Pearls are organic, natural products of sea creatures such as oysters, clams and mussels. These creatures are widely known as mollusks and are characterized by a soft body protected by calcareous shells.
When an irritant penetrates a mollusk’s shell, the mollusk defends itself by producing layers of nacre around this irritant. The nacre, which is also called the mother of pearl, is the outer coating of the pearls and consists of many mineralized tissues overlapping.
The pearls can be either natural or cultured.
Under the term of natural pearls, we understand pearls that are produced by the mollusques naturally, without any human intervention.
Cultured pearls, on the other hand, are results of human intervention and artificial placement of an irritant inside the mollusques. The procedure for that has been so well developed over the course of time that nowadays most of the pearls on the market are cultured.
Depending on the place of their origin, all pearls can be divided into two categories: Saltwater pearls and freshwater pearls.
Saltwater pearls come from seas and oceans and their color can be white, soft grey, faded golden, deep grey and purple. However, the most common and the most popular color of saltwater pearls is soft pink.
Freshwater pearls have their origins in streams, lakes and rivers and can naturally be white, beige, pink, lilac or peachy. Freshwater pearls are also often dyed, which results in a wide variety of nuances to choose from. For our jewelry we only use freshwater pearls in their natural nuances.
The alexandrite gemstone is often referred to as an emerald by day ruby by night as a result of its color changing abilities. The perfect specimen will have a raspberry color in dim light or red in incandescent light and bright green in daylight. However, this perfect gem is as yet undiscovered.
The color of the stone occurs due to its chromium content, the same chemical that gives rubies and emeralds their coloring. The amount of color change it causes is given as a percentage, and a 100% color change is the most valuable. If the colors differ from the expected coloring too much, the value is affected and could pose the question of whether it is actually an alexandrite or not.
The first alexandrite ever discovered was found on the birthday of Russia’s Prince Alexander II in 1830 at the Ural Mountains. Miners who were mining emeralds close to the Ural Mountains discovered it accidentally.
The story goes that the miners were working and brought some emeralds back to camp after a long day. When the emeralds were brought out into the campfire light, they gave off a beautiful shade of red. This caused quite some confusion the following morning, when the stones appeared as emerald green in daylight. They soon realized that they had found something truly unique and valuable.
In 1839 the stones were officially identified and given the name alexandrite in honor of the prince. The stone was also made the official stone of Russia as the colors happened to be the same as the Old Imperial Russia’s military colors.
The alexandrite was first found in the Russian Ural Mountains inside some of the most prestigious emerald mines. They belong to the chrysoberyl family and are incredibly durable given the 8.5 hardness level. If you are lucky enough to find one of these stones, they are hardy enough to incorporate into most types of jewelry.
They are found in Russia, Sri Lanka, Brazil, India, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Southern Tanzania, and Myanmar – although there are no mines dedicated to sourcing these gems, they are usually found while looking for other stones.
In addition to the unique color effect of the gem, it is also unique in that it has traces of chromium, iron, and titanium. It is a lot more modern than other gemstones and has not been referenced in ancient history, leading one to believe that it really was found for the first time in the 19th century.
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