Pearls have been a favorite gemstone of women all around the world. It is a sign of purity and reflects true love when gifted by someone special. However, do you know it takes a month and sometimes years to cultivate pearls?
Naturally occurring pearls aren’t easy to obtain because not all oysters produce pearls. Therefore, pearl farmers cultivate pearls by intruding an irritant inside an oyster shell or mollusk. To prevent this irritant from abrasion, mollusk produces transparent fluid called nacre that covers irritant with various layers. These layers help in giving it an abnormal shape and shine which is later named as pearl gemstone.
Akoya pearls are commonly used pearls in the industry. They are easy to cultivate and readily available. They can be found in almost every shade with different overtone, but the most commonly used shade is white and pink. After which comes the golden South Sea pearl and black Tahitian pearl which are exclusive and higher in price. There are various stores offline and online that can help you get pearls at reasonable price and in variety of design. One such online site that was formed in 2003 is PearlsOnly that brought revolution in the pearl industry. If you want a unique design of accessory made of Akoya pearls, then look at here to explore.
Like diamond, pearls are also given grades depending upon their shape, surface, luster and nacre quality. This grading is universal grading therefore we would like to teach you about it –
- Hanadama is the finest quality of Akoya pearls which is a Japanese word which means extra fine. It has perfect round shape with no blemishes, bright luster and good mirror reflection.
- AAA is another category of pearl that has good surface quality but less than the above-mentioned category. Rest everything remains the same so this pearl is also considered precious.
- AA+ has fewer blemishes but can’t be compared to AAA category. Its luster isn’t also very strong but medium luster too is well entertained in the pearl world.
- AA has 80 to 100 percent less blemishes visible on their surface. Luster, nacre quality, and reflection all come in medium category. Therefore, they are less expensive and affordable.
- A category is given to Akoya pearls that have 70 to 80 percent less blemishes on the surface. Shape isn’t perfectly round, nacre is thin and luster is medium but has slight chalky appearance.
Even though Akoya pearls are given standards and grades depending upon their quality, still each of them has their own uniqueness. Even though they aren’t the same, they still are considered real pearl that were cultivated with lot of effort.