were when they were grown in small sizes up to 5mm. Then China did the impossible again: it produced bead-nucleated round, semi-round, and oval freshwater pearls as well as the unusual baroques sometimes known as "fireball" cultured pearls for their comet-like shape with a protruding tail.

These pearls were grown in freshwater mussels implanted with 7 to 9mm balls of shell, along with pieces of mantle tissue, and then put in the water for two years while a cultured pearl grew. Now you're really confused. Aren't bead-nucleated pearls supposed to be round? Why are these misshapen?

So far, no one knows for sure. Some speculate that farmers may be trying to avoid the high cost of training workers to be accomplished nucleators. So, instead of placing beads in the body of the mussel, they tuck nuclei just under the shell in easy-to-reach mantle area. There, unfortunately, beads can't keep pearls from going haywire.

Of course, few are complaining just yet about the failure to produce rounds because baroques are among the most popular pearl looks these days. At first glance, these first-ever top Chinese bead-nucleated freshwater baroque strands, especially if white, look like they come from the South Seas. Available in 18 by 12 and 17 by 11mm sizes for only hundreds per strand, the new Chinese baroques remain bargains at three times the price.

Eventually, farmers hope, the baroque tails will disappear the way tadpole tails disappear. And then so will the name "fireball." For, voila, then you will have perfect spheres.

True to South Sea standards, nacre thickness of the new bead-nucleated freshwater pearls will be at least 2mm. Moreover, since these pearls come from mussels that are six to ten times larger than akoya oysters, nuclei can be much larger. In addition, since the freshwater mollusks quickly smother beads in thick nacre coatings, farmers can use less-expensive, lower-grade, highly striated bead nuclei whose blemishes are sure to be hidden. The end-result: luxe looks for much less money.

So get ready for bleached and natural color bead-nucleated freshwater pearls with a roundness new to this variety. And when that happens, get ready for China to receive the full esteem it has long sought as a pearl producer.

KESHI PEARLS

SPONTANEOUS SPLENDORS

Certain pearls are reminders that mollusks don't need the aid of man to grow them. Indeed, before the first great wave of Japanese cultured pearls hit Europe and America in the late 1920s, the pearls your jeweler stocked were completely natural: produced by chance and pried from oysters and mussels gathered from various habitats such as lagoon floors and river bottoms.

During the 19th century, in fact, pearl fishing was a popular and often profitable American pastime in states like Wisconsin and Tennessee, whose lakes, rivers, and streams were crowded with mollusks that were potential treasure bearers. It was only as the supply of wild pearls grew inadequate to meet demand that the world became reliant on the domesticated variety. When pollution destroyed most of the world's pearl fishing habitats, the farm pearl became the only hope for this organic gem.

Just one type of pearl produced in any quantity today links us to that time not so long ago when most pearls still sprang from the whim of nature, not the will of man. It's called the keshi. Ironically, these spontaneous splendors occur only on pearl farms and owe their existence to human error during nucleation. To understand how error breeds these pearls, think about pearls from the perspective of its true creator.

A pearl is a mollusk's chief means of defense against a foreign body that enters or is inserted into its innards. In the case of natural pearls, a parasite or a bit of shell may get things going. In the case of cultured pearls, a bead-nucleus is the usual offender. The mollusk encases the trespasser in layers of nacre as, in essence, a form of pain relief.

When farmers implant a nucleus inside an oyster, other bits of material are sometimes introduced at the time of the insertion. These irritants can serve as unintended nuclei that trigger the creation of an ad-lib pearl composed entirely of nacre. When Japanese pearl farmers first recovered these accidental pearls at harvest time, they called them keshi, which means tiny, to describe their very small size.

Today keshi is a broad synonym for any unexpected pearl that is a byproduct of culturing. And since South Sea farms in Tahiti, Indonesia, Australia, and the Philippines are now also sources of these spontaneous splendors, the word keshi has little or no connection to its original meaning. South Sea oysters are far more roomy than Japan's akoya oysters. As a result, keshi can grow quite large—up to 16mm or thereabouts.

