Maria said that a Pearl is a hard object produced within the soft tissue of a living shell, like the shell a pearl it is made up of calcium. The ideal Pearl is round and smooth but many other shapes of pearls occur. A "natural pearl" or "wild pearl".is one that form without any human intervention at all. There are also Freshwater and saltwater pearls, may sometimes look similar but they come from different sources like lakes and rivers. the shells from the Oysters are usually grind up and made into Mother of Pearl Handles.
In addition Freshwater Pearls can be dyed most colours so you have to be very careful and look for a metallic mirror-like luster to get the best coloured pearl.
Maria also said these days most pearls come from "pearl farming" This limits the number of pearls at a harvest period as usually only one is grown at a time. We were also told that Mikimoto did not discover the process of pearl culture this was a British Biologist William Saville Kent in Australia. Once a year buyers travel from all over the world to buy their pearls from Hong Kong this is done by threading them on "hanks". There were several lovely necklaces on display ranging from £25:00 to £20 thousand and upwards.
Our next meeting is on Wednesday 13 February at 7.30pm in the Community Centre when John Henson will be coming to show us a selection of Slides and Photography of Madagascar. Visitors are always welcome and if there are any queries, please contact Veronica Brett, President onor Lesley Sanders, Secretary on
Pam Cooper
