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About Us
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Terry
Auten, retired business educator, makes many different
styles of jewelry and maintains this web site. He enjoys
answering pearl culturing questions and teaching jewelry
making, and is a professional story teller.
Barb
Auten,
former elementary teacher, shopped at this store for over
14 years, before finally buying it five years ago with
her husband.
Barb now makes beautiful woven pearl necklaces and bracelets
and is our main pearl buyer.
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Jean Dunn, retired banker from Oklahoma, is our sales
associate and a customer favorite with her out-going ways and
sense of humor. |
Barb and Terry Auten vacationed in St. Augustine
for 14 years, and the old "Pick A Pearl" store was
usually their first stop. When long-time friend Harry Erb decided
to concentrate solely on his art gallery, he called and offered
to sell the shop to them. Barb and Terry flew down from Michigan
and closed the deal. After a rebuilding of the store, addition
of jewelry showcases, new carpet, and paint, (and after taking
several jewelry making classes), they reopened as "The
Pearl Shop" in October, 2001.
We want to make your experience with The Pearl Shop an enjoyable and oft-repeated
one. Whether browsing, making jewelry at our bench, getting answers to your pearl
and gemstone questions, or just hanging out in the air-conditioning, you are
always welcome. Email us with questions about pearls, the shop, or St. Augustine.
We really hope to see you and hear from you. |
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While you are in St. Augustine, please visit our neighbors
in the Arcade of Professional Artisans and Craftsmen:
- Aloha Jewelry Specialists (Hand-made
Hawaiian Silver Jewelry)
- Lei's Linens (Hand-embroidered Linens)
- Victoria's Vintage Photos (Old-time
photos)
- Erbco Gallery (Oil paintings and framing)
- Grover's Gallery (Wood carvings)
- Windjammer (Beach clothing)
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| Also, thanks over the years to Sally and Jim
Carmen, Myra Morgan, Judith Poland, Cindy Tzenis-Perdue, and especially
to Joe and Alissa Degregorio who have moved back to the New
York area to continue their education. |
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Pearl Culture
Long known as the "Queen of Gems," pearls possess a history
and allure far beyond what today's wearer may recognize. Throughout much
of recorded history, a natural pearl necklace comprised of matched spheres
was a treasure of almost incomparable value, in fact the most expensive
jewelry in the world. Now we see pearls almost as accessories, relatively
inexpensive decorations to accompany more costly gemstones.
Before the creation of cultured pearls in the early 1900s, natural pearls
were so rare and expensive that they were reserved almost exclusively
for the noble and very rich. A jewelry item that today's working women
might take for granted, a 16-inch strand of perhaps 50 pearls, often
costs between $500 and $5,000. At the height of the Roman Empire, when
pearl fever reached its peak, the historian Suetonius wrote that the
Roman general Vitellius financed an entire military campaign by selling
just one of his mother's pearl earrings.
No one will ever know who were the earliest people to collect and wear
pearls, but no matter the origin, a reverence for pearls spread throughout
the world over the ensuing millennia. India's sacred books and epic tales
abound with pearl references. One legend has the Hindu god Krishna discovering
pearls when he plucks the first one from the sea and presents it to his
daughter Pandaïa on her wedding day. China's long recorded history
also provides ample evidence of the importance of pearls. In the Shu
King, a 23rd-century B.C. book, the scribe sniffs that as tribute, a
lesser king sent "strings of pearls not quite round." In Egypt,
decorative mother-of-pearl was used at least as far back as 4200 B.C.,
but the use of pearls themselves seems to have been later, perhaps related
to the Persian conquest in the fifth century B.C. Rome's pearl craze
reached its zenith during the first century B.C. Roman women upholstered
couches with pearls and sewed so many into their gowns that they actually
walked on their pearl-encrusted hems. Caligula, having made his horse
a consul, decorated it with a pearl necklace.
Pearls, in fact, played the pivotal role at the most celebrated banquet
in literature. To convince Rome that Egypt possessed a heritage and wealth
that put it above conquest, Cleopatra wagered Marc Antony she could give
the most expensive dinner in history. The Roman reclined as the queen
sat with an empty plate and a goblet of wine (or vinegar). She crushed
one large pearl of a pair of earrings, dissolved it in the liquid, then
drank it down. Astonished, Antony declined his dinner -- the matching
pearl -- and admitted she had won. Pliny, the world's first gemologist,
writes in his famous Natural History that the two pearls were worth an
estimated 60 million sesterces, or 1,875,000 ounces of fine silver ($9,375,000
with silver at $5/ounce).
The Arabs have shown the greatest love for pearls. The depth of their
affection for pearls is enshrined in the Koran, especially within its
description of Paradise, which says: "The stones are pearls and
jacinths; the fruits of the trees are pearls and emeralds; and each person
admitted to the delights of the celestial kingdom is provided with a
tent of pearls, jacinths, and emeralds; is crowned with pearls of incomparable
luster, and is attended by beautiful maidens resembling hidden pearls."