Whether from mussels or oysters, keshi are invariably baroque in shape. The fact that the vast majority are free-form is perhaps the single greatest factor in their low price. Perhaps as compensation, fine keshi possess remarkable luster and orient (surface iridescence caused by the refraction of light between successive nacre layers).

South Sea keshi come in a wide range of colors that have much to do with the oysters in which they grow. Recently, Tahiti, world-famous for so called black pearls, has been a major producer of silvery to charcoal-gray keshi, many with bright purple, green, and blue overtones. In addition, Australia is supplying white to silver-pink keshi and the Philippines creams to yellows.

In keeping with its new emphasis on quality and diversity, China has begun to produce new breeds of spontaneous baroque pearls that defy categorization. Instead of disposing of oysters after harvesting, farmers are putting them back in the water for another year and then extracting the free-form pearls that grow on impulse in the mollusk's pearl sac.

No one knows quite how to classify such serendipities. Are they a form of keshi—those unintended and accidental pearls that grow alongside ones that are planned? Or are they a new form of natural pearl since they are entirely unprovoked? The most popular of these second growth pearls are delicate thin, flat shapes called "petal pearls." In any case, keshi pearls send a message that nature can't be completely tamed. If you want pearls that are as close to wild as one gets nowadays, keshi is your best bet.

SOUTH SEA PEARLS

SUBTLE STATUS

The pearl industry changed when Tahiti taught the world that so-called black pearls can be every color in the book except black. So people have started calling them Tahitian pearls (although, to be honest, some of these former black pearls are grown in the Cook Islands).

Now Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, the three main producers of what are called South Sea pearls, are teaching the world that it would be just as inaccurate to think of their pearls as white. Or merely white.

Don't get the wrong idea. The majority of South Sea pearls are white. But, as anyone who has ever had to choose between bone, oyster, or a hundred other subtly different tints of white wall paint knows, the color differences are subtle, even hairline, but always perceptible. It all boils down to taste.

Do you like your whites balanced and neutral? Or do you prefer them on the "cool" side with perhaps a hint of silver? Are "warm" shades with maybe a touch of cream more to your liking? The South Seas produces white pearls in an impressively wide gamut of shades stretching from silvery to golden, usually with a common denominator of pink.

For those in the cool school, there are four basic categories: white, white-pink, pink, and silver-pink. Within those categories there are many subcategories. Under silver-pink, for example, you will find an attractive bluish-silver-pink.

For those who like sunnier hues, there are three basic whites: white-cream, cream, and cream-pink. As the cream content increases, pearls show yellow, champagne, or green overtones. When these overtones predominate, pearls are classified as "fancy colors" the same as diamonds that have more yellow than white. The most prized South Sea fancy colors are variously labeled apricot, peach, and cognac. But these are all subcategories of gold, a broad color classification of premium South Sea pearls.

Of course, all South Sea pearls are premium. Nothing says status as softly or subtly. A fine strand of large South Sea pearls could command a million dollars. One such strand sold at the Baselworld fair this year.

In keeping with their subtle hues, South Sea pearls tend to have satin-like luster that seems to suffuse them with an inward glow and refined elegance far different from the sharper, sleeker, more mirror-like finish of fine akoya pearls. At the very least, South Sea pearls should have a soft, luminous gleam. Avoid ones that look dull or chalky.

Because South Sea pearls are usually light-toned, spots and other blemishes will be more easily noticed than with darker-toned Tahitian pearls. Hence it is important to make sure that your pearls are as clean-skinned as possible. This doesn't mean that pearls with a tiny blemish or two aren't acceptable. Just check closely for complexion problems. The fewer, the better.

Sometimes, in order to save money, it may be tempting to buy lower-priced South Sea pearls with complexions that are just so-so or verge on skin conditions. But if you must set your sights lower to stay within your means, do so in ways that won't cheat you of the beautiful pearls you deserve. Many people keep South Sea pearls affordable by choosing smaller sizes or shapes other than round.

