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Pearls the Environment

Pearls demand an environmentally pristine environment.

Pearl Farms and their owners promote, protect and champion the environment.

When we sell pearls we look at the intrinsic beauty and luster of the pearls we are selling. As salespeople, we speak of fashion and style, luster, surface, size, color and all the common issues associated with the love and admiration of pearls.

An area associated with pearls that is rarely promoted is the environmental and economic ramifications of the cultured pearl industry. A cultured pearl farm, by its nature, requires a pristine environment to succeed and flourish. Pearl oysters are sensitive creatures and they are susceptible to even subtle changes in the environment. Without such a perfect environment, the mollusks cannot flourish to do their magic.

There is no better example of this than Japan, the creator of the cultured pearl industry. The Japanese cultured pearl production flourished in their bountiful waters until Japanese heavy industrial industry began to thrive. As the economy transformed, Lake Biwa could no longer sustain it's fragile environment. Thus, ending Japan’s dominance of the freshwater pearl market.

Today the pearl industry recognizes that protecting a pristine marine environment is essential to the farms success. The pearl farms have become leading environmental advocates in their part of the world.

Roger is far more than our Eyris Pearl Supplier

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Unique Pearl Strands

Our Pearl buyer has selected a collection of unique pearls for you.

In support of the Journey Campaign this 2006 holiday season, Imperial has decided to develop a line of Journey Pearl Jewelry! The circles, curves, drops and other themes have been an inspiration and you can view just some of these styles below.

Pearls try to come out of their shells

Pearls continue to get great publicity this article appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Vanessa O'Connell - The Wall Street Journal

For pearl lovers, the world is your oyster right now.

From Chanel to Fortunoff and Tiffany, jewelers are rolling out new designs, colors and techniques in an effort to make pearls fashionable again.

The moves come as Chinese producers have figured out how to improve the quality of their less-expensive, mass-produced freshwater pearls in recent years. Chinese suppliers are now producing freshwater pearls that have the smooth, round look of pricier saltwater varieties — as well as pearls in the shape of potatoes, petals and coins.

Education

It is our belief an enhanced knowledge of the cultured pearl product category results in greater sales and an increased passion for pearls.

"Chocolate Pearls,"

The colors range from a pleasing dark brown to light yellow-brown, and have been described in the trade as "copper," "bronze," or "honey" colored; these hues are not typical of natural-color Tahitian cultured pearls. The luster of the "chocolate" cultured pearls varies from satin-like to metallic. The available sizes range from 9 to 15mm, although larger ones have been produced.

GIA identifies three types of brown pearls

The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has been looking into chocolate-colored cultured pearls, and has recorded three possible types based on treatment methods used.

According to director of GIA Research Facility (Bangkok), Kenneth Scarratt, the three types are:

(I) Materials that result from the bleaching of black Pinctada margaritifera cultured pearls;
(II) Materials that result from an unknown process, producing a color similar to that in (I) but with different fluorescence properties;
(III) Materials that have been dyed using silver nitrate.

Mr Scarratt said the dyeing of natural and cultured pearls with silver nitrate is well known but the color usually produced is black. However, cultured pearls dyed by this technique and with a resultant brown color were recorded and first reported in The Journal of Gemology in 1984, but the color produced was not particularly attractive and certainly not as evenly distributed as those in (I) and (II) mentioned above, he said.

"We have noted a number of more recent variants of the silver nitrate-dyed brown cultured pearls present on the market today. While their color distribution is better than those on the market in 1984, the color has a different appearance to that in (I) above." He added that if silver nitrate is used, the base product does not have to be a Tahitian pearl.
All three types can be separated through a combination of visual observation, fluorescence and EDXRF, but it cannot be definitive at this point regarding which type produces more stable color, he said.

He commented that of the chocolate pearls GIA has tested, the greatest number belongs to (I), the bleached type. However, he emphasized that this might not be representative of the quantities of chocolate pearls available in the market.

An Elephant Pearl?

It must be Big! Yes, it is actually...

Although all mammals can have pearls form on the roots of their teeth only elephants and hippopotami tend to form loose pearls rather than mabé-like outgrowths

Being made of dentine they do not have luster or orient and, of course, they are ivory beige in color. Like tridacna pearls, they tend to have a flame-like pattern The pattern looks somewhat like wet silk. The shapes are typically plump ovals like olives or buttonish squished rounds.