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Baroque Pearls
Baroque pearls are pearls with an irregular, non-spherical shape. Shapes can range from minor aberrations to distinctly ovoid, curved, pinched, or lumpy shapes. Most cultured freshwater pearls are baroque because freshwater pearls are mantle-tissue nucleated instead of bead nucleated. Cultured saltwater pearls can also be baroque, but tend to be more teardrop-shaped due to the use of a spherical, nucleation bead. The most valuable baroque pearls are the South Sea and the Tahitian pearls, which are produced by ''Pinctada margaritifera'' (black-lipped oysters) and ''Pinctada maxima'' (gold-lipped and white-lipped oysters). Although these are a variety of cultured saltwater pearls, the amount of time that the pearls are cultured dramatically increases the depth of the nacre Nacre ( , ), also known as mother of pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer; it is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is stron ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imperial Empress Crown 2
Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texas * Imperial, West Virginia * Imperial, Virginia * Imperial County, California * Imperial Valley, California * Imperial Beach, California Elsewhere * Imperial (Madrid), an administrative neighborhood in Spain * Imperial, Saskatchewan, a town in Canada Buildings * Imperial Apartments, a building in Brooklyn, New York * Imperial City, Huế, a palace in Huế, Vietnam * Imperial Palace (other) * Imperial Towers, a group of lighthouses on Lake Huron, Canada * The Imperial (Mumbai), a skyscraper apartment complex in India Animals and plants * '' Cheritra'' or imperial, a genus of butterfly Architecture, design, and fashion * Imperial, a luggage case for the top of a coach * Imperial, the top, roof or second-storey compartment of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pearl
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate (mainly aragonite or a mixture of aragonite and calcite) in minute crystalline form, which has deposited in concentric layers. The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes, known as baroque pearls, can occur. The finest quality of natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries. Because of this, ''pearl'' has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable. The most valuable pearls occur spontaneously in the wild, but are extremely rare. These wild pearls are referred to as ''natural'' pearls. ''Cultured'' or ''farmed'' pearls from pearl oysters and freshwater mussels make up the majority of those currently sold. Imitation pearls are also widely s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cultured Freshwater Pearls
Cultured freshwater pearls are pearls that are farmed and created using freshwater mussels. These pearls are produced in Japan and the United States on a limited scale, but are now almost exclusively produced in China. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission requires that farmed freshwater pearls be referred to as "freshwater cultured pearls" in commerce. Quality of cultured freshwater pearls is evaluated through a grading system of a series of A values, based on luster, shape, surface, colour and matching. Current and historic industry Pearls gathered in the wild from the Holarctic saltwater pearl mussel were important sources of pearls for modern jewelry, with Scotland a major source; this species is now endangered in most areas. Although the Japanese freshwater pearl industry has nearly ceased to exist, it has a normal historic place as the first country to cultivate whole freshwater pearls, which it did in Lake Biwa, using the Biwa pearly mussel (''Hyriopsis schlegeli''). The ind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cultured Pearl
Cultured pearls are formed within a cultured pearl sac with human intervention in the interior of productive living molluscs in a variety of conditions depending upon the mollusc and the goals. Just as the same as natural pearls, cultured pearls can be cultivated in seawater or freshwater bodies. Nowadays, over 95% of the pearls available on the market would be cultured pearls. Development of a pearl A pearl is formed when the mantle tissue is injured by a parasite, an attack of a fish, or another event that damages the external fragile rim of the shell of a mollusk shell bivalve or gastropod. In response, the mantle tissue of the mollusk secretes nacre into the pearl sac, a cyst that forms during the healing process. Chemically speaking, this is calcium carbonate and a fibrous protein called conchiolin. As the nacre builds up in layers of minute aragonite tablets, it fills the growing pearl sac and eventually forms a pearl. Natural pearls are initiated in nature more or l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tahitian Pearl
The Tahitian pearl (or black pearl) is an organic gem formed from the black lip oyster ('' Pinctada margaritifera'').Newman, Renee. ''Pearl Buying Guide''. "Black Pearls." Los Angeles: International Jewelry Publications, c2005, p. 73 These pearls derive their name from the fact that they are primarily cultivated around the islands of French Polynesia, around Tahiti. Description Tahitian pearls come in a range of colors from white to black. They can contain various undertones and overtones of green, pink, blue, silver and yellow. The most valuable of these are of the darker variety, as the naturally dark tones of the Tahitian pearls is a unique quality among pearls. A true black Tahitian pearl is extremely rare, and largely considered one of the most beautiful kinds of pearls in the world. Most Tahitian pearls that are identified as “black” are actually charcoal grey, silver, or dark green. An advantage of the Tahitian pearl is that the oyster inside of which they grow is quite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pearl Oyster
''Pinctada'' is a genus of saltwater oysters, marine bivalve mollusks in the family Pteriidae. These pearl oysters have a strong inner shell layer composed of nacre, also known as "mother of pearl". Pearl oysters are not closely related to either the edible oysters of family Ostreidae or the freshwater pearl mussels of the families Unionidae and Margaritiferidae. ''Pinctada margaritifera'' and '' P. maxima'' are used for culturing South Sea and Tahitian pearls. They are cultured widely primarily in the central and eastern Indo-Pacific. A pearl oyster can be seen on the reverse side of the 1,000-peso note of the Philippines. Species of commercial value All species within the genus produce pearls. Attempts have been made to harvest pearls commercially from many ''Pinctada'' species. However, the only species that are currently of significant commercial interest are: * Gulf pearl oyster, ''Pinctada radiata''; Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea and throughout the Indo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nacre
Nacre ( , ), also known as mother of pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer; it is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Nacre is found in some of the most ancient lineages of bivalves, gastropods, and cephalopods. However, the inner layer in the great majority of mollusc shells is porcellaneous, not nacreous, and this usually results in a non-iridescent shine, or more rarely in non-nacreous iridescence such as ''flame structure'' as is found in conch pearls. The outer layer of cultured pearls and the inside layer of pearl oyster and freshwater pearl mussel shells are made of nacre. Other mollusc families that have a nacreous inner shell layer include marine gastropods such as the Haliotidae, the Trochidae and the Turbinidae. Physical characteristics Structure and appearance Nacre is composed of hexagonal platelets of aragonite (a form of calcium carbonate) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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