Pearls are the oldest gemstone known to man and are the only gemstone produced by a living organism. Pearls are believed to bring good fortune, ward off evil spirits and protect the wearer from illnesses. Pearls are the birthstone for people born in June under the zodiac sign of Gemini. Pearls are also associated with femininity, chastity and purity making them a popular and traditional choice for bridal jewellery.

Natural pearls are so rarely found today that the vast majority of pearls available today are cultured. A natural pearl forms when a tiny object such as a grain of sand or tiny parasite makes its way into an oyster. The oyster coats the foreign object with many coats of nacre to protect itself and over time the pearl forms and becomes increasingly larger with each coat of nacre. When a pearl is cultured, a foreign object is implanted into the oyster, thereby nucleating it. The oyster then coats the foreign object with nacre in exactly the same way. It is almost impossible to tell a high grade cultured pearl from a high grade natural pearl, with an X-ray being the only sure way to determine the pearls origin. Jenny Gutierrez designer pearl jewellery features both cultured pearls and rare natural pearls.

Pearls are valued according to their colour, shape, size, type and grade.

Pearls are available in a vast choice of colours, both natural and colour enhanced. Natural pearl colours are tones of lavender, peach, pink, yellow, silver, cream, white, copper and black with these natural colour pearls often having rainbow overtones or peacock overtones. Natural colour pearls often have variances in colour across their surface and are rarely found in one uniform colour. If the pearl has a uniform colour it is likely to be dyed. There is no right and wrong when it comes to choosing a Pearl colour, only personal preference however pearls in natural tones will always be more valuable than dyed or colour enhanced pearls. Jenny Gutierrez designer pearl jewellery is handmade using natural colour pearls and selected colour enhanced pearls. All of our colour enhanced pearls are cleared described as so.

Pearls are available in a large variety of shapes with perfectly round pearls being the most coveted and valuable along with the more unusual and rare shapes such as keishi petal pearls. ‘Potato’, ‘Rice’ and ‘Button’ shaped pearls are widely available, are very inexpensive and are the pearl type most often used by many pearl jewellery designers. Jenny Gutierrez designer pearl jewellery is handmade using only the most coveted and most valuable pearl shapes; unlike other pearl jewellery designers we do not use any inferior quality pearls in our pearl jewellery.

There are many types of pearl available from the popular white cultured freshwater pearls and Saltwater Akoya pearls through to black Tahitian Pearls and South Seas pearls to the more unusual Keishi Pearls, Mabe Pearls and Biwa Pearls and ultra rare pearls like Kasumi pearls, Paua Pearls and Conch pearls.

The size of a pearl will depend greatly upon the type of pearl.

Freshwater pearls range in size from about 1mm upwards, Akoya pearls range from about 3mm upwards, and South Sea and Tahitian pearls can reach sizes larger than 15mm. Exotic shape pearls such as keishi pearls can vary massively in size with the larger being much more valuable.

A pearls value is largely determined by its grade. Pearls without surface blemishes are extremely valuable and the value of these pearls increases considerable with the size of the pearl due to the rarity of pearls in larger sizes with smooth blemish free skin. Although there is no industry standard way of grading a pearl, the most commonly used pearl grading system grades pearls between AAAA to C grades. The majority of pearl jewellery sold today is created using grades B to C pearls. Jenny Gutierrez pearl jewellery is handmade using pearls of only AA+ grade and above.

When buying Pearl Jewellery take great care to ensure that you are buying genuine Pearls rather than artificial pearls such as glass pearls or Swarovski Pearls. When buying your Pearl jewellery you should always ask your jewellery designer whether the Pearls are genuine. You should also check the quality of the pearls; most pearl jewellery sold today is created from low grade pearls. A reputable Pearl jewellery designer will always be able to provide you with a written guarantee that you are buying a genuine Pearl and will provide you with information about the grade of the Pearls used in their pearl jewellery.

Pearl Jewellery Care: Do not allow contact with household chemicals, perfume, hairspray or make up as these can damage the pearls.