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Pearl Jewelry - The Story of Pearl Hunters

Posted by whoyg2611 on Monday, November 15, 2010 4:06:12 AM
As long as pearl jewelry have been known to people, they have been a highly sought commodity for their beauty. It's only in recent times however that the industry has taken the hunt for the perfect pearl to a whole different level. Today, the shiny orbs that we see on in display in jewelry stores have actually almost always been grown in farms.

That's a far cry from the dangerous extraction and collection methods used before the invention of modern technology. In the past, not more than 100 years ago, the only way to retrieve pearls was by diving in lakes, floods and the ocean to pick them up, one at the time. The unfortunate divers who'se job it was to do this, were often poor and lured by the relative large sums they could get. The diver would sometimes have to dive as deep as 100 feet on one single breath of air. In order to preserve air and to stay submerged the longest, the divers would hold on to heavy stones on the way down.

Naturally, this dangerous activity was reserved for the desperate or the powerless - in many cases slaves or extremely poor peasents. Today, this method is all but obsolete in most places of the world. The cheaper cultured pearls have become popular and are many times the only pearls available to the consumer.

There are however still a few isolated areas that practice this old art of pearl diving. Some of the finest natural pearl speciments come from the gulf of Bahrain. Here, divers still risk their health to retrieve what are considered the top of the crop in the world. In fact, Bahrain wants no part of the sale of cultured pearls, banned from trade. Bahrain is one of the few places on earth that does an active job in trying to preserve the natural habitat and waters from pollution.

It's an interesting story and one that continues to fascinate buyers around the world. Somehow, the beauty of the pearl grows when it's been retrieved from the depth of the ocean.
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Buying Pearl Jewelry Without Being Ripped Off

Posted by whoyg2611 on Monday, November 15, 2010 4:04:52 AM
Buying pearl jewelry can be fun, exciting and confusing. Whether you're considering a gift of pearl jewelry for someone special or as a treat for yourself, take some time to learn the terms used in the industry. Here's some information to help you get the best quality pearl jewelry for your money, whether you're shopping in a traditional brick and mortar store or online.

Pearls

Natural or real pearls are made by oysters and other mollusks. Cultured pearls also are grown by mollusks, but with human intervention; that is, an irritant introduced into the shells causes a pearl to grow. Imitation pearls are man-made with glass, plastic, or organic materials.

Because natural pearls are very rare, most pearls used in jewelry are either cultured or imitation pearls. Cultured pearls, because they are made by oysters or mollusks, usually are more expensive than imitation pears. A cultured pearl's value is largely based on its size, usually stated in millimeters, and the quality of its nacre coating, which give it luster. Jewelers should tell your if the pearls are cultured or imitation. Some black, bronze, gold, purple, blue and orange pearls, whether natural or cultured, occur that way in nature; some, however, are dyed through various processes. Jewelers should tell you whether the colored pearls are naturally colored, dyed or irradiated.

Clams, oysters, mussels and many other mollusks with limy shells are known to produce pearls. But very few kinds yield gem pearls of jeweler's quality. The pearl is an abnormal growth of mother-of-pearl, or nacre, imbedded in the soft bodies of these shellfish. It is built up, layer upon layer, in the same way as nacre is added to the lining of the growing shell and always has the same color and luster. For example, over the country, hundreds of good-sized pearls are found each year in the oysters we eat. Unfortunately these have no commercial value regardless of whether they have been cooked or not because they are dull opaque white or purple like the shell of the parent oyster. In recent times almost all pearls of gem quality come from the oriental pearl oyster which has a bright shimmering translucent nacre.

A pearl starts growing when some irritating foreign substance such as a sand grain, bit of mud, parasite or other object becomes lodged in the shell-producing gland called the mantle. Pearls formed in the soft flesh where nacre can be added on all sides are most likely to be spherical and the most highly prized. By far the great majority are flattened or variously distorted and have little value. Size, color, luster and freedom from flaws are other essential qualities. Unlike other gems, such as diamonds, pearls have an average life of only about 50 years. In time the small amount of water in a pearl's make-up is lost and its surface cracks. Because they are mostly lime, necklaces which are worn often are injured by the acid secretions of the human skin.
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Pearl Jewelry - The Story of Pearl Hunters

Posted by whoyg2611 on Tuesday, November 09, 2010 12:34:22 AM
As long as pearl jewelry have been known to people, they have been a highly sought commodity for their beauty. It's only in recent times however that the industry has taken the hunt for the perfect pearl to a whole different level. Today, the shiny orbs that we see on in display in jewelry stores have actually almost always been grown in farms.

