Blemish: A defect found on the surface of the pearl. Non-damaging blemishes include spots, bumps, pits and wrinkles, and can affect a pearl’s price. Damaging blemishes — which may worsen, and can affect the durability of a pearl as well as its price — include cracks, holes and chips.
Button: A dome-shaped pearl with a flat bottom.
Choker: A pearl necklace that is 16 to 18 inches in length.
Circles: Concave, concentric rings on a pearl’s surface.
Clean: Absence of blemishes on a pearl’s surface.
Color: An evaluation of quality used to describe the color …

Black-Lip Oyster: An oyster of unusual size and diameter found in the South Pacific, from which is derived the famous black pearls known in the industry as Tahitian Pearls. Other colors produced by this mollusk, besides black, are silver to light gray, dark gray, orange, gold, green, blue, and purple.
Gold-Lip Oyster: The large oyster found in the waters off Australia, Indonesia, Philippines and Japan, which produces gold-colored South Sea Pearls.
Pinctada Fucata: The industry term for the saltwater mollusk that produces Akoya cultured pearls.
Pinctada Maxima: The industry term for the White-lip …

Abalone Pearl: A naturally cultivated pearl from an abalone, which is a univalve mollusk.
Akoya Cultured Pearls: Pearls produced by deliberate human intervention in several varieties of saltwater mollusks generally found in the waters around Japan and China. The Akoya pearl ranges in color from cream, white, rose, gold and blue-gray, and remains justly famous in the hierarchy of cultured pearls for its spectacular luster and beauty.
Baroque: A cultured pearl that is asymmetrical and free form in shape.
Biwa Pearl: A cultured pearl cultivated in a freshwater mussel in Lake Biwa, in …

June Birthstone : Pearl Birthstone
June’s birthstone is nature’s perfect gem.  Formed when a mollusk protects itself from a bit of irritating debris by building layers of iridescent material called nacre over the intruder, the pearl needs no human intervention to enhance it’s beauty.  In fact, this gem is portrayed in ancient religious texts as a metaphor for purity, wisdom and perfection.  The entrance to heaven, for example, is referred to as “the pearly gates.”
From the Latin word “perula,” or small pear, the pearl has been cherished throughout history.  Numerous legends …

Pearl size refers to the pearl’s diameter, which is measured in millimeters. Normally, the larger the pearl, the more rare it is and the more valuable. Keep in mind that pearl strands also have a length, which also affects price because of the number of pearls needed to create that particular necklace length.
The size of the oyster directly affects the size of the pearl it creates. Larger mollusks, for instance, create larger pearls.
However, large cultured pearls require a larger nucleus to be implanted into the oyster — which increases the …

Though all pearls are unique, each one usually has small imperfections on its surface described in the industry as blisters, spots or indentations.
As a pearl is produced it can develop these marks, and surface quality is judged by the number of those flaws visible on the outside of the pearl. A pearl with fewer surface markings is more rare and hence more valuable. However, like diamonds, pearls are rarely flawless.
Fine pearls have virtually no spots, bumps, pits, circles or wrinkles. High luster will often make tiny surface imperfections less visible …

The most coveted shape for a pearl is round — perfectly round. And, as perfectly round pearls are as rare as totally unblemished ones, those that do exist command exorbitant prices.
Usually, one finds pearls ranging from “all round” to “mostly round.” With Tahitian pearls, which are extremely rare and expensive when discovered in perfectly round form, the industry standard for the average Tahitian pearl is termed, “slightly off round.”
Pearl Drops
Other shapes, of course, are valued. The drop pearl is particularly prized because its shape adapts naturally to earrings and pendants.
Baroque …

When a mollusk senses an irritant within its body it secretes layers of semi-opaque calcium carbonate called nacre (NAY-ker) to coat the irritant. This substance builds up over time and becomes a pearl.
The thicker the nacre, the more lustrous the pearl. Though there are exceptions to that rule, the amount of nacre determines the reflective quality of the pearl’s surface. And luster is the most important factor determining the quality of a pearl. It is especially important that the surface be without blemish, because luster is more often seen on …

Mollusks create pearls in a palette of colors, from white to black and almost everything in between. Pearl color refers specifically to the color of the pearl’s body, considered the fundamental color of the pearl.
Colors generally range from cream, to silver-white, to black. But there are also color overtones reflected across a pearl’s surface. In fact, the color of a pearl more often than not is a meld of its body color and its overtone, just as the term “white-rose” will describe a white pearl with a rosy-colored hue.
Akoya Pearls
Akoya …