My love affair with pearls is many years old. The fascination started when I saw one of my aunt's daughter wear a lehanga (an Indian attire) embellished with only pearls, in a family wedding. She looked so sophisticated in that white dress from which strands and strands of pearls were hanging in semi - oval shape. Think I shouldn't say this, but to me she looked even more beautiful than the bride. Soon enough, I asked my mom to buy me a pearl set when I'll get married. My mom thought I had gone crazy, talking about my wedding at the age of 13-14.
Coco Chanel, perhaps the most influential designer of the twentieth century declared "A woman needs ropes and ropes of pearls".
Pearls shoudn't be under-estimated (rather over-estimated) as just the formal and traditional jewelry. They have the power of going irresistably funky and informal. And by no means, they should be considered the domian of high-income society only. With the increasing production of imitation pearls, which are very affordable, anyone can easily satisy their taste buds for this iridecsent stone.
I intend to do a series about pearls, but for now, lets just understand what a pearl is!!
According to "The Pearl Book - The Definitive Buying Guide", a Pearl is an organic gem, that is, a gem that comes from a living thing. Coral and Amber are two other organic gems. Pearls are produced by several species of saltwater and freshwater molluscs including oysters, clams, mussels, snails, squid, octupus and many other shellfish. When a tiny intruder finds its way into a mollusc's shell, it begins to produce something to soothe the iritation the intruder causes; this soothing secretion is a brownish substance called conchiolin (kon-KY-oh-lin, "ky" as in sky), over which another substance is secreted, usually a whitish substance, called nacre (NAY-ker). The conchiolin binds the nacre together to form the pearl.