That's a far cry from the dangerous extraction and collection methods used before the invention of modern technology. In the past, not more than 100 years ago, the only way to retrieve pearls was by diving in lakes, floods and the ocean to pick them up, one at the time. The unfortunate divers who'se job it was to do this, were often poor and lured by the relative large sums they could get. The diver would sometimes have to dive as deep as 100 feet on one single breath of air. In order to preserve air and to stay submerged the longest, the divers would hold on to heavy stones on the way down.

Naturally, this dangerous activity was reserved for the desperate or the powerless - in many cases slaves or extremely poor peasents. Today, this method is all but obsolete in most places of the world. The cheaper cultured pearls have become popular and are many times the only pearls available to the consumer.

There are however still a few isolated areas that practice this old art of pearl diving. Some of the finest natural pearl speciments come from the gulf of Bahrain. Here, divers still risk their health to retrieve what are considered the top of the crop in the world. In fact, Bahrain wants no part of the sale of cultured pearls, banned from trade. Bahrain is one of the few places on earth that does an active job in trying to preserve the natural habitat and waters from pollution.

It's an interesting story and one that continues to fascinate buyers around the world. Somehow, the beauty of the pearl grows when it's been retrieved from the depth of the ocean.
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Buying Pearl Jewelry Without Being Ripped Off

Posted by whoyg2611 on Tuesday, November 09, 2010 12:30:10 AM

Buying pearl jewelry can be fun, exciting and confusing. Whether you're considering a gift of pearl jewelry for someone special or as a treat for yourself, take some time to learn the terms used in the industry. Here's some information to help you get the best quality pearl jewelry for your money, whether you're shopping in a traditional brick and mortar store or online.

Pearls

Natural or real pearls are made by oysters and other mollusks. Cultured pearls also are grown by mollusks, but with human intervention; that is, an irritant introduced into the shells causes a pearl to grow. Imitation pearls are man-made with glass, plastic, or organic materials.

Because natural pearls are very rare, most pearls used in jewelry are either cultured or imitation pearls. Cultured pearls, because they are made by oysters or mollusks, usually are more expensive than imitation pears. A cultured pearl's value is largely based on its size, usually stated in millimeters, and the quality of its nacre coating, which give it luster. Jewelers should tell your if the pearls are cultured or imitation. Some black, bronze, gold, purple, blue and orange pearls, whether natural or cultured, occur that way in nature; some, however, are dyed through various processes. Jewelers should tell you whether the colored pearls are naturally colored, dyed or irradiated.

Clams, oysters, mussels and many other mollusks with limy shells are known to produce pearls. But very few kinds yield gem pearls of jeweler's quality. The pearl is an abnormal growth of mother-of-pearl, or nacre, imbedded in the soft bodies of these shellfish. It is built up, layer upon layer, in the same way as nacre is added to the lining of the growing shell and always has the same color and luster. For example, over the country, hundreds of good-sized pearls are found each year in the oysters we eat. Unfortunately these have no commercial value regardless of whether they have been cooked or not because they are dull opaque white or purple like the shell of the parent oyster. In recent times almost all pearls of gem quality come from the oriental pearl oyster which has a bright shimmering translucent nacre.

A pearl starts growing when some irritating foreign substance such as a sand grain, bit of mud, parasite or other object becomes lodged in the shell-producing gland called the mantle. Pearls formed in the soft flesh where nacre can be added on all sides are most likely to be spherical and the most highly prized. By far the great majority are flattened or variously distorted and have little value. Size, color, luster and freedom from flaws are other essential qualities. Unlike other gems, such as diamonds, pearls have an average life of only about 50 years. In time the small amount of water in a pearl's make-up is lost and its surface cracks. Because they are mostly lime, necklaces which are worn often are injured by the acid secretions of the human skin.
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Question: Are there any professions

Posted by whoyg2611 on Friday, November 13, 2009 1:57:38 AM
Diane Sawyer's trip to Iran and exclusive interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has prompted viewers from all over the country to send her questions. On Tuesday's "Good Morning America," she answered some of them.
Iran
ABC News' Diane Sawyer interviewed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
(ABC News)

Question: Is there anything surprising or personal about President Ahmadinejad that we didn't know?

