Pearl
Polishing
Unlike other gems such as precious stones that are cut
and polished in order to reveal their hidden beauty, many
believe that pearls are harvested and presented in their
natural state without any enhancing treatments. In reality,
this is not the case. Nearly all pearls harvested and sold
today undergo some form of pearl treatment.
One treatment common to most harvested pearls is pearl
polishing. Pearl polishing was not too common 20 years
ago, but today has become standard practice in order to
enhance the natural beauty, surface quality and luster
of most pearls. The polishing process consists of an initial
tumbling and cleaning process that removes various natural
deposits and residue that might cause irregularities in
the pearl surface as well as sea-borne odors. Next the
pearls may be tumbled again with various natural materials
such as bamboo slivers to further smooth out imperfections
in the pearl's surface.
Though these processes are rather benign and do not decrease
the quality of the pearl, some practices that include infusion
of oily substances to help increase luster are frowned
upon by National Pearl. Such practices only increase luster
temporarily, fading with time and wear.
Almost universally frowned upon is the practice of coating
lower quality pearls with various luster-increasing epoxy
resins. While such materials do increase luster dramatically,
they are prone to chipping and cracking over time, eventually
revealing the low quality pearl surface. One way to detect
such treatments is to use a loupe to closely inspect the
pearl’s surface. Often, imperfections in the epoxy
coating that are not visible to the naked eye will become
visible after magnification. National Pearl does not employ
any form of luster-increasing post-treatments such as oily
coatings or epoxy resins on any of our pearl products.
Pearl Bleaching
Another common practice within the pearl industry is called
pearl bleaching. The pearl bleaching process is often employed
after the initial cleaning process in order to help even
out color irregularities within the top layers of pearl
nacre. The forms of bleach used are very mild, allowing
gentle lightening of the pearl nacre without damaging pearl
nacre quality.
While the vast majority of white pearls on the market
today have undergone some form of mild bleaching, the practice
is not commonly disclosed and is often denied by pearl
farmers and distributors. National Pearl believes that
educating our customers is far preferable to deception
and hopes to make the full and honest disclosure of pearl
industry practices the basis of long-term relationships
with our clients.
Pearl Color Enhancements
Some of the most common form of pearl treatments today
include color enhancing treatments. Pearl color treatments
are employed today in order to help satisfy the variety
of requirements from the pearl purchasing public. For example,
Akoya pearls harvested from their oysters come in one basic
body color: white. The pearls may be naturally accented
by a few gentle overtones such as rosé, silver or
green.
Customers around the world have different tastes and preferences
when it comes to body color and overtones. How then are
these pearl color preferences satisfied? The answer is
color enhancement of one form or another.
The most common form of pearl color enhancement is dyeing.
Pearls are dyed after the drill holes have been completed.
As such, if pearls are presented to a buyer as “natural
color”, an easy way to discover the truth to such
a claim is by examining the drill holes with a loupe. A
build-up of the dye is often detectable at the surface
of the drill hole revealing which pearls have undergone
a dyeing treatment. Another way to detect pearl color enhancements
is to simply evaluate the overall matching of a strand.
If you are examining a strand of pearls that exhibits an
exotic color and the matching and surface seem all too
perfect, yet the pearls have an exceptionally low price,
the chances are that the pearls have been color enhanced
in one form or another.
It is important to note that pearl dyeing is not frowned
upon in the pearl industry. On the contrary, it is quite
a common practice. What is important is full disclosure
of the various treatments a pearl has undergone. Every
client has the right to understand what treatments a pearl
has undergone from the time it leaves the oyster until
the time of their purchase. Unfortunately, the many “middlemen” that
participate in the pearl trade may not receive honest disclosure
from the pearl farms concerning the various pearl treatments
that have been employed on their pearls. As a farm-direct
purchaser of pearls, National Pearl has full access to
pearl treatment information and freely discloses such information
to our customers immediately upon request.
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