Charlene K Pearl Collection – A Fresh Take on Pearl Jewelry

Classic, Forever Gorgeous Charlene K Pearl jewelry Collection!
Pearl jewelry has been a thing of the past and present and will likely continue to have a presence in the foreseeable future.

This gem never goes out of style. Pearls! Charlene K’s high quality Fresh Water Pearl jewelry collections are for every style, dress and occasion. They come in a variety of sizes, colors and arrangements perfect for jeans, or an evening gown. For more information, please contact us at: info@CharleneK.com
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Journey of a Pearl

The Making of Freshwater Cultured Pearls

Traditional pearl cultivation involves first inserting a bead nucleus, then a piece of mantle tissue, inside a mollusk. Not long after this method began, pearl farmers discovered, quite accidentally, that nacre (NAY-ker) could form around mantle tissue without the presence of a bead nucleus. Leaving out the bead nucleus made the process easier and soon, this became an accepted means of production. Most freshwater pearls are nucleated only with a small piece of mantle tissue, although great strides have been made in recent years to produce bead-nucleated freshwater pearls.

Fresh water pearls make up more than 90% of today’s world wide pearl market, and have never been so large, or so widely accessible in human history. Although fresh water pearls have been found all over the world.. the most notable cultivations have been in the US, Japan and China. Dependent on the shell they are harvested from … the natural colors can vary wildly from white,cream, through golden,pink, lavender and sometimes soft blue. Beyond the natural colors, Chinese fresh water pearls are available in a dizzying array of non-natural dyed and treated colors.

Pearl Care

The oysters are given the utmost care during this time while suspended in the water. From the rafts above, technicians check water temperatures and feeding conditions daily at various depths, moving the oysters up or down as appropriate. Periodically, the oysters are lifted from the sea for cleaning and health treatments. Seaweed, barnacles and other seaborne organisms that might interfere with their feeding are removed from the oysters’ shells. The shells are also treated with medicinal compounds to discourage parasites.

Over time, after eight to 36 months of growth and care, the oysters are ready for harvest. Those that have survived the many perils of the sea are brought ashore and opened. All pearls must be cleaned and washed to remove residue and odors. They are typically tumbled in rotating
barrels with salt during this procedure. The tumbling must be closely monitored; otherwise some of the nacre may wear off.

When everything has gone well, a beauty is revealed — the result is a lovely, lustrous and very valuable cultured pearl. Chinese freshwater pearls and Akoya pearls are often treated with chemicals after drilling. This whitens them and makes the color look more even.

Charlene K Pearl Collection

Charlene K Pearl Collection -Enjoy a classic fashion look!

Nothing says class and refinement quite like pearls! Charlene K carry high-quality, classic, elegant and stylish freshwater-cultured pearl jewelry designs in necklaces, earrings, pendants and bracelets.

For more information, please contact us at: info@charlenek.com

What is Pearl? A hard, lustrous spherical mass, typically white or bluish-gray, formed within the shell of a pearl oyster or other bivalve mollusk and highly prized as a gem.

Freshwater pearls form in various species of freshwater mussels, family Unionidae, which live in lakes, rivers, ponds and other bodies of fresh water.

The value of the pearls in jewelry is determined by a combination of the luster, color, size, lack of surface flaw and symmetry that are appropriate for the type of pearl under consideration. Among those attributes, luster is the most important differentiator of pearl quality according to jewelers.

All factors being equal, however, the larger the pearl the more valuable it is. Large, perfectly round pearls are rare and highly valued. Teardrop-shaped pearls are often used in pendants.

Shapes: Pearls come in eight basic shapes: round, semi-round, button, drop, pear, oval, baroque, circled and double bouldered. Perfectly round pearls are the rarest and most valuable shape. Semi-rounds are also used in necklaces or in pieces where the shape of the pearl can be disguised to look like it is a perfectly round pearl. Button pearls are like a slightly flattened round pearl and can also make a necklace, but are more often used in single pendants or earrings where the back half of the pearl is covered, making it look like a larger, rounder pearl.

Drop and pear shaped pearls are sometimes referred to as teardrop pearls and are most often seen in earrings, pendants, or as a center pearl in a necklace. Baroque pearls have a different appeal; they are often highly irregular with unique and interesting shapes. They are also commonly seen in necklaces. Circled pearls are characterized by concentric ridges, or rings, around the body of the pearl.

In general, cultured pearls are less valuable than natural pearls, whereas imitation pearls have almost no value. One way that jewelers can determine whether a pearl is cultured or natural is to have a gemlab perform an X-ray examination of the pearl. If X-rays reveals a nucleus, the pearl is likely a bead-nucleated saltwater pearl. If no nucleus is present, but irregular and small dark inner spots indicating a cavity are visible, combined with concentric rings of organic substance, the pearl is likely a cultured freshwater. Cultured freshwater pearls can often be confused for natural pearls which present as homogeneous pictures which continuously darken toward the surface of the pearl. Natural pearls will often show larger cavities where organic matter has dried out and decomposed.