Grown in the gigantic Pinctada maxima oyster, South Sea pearls boast the greatest size range of any pearl variety. You can buy them as small as 7mm and as large as 20mm. Generally speaking, however, availability tapers off sharply above 15mm. But, hey, there's nothing wrong with pearls of 10 to 12mm or even 8 to 10mm.

Last but not least, explore shapes other than rounds to keep South Sea pearl costs under control. Irregular shapes called baroques as well as ringed pearls offer the best bargains in terms of shape. But drops and buttons can get you what are called fancy shapes at unfancy prices. If your heart is set on rounds, consider ovals and semi-rounds that look from afar, and very often from near, like perfectly spherical pearls.

TAHITIAN PEARLS

PICK A COLOR, ANY COLOR

Tahiti is well-known as a pleasure lover's paradise. Now it is also becoming known as a pearl lover's paradise. It is world-famous for the cultured pearls it has been producing in steadily increasing numbers since the early 1960s. Please note we call these South Sea stunners Tahitian cultured pearls.

They used to be called black pearls. But that proved to be a misnomer. First of all, Tahitian pearls are not really black. Instead, they run a pretty wide gamut of gray—from light flannel to dark charcoal. In fact some are a kind of dusky white and others silver. Secondly, Tahitian pearls often exhibit distinctive overtones of purple, green, blue, brown—you name it, Tahitian pearls have it.

In addition, Tahitian pearls with irregular shapes (called baroques) or with grooves girdling their entire surface (called circle pearls) often have particularly pronounced prismatic flashes of color called orient that set them apart from other pearls.

While on the subject of color in Tahitian pearls, it is important to note that even when color overtones are subdued, they still tend to have an iridescent quality. As overtones strengthen, they take on a day-glo quality. At a certain point, overtones become so prominent that they cannot be called overtones anymore but move into the territory of body colors. Sometimes a pearl with one body color will also have strong overtones of a second color. Two Tahitian color blends, in particular, are among the most prized of all pearl colors: a deep purple with green overtones called eggplant and a vivid green with magenta overtones called peacock.

Very recently, medium and lighter tones of Tahitian pearls with golden-green pistachio body colors and purplish-pink overtones have taken jewelry designers by storm. Now bronze and beige pearls are vying for attention. It all adds up to a color palette larger than any other pearl.

Increasingly, dealers are celebrating the diversity of colors available in stunning multicolor strands. Some blend tones in a subtle interplay of similar intensities. Others play up the contrast by alternating warm and cool shades, even mixing in Chinese and white and golden South Sea pearls for even greater color contrast.

Ironically, some Tahitian farmers who grew pearls with captivating lighter tones and colors didn't market them at first because they were convinced that such pearls would have little or no appeal to the public. The reason why they may have thought this way is that lighter-toned pearls tend to have a softer, more velvety appearance. As pearl tones darken and their colors deepen, surfaces become brighter and more glowing. Because Tahitian pearls set new standards for pearl luster, this is an attribute for which they are widely celebrated.

Let's talk about luster for a moment. The term refers to the sharpness and intensity of light reflected from a pearl's surface. For unknown reasons, Tahitian pearls excel at this important pearl attribute. Maybe it is imparted by the large black-lipped oyster, known as the Pinctada margaritifera, in which Tahitian pearls are grown for two and occasionally three years to assure significant nacre accumulation. Whatever the reason, Tahitian pearls at their most lustrous have a high-gloss finish that allows you to see a miniature reflection of your face with all its features remarkably well-defined.

Like other South Sea pearls, Tahitian pearls are often as big as they are beautiful. In recent years, some Tahitian farms have produced gargantuan sizes of 18, 19, and even 20mm. But such sizes are extraordinarily rare and their prices reflect it. In fact, fine quality Tahitian pearls from 14mm up are always in short supply and consequently quite valuable. But don't be discouraged. You can have superb Tahitian pearls at more affordable prices. Here's how.

If you want all the unique aesthetic features of Tahitian pearls—high luster and day-glo colors—at a price within reach, consider buying increasingly plentiful sizes between 8 and 10mm. While petite in comparison to large Tahitian pearls, these sizes look large next to the more common 6 and 7mm white akoya cultured pearls.