Sawyer: It turns out somebody told me that he cries a lot. He is dramatically sympathetic. So I asked him, "Are you often in tears?"

Ahmadinejad answered Sawyer during their interview, saying:

Yes, that's true. Not overwhelm for Iranians, of pearl jewelry course, they are very close to me and I love all Iranians. And anywhere -- when I see people suffering I have the same reaction, and we feel sad for people of Iraq, for the people of Palestine. Anywhere we have war, we feel sad. Even when I see on TV, for example, some Americans, because of tornadoes or a hurricane, they have lost their homes, I become sad.

Because, for us, human beings are respectable, no matter where they are. Human beings are respectable, and they have their own dignity. And all of biwa pearl us should help so that people should lead better lives to live at peace. And to live in peace and brotherhood. In the viewpoint of our religion, all people are respectable, and they must be loved. Regardless of their nationality, ethnicity or religion. This is part of our religious teachings, and we'll live with this religion.

Question: Are there any professions that women are prohibited from pursuing in Iran, and do they get to serve in the military?

Sawyer:They do serve in the military, particularly in the Revolutionary Guard, the fearsome Revolutionary Guard. The only profession we learned that women are barred from serving in is on the nation's high court. They can work in divorce court, but they cannot serve on the high courts in the country. So, they can be in akoya pearl most professions here, for sure.

Question: I've heard from Iranian Americans that the younger generations in Iran are very much against their president's actions and comments. What was your impression of what people truly believe in Iran? 
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Double Standard or Cultural Difference?

Posted by whoyg2611 on Friday, November 13, 2009 1:57:20 AM
While in Damascus, Diane Sawyer talked to several young people about their perception of the United States and what they thought Westerners thought about Syrians.
syrian youth
(ABC)

Amr Diab spent time in New York City. Knowing both worlds, he talked about some of the misperceptions about Syria he encountered.

"The initial stereotypes I had were stereotypes regarding, do we live in tents or do we ride camels?" Diab said.

Another young woman, Roua Ali, said, "This is what I think they think about us: You know, yeah, they are terrorists. Women in pearl jewelry veils, like he said, riding camels."

In interviews on the street, a number of Americans did not know where Syria was on a map, but Diab said Americans he had met were curious about the world.

"The Americans are in my opinion they are the type of people, they're thirsty for information," she said. "Any opportunity I used to have when I was there to tell them a little bit more about who I am or about my country, they were always very welcoming. They wanted to know."

Ali says that some of her friends wear the biwa pearl hijab, or traditional head scarf for Muslim women.

"Not all of the time. But, yeah, nowadays most of the time they choose to wear it," she said.

And the young people Sawyer interviewed wanted to remind Americans that they lived in a secular country, and that women had many more rights than those living in Muslim countries.

"They are free to drive, free to wear what they want. So, the most important thing is that there's no government enforcement of a hijab," Emad Habib said.

Double Standard or Cultural Difference?

When he lived in New York, Diab said he had a girlfriend.

"My parents are not going to akoya pearl see this, are they?" he said.

The young Syrians said dating was very different for teens in their country than in the United States.

"I think yeah, it is very different because here dating has to be on, uh, like a parents' level," Ali said. "The parents have to know who you are dating, whom you are going out with. It's, like, monitored, not like the U.S." 
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Yet if you've read Azar Nafisi's novel

Posted by whoyg2611 on Friday, November 13, 2009 1:57:03 AM
Women in Iran are allowed to vote at the age of 15. They hold 4 percent of the seats in Parliament, and more than half the university students are women.

Women make up more than 30 percent of Iran's work force.

"There is no hindrances as far as I am concerned for any woman to do anything she wants as long as she is capable of doing it," said an Iranian woman, Goli Emami, a book publisher.

Yet Westerners are fixated on the law that requires every woman, including foreigners, to wear a hijab, or head scarf, in public.
Related
Send Diane Sawyer Your Question About Iran

In the streets, women also cover up to the pearl jewelry knees, though the hemlines vary, creeping higher in the city.

Every single woman said it was a tradition they didn't mind.

One young woman said it made her feel safe, confident and modest.

Under the Hijab

The tradition stretches back centuries through Muslim and Judeo-Christian religions. The Bible says women should cover their heads.

Yet if you've read Azar Nafisi's novel "Reading Lolita in Tehran," you know that beneath those veils women wear painted fingernails, dyed hair and Western-style clothes. In store windows, you can find the latest fashions, even racy lingerie.

