About Our Pearls
Saltwater Pearls:
Akoya - The classic round, usually white or cream cultured pearl. These pearls originated in Japan, but are now also produced in China
South Sea – Our South Sea Pearls grow come from Australia, the producer of highest quality south sea pearls. These oysters produces white, cream pearls and a rich golden hue.
Tahitian - Found in the waters of French Polynesia, these “black” pearls are most often truly deep gray to silver with overtones of green, purple, blue or pink.
Freshwater Pearls:
Freshwater Pearls come in a variety of shapes and a broad range of colors. Though they can be found around the world (including the Mississippi River) they were most famously sourced from Lake Biwa in Japan. Today, most freshwater pearls available today come from China. The methods for their production were brought to China from Japan, and Chinese pearl farmers have expanded on and refined those techniques to create pearls of consistently high quality.
Pearl Shapes:
The most classic and highly valued shape for a pearl is round, the more symmetrical and near to perfect the better. However, both saltwater and freshwater pearls occur in a variety of beautiful shapes, including:
| Tear |  |
| Oval |  |
| Button - Like a round that has been flattened slightly. Often used for earrings. |  |
| Keshi - A freeform saltwater pearl that forms without a nucleus, often because the mollusk has rejected the implant. Because they are solid nacre, they are often quite lustrous and beautiful. |  |
| Baroque - An organic, asymmetrical shape, often asymmetrical. |  |
| Mabe - Grown against the side of the shell, either spontaneously or cultured there with a half-round nucleus, this pearl is domed on one side, flat on the other. |  |
| Coin, Tile - Flat pearls that are either circular or rectangular. |  |
Pearl Grades:
Unlike diamonds, pearls are not graded using a standard, internationally recognized system. Pearls are evaluated for size, color, luster, surface quality (or complexion) and shape. All of these criteria must be considered together when assessing a pearl, and all (with the exception of size) are somewhat subjective. It takes a highly trained eye to accurately assign value to a pearl.
Size - Generally, all other qualities (luster, color, shape, etc) being equal, the larger the pearl, the more valuable it will be. The size of a pearl is limited by, among other factors, the size of the mollusk. The small oysters from which Akoya pearls come rarely produce a pearl over 9 millimeters.
Color - Pearls come in a full spectrum of colors, from white to black, with pink, green, bronze, champagne and a host of hues in between. Experts describe a pearl’s color in three parts: the body color, the overtones and the orient, or iridescence.
Luster - A pearl’s luster is its radiance and glow, caused by light reflecting off the layers of nacre at the surface and below (pearls really do glow from within). A high-luster pearl next to a low-luster pearl will look like satin next to crepe de chine.
Complexion - Complexion refers to the smoothness of the pearl’s surface. Being natural, no pearl is likely to be flawless, but all high-quality pearls should be free of discolorations, scratches, chips and cracks. In evaluating a round pearl, experts also look for a surface without pits, bumps, rings and ripples.
Shape - Since pearls are a product of nature, perfection is rare. Therefore, all other qualities being equal, the closer to perfectly round a pearl is, the more valuable it is likely to be. That said, pearl lovers have preferences for pearls of many shapes, and some of the world’s most spectacular and valuable pearls are not round.