Modern Pearl Culturing
Kokichi Mikimoto, the son of a noodle maker, had
a dream and a hard-working wife, Ume. Together they set about to do
what no one
else
had done --
entice oysters to produce round pearls on demand. Mikimoto did not
know that government biologist Tokichi Nishikawa and carpenter Tatsuhei
Mise
had each independently discovered the secret of pearl culturing --
inserting a piece of oyster epithelial membrane (the lip of mantle tissue)
with
a nucleus of shell or metal into an oyster's body or mantle causes
the tissue to form a pearl sack. That sack then secretes nacre to coat
the
nucleus, thus creating a pearl.
Mise received a 1907 patent for his grafting needle. When Nishikawa
applied for a patent for nucleating, he realized that he and Mise had
discovered the same thing. In a compromise, the pair signed an agreement
uniting their common discovery as the Mise-Nishikawa method, which remains
the heart of pearl culturing. Mikimoto had received an 1896 patent for
producing hemispherical pearls, or Mabes, and a 1908 patent for culturing
in mantle tissue. But he could not use the Mise-Nishikawa method without
invalidating his own patents. So he altered the patent application to
cover a technique to make round pearls in mantle tissue, which was granted
in 1916. With this technicality, Mikimoto began an unprecedented expansion,
buying rights to the Mise-Niskikawa method and eclipsing those originators
of cultured pearls, leaving their names only for history books.
Largely by trial and error over a number of years, Mikimoto did contribute
one crucial discovery. Whereas Nishikawa nucleated with silver and gold
beads, Mikimoto experimented with everything from glass to lead to clay
to wood. He found he had the highest success rates when he inserted round
nuclei cut from U.S. mussel shells. Although some countries continue
to test other nuclei, U.S. mussel shells have been the basis for virtually
all cultured saltwater pearls for 90 years.
Even though third with his patents and his secrets, Mikimoto revolutionized
pearling. Ever the flamboyant showman and promoter, he badgered jewelers
and governments to accept his cultured products as pearls. His workers
created massive pearl structures, which he displayed at every major international
exposition. By mastering the techniques, Mikimoto, then hundreds of other
Japanese firms, made pearls available to virtually everyone in the world.
Freshwater Pearls
A great irony of pearl history is that the least expensive
cultured pearl product in the market today rivals the quality of the
most expensive
natural
pearls ever found. Indeed, pearls from freshwater mussels lie at
the center of the liveliest activity in pearling today.
Natural freshwater pearls occur in mussels for the same reason that
saltwater pearls occur in oysters. Foreign material, usually a sharp
object or parasite, enters a mussel and cannot be expelled. To reduce
irritation, the mollusk coats the intruder with the same secretion it
uses for shell-building, nacre. To culture freshwater mussels, workers
slightly open their shells, cut small slits into the mantle tissue inside
both shells, and insert small pieces of live mantle tissue from another
mussel into those slits. In freshwater mussels that insertion alone is
sufficient to start nacre production. Most cultured freshwater pearls
are composed entirely of nacre, just like their natural freshwater and
natural saltwater counterparts.
The Chinese were the first to culture a product from freshwater mussels,
though the first cultured freshwater pearls originated in Japan.
As Japanese freshwater pearl production diminished after WWII, China
filled the vacuum. China has all the resources that Japan lacks: a huge
land mass; countless available lakes, rivers, and irrigation ditches;
a limitless and pliable work force that earns less than a dollar a day;
and an almost desperate need for hard currency. In 1968, with no recent
history in pearling, China startled the gem world with prodigious amounts
of inexpensive pearls.
Starting in the 1990s, China surprised the market with products that
are revolutionizing pearling. The shapes, luster, and colors of the new
Chinese production often match original Japanese Biwa quality and sometime
even surpass it; certainly the new orange and peach-colored pearls are
unique. As testimony to China's achievement, their freshwater pearls
are round enough and good enough to pass as Japanese Akoya China already
sells round white pearls up to 7mm for perhaps a tenth the price of Japanese
cultured saltwater pearls.
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Caring for Pearls
Your pearls are a wonderful investment. Take care of tem.
Pearls can keep their beautiful luster for many, many years, if the
generations of owners remember how these jewels of the sea differ from
other precious gem materials.
Proper care of pearls is not difficult, and it is merely a matter of
remembering that these gems are organic by nature, grown in water from
living cells of a living creature. Like the oysters which formed them,
they require moisture, but because they usually are worn on a silk
string which will deteriorate when wet, the pearls will need to be
re-strung
more frequently if they are taken for a swim in salt or fresh water.
Never expose to chlorinated water. Like their "organic" owners,
pearls are prone to damage from pollution and injury.
