It is a well known fact that gem mining is not an eco-friendly act and for obvious reasons -non renewable resources are ravished in the process and the environment tainted by pollution from it. Green lovers have recognized the serious implication of this act and found a sustainable compromise in the form of recycled precious metals and gems.
Now throughout history, when one speaks of precious jewelry, the gems that are never left unspoken of are diamonds, rubies, emeralds and pearls – All naturally formed by nature possessing intricate beauty man-made simulations could never reenact. Whilst among these 4, a pearl would never win for the most being the most translucent and lustrous; it is by far the more eco-friendly/sustainable among them.
While precious stones like diamonds, rubies and emeralds are formed from various natural minerals (diamonds from elemental carbon, rubies from densely packed aluminum and oxygen atoms, emeralds from beryllium aluminium silicate) under different temperature and time consuming conditions, pearls are not (in comparison).
Pearls are organic gems formed from pearl oysters. When dealing with pearls bear in mind that there are essentially three kinds: natural, cultured and imitation. A natural pearl which is often referred to as an Oriental pearl forms when an irritant, such as a piece of sand, works its way into a particular species of oyster, mussel, or clam. As a defense mechanism to ease the existence of the irritant, the mollusk secretes a smooth fluid of hard crytaline called nacre to coat it. For as long as the irritant remains within its body, the mollusk will continue to secrete nacre around it, layer upon layer of this coating is deposited on it until over time, a beautiful and lustrous pearl is formed. The process will take years to complete.
Cultured pearls go through the same process only; the irritant is artificially implanted (this process is called nucleation or grafting or seeding) into the oyster instead of being left to naturally occur. I can’t quite say this is an animal friendly process because quite often the oyster may simply die from disease or countless other complications encountered from the process. Then of course when it comes to pearl harvesting season (often in the winters) the nucleated pearl oysters are often killed in the process.
Imitation pearls are actually made of glass beads that are dipped into a solution made from fish scales to give that misleading appearance of a genuine pearl. An time old method of telling a genuine pearl from an imitation is to bite on in (gently of course) because imitations will glide across your teeth and the genuine ones will not. Genuine pearls are coated by layers of nacre which will feel gritty.
