Gems and pearls

Jewelry and jewelry are often made around the most beautiful and valuable gemstones and pearls.
The appeal of these beautiful parts of jewelry and gems are often the main reason to buy them. so it is important to know more about them. There is a lot to tell about gemstones and pearls. You can lose yourself in the scientific side of the story but also in the spiritual side. We have a large and diverse collection of both gems and pearls in stock. We keep this collection up to date by traveling halfway around the world with some regularity and searching for top quality.

To start with pearls.

The magic of pearls.

Beyond the beauty, the elusiveness of pearls, they have always been found valuable. Moreover, everyone knows a story that involves something with pearls. For example, they are said to be bridal tears or in ancient times they were even considered a stimulant. There are legends about Cleopatra trying a love potion on Marc Antony in which pearls were supposedly dissolved. The Greeks saw them as the tears of the gods.

In the early 20th century, the method of growing (Akoya) pearls was invented in Japan by Mr. Mikimoto. Today there are many applications to his brainchild, both in oysters and mussels. You insert a piece of material (core) and around this the oyster or mussel will apply pearl. Surround the oyster with great care and attention, provide plenty of food, chase off predators and wait. Mussels and                                                                                   oysters take years to build up the pearl layer.

Growing pearls is one thing, growing oysters is quite another. An oyster can produce two, at most three pearls in its lifetime, at least of high quality. So the first branch of a pearl farm is breeding oysters. The important thing is to make a selection of those oysters with which you can grow the largest pearls. (After all, those are the most valuable)

That pearl farming is very sensitive to external conditions can be seen in the blow to the Chinese akoya sector in 2007. Due to heavy rainfall near the island of Hai nan, off the coast between Hong Kong and Vietnam, the salinity of the sea water became so mixed with fresh water that more than 50% of the harvest failed.

More information on the most important pearls of the moment can be found here