"People ¡­ in the West being fed this media crap think that we are imprisoned, we are not allowed to leave the house, we have to biwa pearl cover ourselves, only our eyes should be out. We are not allowed to go anywhere -- you know, wrong pictures," Emami said.

Make no mistake, though, strong as they are, Iranian women have a battle to wage.

Human rights groups say, that especially in the countryside, a woman can be publicly stoned to death if she is thought to be unfaithful to her husband.

"A woman is half of a man. Women cannot have guardianship of her children. A women does not have right to divorce equal to akoya pearl men. A woman cannot leave the country without permission of her husband -- all of these and many, many others," said Mahnaz Afkhami, president of the Women's Learning Partnership and Foundation. 
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reporting from inside the country Tuesday

Posted by whoyg2611 on Friday, November 13, 2009 1:56:36 AM
As tensions between North Korea and the West ratchet up, ABC News has been allowed rare access inside the totalitarian country.
diane sawyer
Diane Sawyer, in Beijing today, has been given access to report from inside North Korea beginning Tuesday.
(ABC News)

"Good Morning America's" Diane Sawyer, who is in Beijing today, will travel to North Korea and begin reporting from inside the country Tuesday.

Sawyer's visit is extraordinary because the pearl jewelry media in North Korea are so tightly controlled by the government.

Foreign journalists are almost never allowed inside the country.

Newspapers and radio and TV stations there serve up flattering reports about the country's leader, Kim Jong Il, and his agenda.

The media rights group, Reporters Without Frontiers, has called the country the worst violator of press freedom in the world.

Over the weekend, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to impose tough sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear test, including inspections of cargo going in and out of the country.

North Korea called the biwa pearl sanctions "gangsterlike" and ominously warned of taking "physical countermeasures."

Dealing with this crisis is especially difficult because North Korea is perhaps the most secretive, mysterious nation on Earth.

Nearly 23 million North Koreans live in virtual isolation, inside a reality created by Kim Jong Il.

Even as the rest of the world stays connected through the Internet, North Korea has very little presence on the Web.

The people reportedly know little about common technology such as cell phones and computers.

Education is paramount in the communist country, but children read his books and sing songs about the "dear leader" Kim Jong Il's "beautiful brain, his great heart."

Meanwhile, the country is economically crippled, relying on foreign aid to feed its people.

Aid organizations estimate that as many as 2 million people have died of starvation since the mid-1990s, because of natural disasters and government ineptitude.

But because it is so closed off, few outsiders have been there to akoya pearl learn the truth of daily life for families there today.

Sawyer will look into the daily lives of people in North Korea to see how they live, and will ask what they know about the outside world and the nuclear conflict playing out with the United States. 
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lives and their view of America

Posted by whoyg2611 on Friday, November 13, 2009 1:56:06 AM
Diane Sawyer spoke briefly with Ambassador Li Gun, deputy director general of the North Korean Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Diane Sawyer in North Korea
Diane Sawyer speaks to a university student in the pearl jewelry North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
(ABC News)

This is a transcript of the interview.

Diane Sawyer: So, Mr. Ambassador, we keep hearing rumors of a second test.

Ambassador Li Gun: Mm hm.

Sawyer: Second nuclear test, do you know will there be one?

Li: Even if there is a, a, a nuclear test, that is natural, so we don't have to care much about this issue. I think the test itself, uh, will be natural.

Sawyer: And should not be a surprise to the United States?

Li: That's right, yes. We have facing many nuclear arsenals surrounding us, in South Korea and in nearby, Japan. And they have had new exercises.

Sawyer: Do you see this as a biwa pearl dangerous situation?

Li: We already demonstrated our -- we already announced that we have a nuclear -- nuke last year. But we just simply demonstrated peacefully that we have these nuclear weapons.

On the street, away from the halls of diplomacy, Sawyer spoke with North Koreans about their daily lives and their view of America.

You cannot imagine until you arrive in North Korea what it is like to see the rest of the world from their vantage point.

Everywhere you turn, you see giant posters of the great leader, Kim Il Sung, and his son, the dear leader, Kim Jong Il. And when their faces aren't on the posters, there are flowers placed in their honor.

Walk through the streets, and everyone is akoya pearl wearing a pin on their lapel. And on the television, there's a flower again, with pretty music playing and phrases like, "Today the world is constantly envious of the North Korean people." 
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