Jewellery & Jewelry

pearl jewelry has always brought to mind the spirit of the sea. One imagines giant clams, or beds of oysters and pearl divers diving in to gather them up while holding their breath. The image of the tropic seas, warm sun and salty breeze gives way to a different reality. Uncultivated pink pearls are beautiful. pearls jewelry using these pink beads is rare and enticing. It’s surprising because these unusual pearls are are from the Miami River in Ohio.

The Ohio valley offered up a tremendous number of fresh water pearls and was a booming business towards the end of the 19th century. Pearls pulled from the river had a range of colors including; creamy white, alabaster, blue, green, pink and rose colored. These pearls continue to be produced and are sought after because they are naturally grown.

While pearl diving had been the method of bringing pearls to the market in the past, most pearls today are the product of domestic farming. Pearls inserting an irritant into a mollusk. The mollusk covers the irritant like it would in the wild, with aragonite and conchiolin, and overtime the pearls are removed. The commercial market consists primarily of cultivated and synthetic pearls. This creates a valuable niche for organic pearls and the pearls from the Ohio Valley.

Long before boys were digging in the mud with their toes looking for mollusks that might contain a pearl, the Native Americans of the Ohio Valley were harvesting them. Relics were discovered in burial mounds that point to an abundance of pearls. They were once thought to be part of a trading route with coastal tribes, but as the abundance of local pearls became apparent, archeologists believe them to be from the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. These pearls were made into jewelry and sometimes flattened then attached to clothes. They could also be found set into copper work. Fresh water pearls, like pearls from the sea come in a variety of shapes and sizes. In truth, it is unusual to get a perfectly round pearl. Less then 1% of fresh water natural pearls are round. Most are oblong or thin and long like rice. Pearls are considered organic gemstones, and both Tennessee and Kentucky have named the fresh water pearl the state gem. During thelate 1800’s many people enjoyed spending a summer day pearling, digging through the mud and looking for the odd shaped pearls.

Fresh water pearlshave become rarer over the years because of habitat destruction. Fresh water pearls need flowing water and shoals. The damming of many of the rivers in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee has modified the course of the river and altered the environment that the clams thrived on. They can still be found today, but not in as abundant proportions as years ago. The fortunately fresh water pearls can produce more then one pearl at a time, unlike their marine counter parts. While the perfect round pearl is rare, they are naturally produced and come in a wide variety of colors making them cherished adornments.