Everything you wanted to know about pearls… and a bit more 3.

Symbolism of pearls

Their waterly origin evoked many legends and symbols over the centuries. Most often, pearls symbolized the Moon. Ancient Chinese civilizations believed that wearing pearls protected a person from fire and dragons. In ancient Egypt, pearls were appreciated so much, that people were buried with them. In Western cultures, the pearl has astrological associations with the planet Venus: like pearls, the goddess of love came from the sea.

Some stories say that white pearls are tears shed by the gods. One legend says the tears Eve cried when she was banished from Eden turned to pearls. The tears of Adam turned into black pearls,  as men are better at keeping their emotions inside, he cried less and that is the reason, why black pearls are even rarer than white ones. Chinese artworks often portray dragons holding pearls in their mouths or claws.

As western cultures associate the white color with purity and innocence, pearls are common for the bride to wear on the wedding day and are also popular gifts for brides. Brides in Asia also wear pearl necklaces as symbols of fertility. Nowadays, pearls are most often worn by women, but it wasn´t always the case. In ancient times, kings also wore pearls as symbols of wealth.

Pearls are thought to attract wealth, prosperity, success and good fortune, symbolize wisdom, strength, purity, innocence and new beginnings and will help you to achieve calmness and maintain your inner balance.

Imitation pearls are basically beads which at the end get the finish resembling the real pearls. There is a wide variety to the imitation pearls, depending on the base-material (plastic, alabaster, glass or even mollusk shell) and the finish used, to create bathed, glass, bohemian, majolica, cotton, plastic, and other pearls.

Why create imitation pearls? Let´s be honest, there is only a few of us who are able to pay the price and wear real pearls. Natural pearls are formed in nature, to call it „by accident“ and are very rare. To be able to meet the demands of the market, there are pearl farms, where freshwater mussels or seawater pearl oysters are used by a mussel farmer to create a cultured pearl. Even under controlled conditions on the farm, it takes 2-7 years for the mussel/oyster to coat the nucleus with nacre.

Good to know…

As pearls are organic materials, they are sensitive to chemicals like hair products, cosmetics, water temperature, heat (they don´t bear the sun or heat from a hairdryer neither) and perfumes, just put your pearl-necklace on as the last piece when dressing up. Real or glass pearls – always take them off before having a shower or applying cosmetics! The best way is to clean the pearls with a soft cloth before putting them to store into your box of jewelry.