Pearls - June Birthstone

With a serene beauty, these timeless classics are said to symbolise peace, love, sincerity, and new beginnings. Some say that pearls are the tears of gods and early Chinese myths told of pearls falling from the sky when dragons fought.

For all you June babies out there pearls are your beautiful birthstone. 

Reasons we fell in love with these elegant gems:

Pearls are the only gem that isn't found within the earth but made by a sea creature. Created when a small irritant such as a grain of sand or rock falls into an oyster or mussel. As a protective measure the mussel or oyster responds by coating the foreign material by overlapping layers of nacre (nay-ker), and creating a pearl.

Where this happens as an accident of nature the pearl is natural. Where this happens because of human intervention, a person has inserted that foreign body on purpose, it is cultured. The term ‘cultured pearl’ can be used regardless of the species of mollusc, or body of water used to form them (i.e. saltwater vs freshwater).

For centuries pearls were only enjoyed by either the very rich or royalty. The culturing process developed in the late 19th century by Japanese Kokichi Mikimoto made pearls accessible to a far wider global audience. 

There are two types of cultured pearls. Freshwater pearls cultured in lakes or rivers from mussels. Saltwater pearls from the sea in a variety of oysters. Freshwater mussels can often produce a number of pearls at a time: up to 40 in one shell. Saltwater oysters can often only produce one pearl at a time

Few gems are as varied in colour and shape. The beautiful variety of shapes include round, near round, button, drop, circled, baroque or semi- baroque. Baroque simply means that the pearls are offshape or irregular. 

Freshwater pearls naturally come in colours of creams, pinks, peaches and lilacs. With saltwater Akoya pearls produced in whites and creams, South Sea pearls in whites, silvers, and golden colours and Tahitian pearls in darker colours – blacks, greys & browns

Another factor is lustre which is the light reflected from the pearl’s surface, a good pearl should not be dull!  

Our Pearls

We use freshwater pearls in our designs, sourced from lakes in China, hand selected by a British family run business. Our pieces are then handmade in their workshop in the south of England.

We believe pearls possess an elegance that can shine alone, preferring to keep our pearls centre stage. Combined with the light tones of sterling silver in clean, classic styles.

Shop our pearl jewellery here