"Gift of love. Talisman against evil. Possession of the Gods. Throughout history, the pearl has assumed all these romantic roles-and more. Child of the sea, the warmth of a beautiful pearl is worth a thousand words."

Cherished as symbols of purity and perfection, elegance and affluence, pearls are unusual gems, created inside mollusks. Occurring naturally in a wide range of sizes, shapes and colors, pearls have long captured the attention of scientists as well as socialites.

Throughout much of human history, people around the world have fashioned beautiful jewelry and decorative objects out of natural pearls, collected from both freshwater and marine mollusks. More recently, though, people discovered how to induce pearl formation, leading to the introduction of cultured pearls to the global market in the 20th century. Today pearls are more widely available that ever before and unmatched in their beauty and splendor.

At Zadok Jewelers we know that the task of finding the perfect piece of pearl jewelry isn't always an easy one. With so many different skin tones and tastes sometimes finding the right strand of pearls can feel almost impossible. That's why we offer such a large variety of pearls to choose from. We have a unique and rarely equaled selection of pearls that we acquire from the farthest reaches of the globe. We specialize in South Sea, Tahitian, cultured, and freshwater pearls in all shapes, sizes, and colors.

The Rough Exterior

Because a pearl is the product of a biological process, its surface often shows minor imperfections. Furthermore, when a mollusk secretes the microscopic layers that make up a pearl, each layer does not always encircle the entire pearl. These uneven layers create additional irregularities on the surface. As a result, it is easy to distinguish a real pearl from an artificial one by rubbing it gently across your teeth: a real pearl will feel gritty and an artificial pearl will feel smooth and slippery.

A Perfect Pearl?

Although most people think of pearls as round, the truth is that irregularly shaped pearls are more common in nature, while perfectly spherical pearls are extremely rare. Pearls come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes. A pearl's size and shape depend on the species of mollusk that produced the pearl, how long it took to form, the size and shape of the nucleus and where the pearl formed inside the animal. A pearl's size and shape reflect such variables as the temperature and chemistry of the water, as well as the health of the mollusk.

A Distinctive Glow

One of the most distinctive features of a nacreous pearl is the way it seems to glow from within. This property, known as "luster," gives pearls their unusual beauty. Luster results from the reflection of light rays not only off the surface of the pearl, but also off the concentric inner layers of nacre. Because a pearl's surface is round, it acts as a convex mirror, reflecting light so that it appears to emanate from within the pearl. The multiple layers of nacre also give rise to the "iridescence" or "orient" of pearls-a characteristic that resembles the shimmer seen on a soap bubble. The layers of nacre act like tiny prisms, refracting light so that it appears as all the colors of the rainbow.

To find out more about the beauty, history, and nature of pearls please visit the American Museum of Natural History website at http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/pearls/