Taking care of your pearls:
- STORE PEARLS SEPARATELY from other jewelry, in a cloth bag or jewelry
pouch. Storage in slightly damp linen will help prevent pearls
from drying out in low-humidity atmospheres including central
heating.
- APPLY COSMETICS, PERFUME AND SPRAY PRODUCTS FIRST, before
putting pearl jeweler on. (Remember although sun creams
and insect repellents
are good for you, pearls need to be protected from these
protectors.)
- REMOVE SPILLS IMMEDIATELY if pearls come in contact with
food acids. Use a soft cloth moistened in fresh water,
and then dry
pearls with another
soft cloth.
- WIPE PEARLS AFTER WEAR, using a soft cloth. Avoid commercial
jeweler cleaners unless specified on the label.
- RE-STRING pearls regularly, for the sake of the pearls
as well as to avoid a broken string. Makeup, powder
and grime will form a soft,
gluey paste on the string, attacking both the silk
and the pearls.
- REPLACE INDIVIDUAL PEARLS when a competent pearl-stringer
recommends it. Pearls which always lie against
the neck when worn will absorb acid
from the skin and eventually lose luster as well
as their spherical shape.
What To Avoid:
- Perspiration.
- Acids in the skin and elsewhere
- Makeup and skin creams.
- Perfume.
- Hair spray and insect repellent.
- Talcum powder.
- Dust and grit.
- Ultrasonic cleaners.
- Steam cleaning.
- Soap.
- Detergent.
- Chlorinated water in shower or pool.
- Scratches from crystalline gemstones and
metallic jeweler.
- Dehydration from being
wrapped in
cotton wool or from
exposure to light and heat, especially
spotlights in shop-windows and showcases.
- The dinner table, with a variety of
acidic hazards from vinegar to
salad dressing
to fruit juice.
- The kitchen, with all those acidic ingredients and the high
heat used in cooking. Pearls will tolerate temperatures up
to 100°C for
a short time, but hot fat and stove/oven temperatures often
reach a very damaging
180°C! For the same reason, pearls should not be stored
near a radiator or a sunny window.
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Semi-precious Stones
There are many semi-precious stones used for fine jewelry. Our hand-made
jewelry may include :
- Agate - a variety of chalcedony (a family of microcrystalline
quartz).
It is found in a wide range of colors, including black, gray, brown,
reddish, green, pink, blue, and yellow. Agate can be flecked with
color and is often banded, exhibiting layers of quartz.
- Amber - an organic gem made from 20,000
year-old petrified tree sap, it is found in the Baltic region of Europe
and
in the Dominican Republic.
- Amethyst- a form
of the mineral quartz, and is a relatively common gemstone. Amethyst
is usually purple, but can range in color from pale lavender to
a very deep, reddish purple to a milky color to green. Deeper-colored
amethysts are more highly valued. The ancient Greeks believed that
amethyst made one immune to the effects of alcohol.
- Aquamarine - is a transparent, light blue or sea-green
stone that is porous. Today, blue aquamarines are more highly valued,
but
this
was not true in the past, when sea-green stones were prized. Heat-treatment
turns greenish stones bluer. The best aquamarines come from Brazil.
Large aquamarines are relatively common. Aquamarines are usually
faceted but when they are cabochon cut, a cat's eye effect or asterism
may appear. Aquamarines belong to the beryl family of stones.
- Cat's-eye - a yellow to green-yellow
to gray-green stone with a bright, pupil-like slit that seems to
move slightly as the stone is moved. Most Cat's eye is cut as cabochons
to maximize the distinctive pupil-like effect. Most cat's eye
is found in Brazil.
- Chalcedony - a family of minerals (microcrystalline quartz)
that are often milky to gray to bluish in color. Chalcedony includes
agate,
carnelian (waxy red), chalcedony (blue), chrysoprase (green), onyx
(black and white), bloodstone, sard (brownish-red), jasper (hornstone),
seftonite, and others. Chalcedony is porous and translucent.
- Charoite - Charoite is a very rare, bright purple mineral
used as a gemstone. This silicate is only found in Russia (at the
Chary River
at Aldan). Charoite is transparent to translucent.
- Citrine - a rare, yellow type of quartz, a semi-precious
stone that ranges in color from pale yellow to orange to golden
brown. The best
quality citrine is found in Brazil.
- Coral - Coral is an animal that grows in colonies in the
ocean. Coral polyps secrete a strong calcium structure that is
used in jewelry
making. Coral ranges in color from pale pink (called angelskin
coral) to orange to red to white to black. The most valued colors
are deep
red (called noble coral) and pink. In jewelry making, coral is
either carved into beads, cameos, or other forms, or is left in
its natural
branch-like form and just polished. It used to be thought that
coral protected the wearer, so it was a traditional gift to children.
- Fresh-water and salt-water pearls - organic gems
grown within oysters and a few other mollusks. Pearls are formed when
a foreign object (like a tiny stone) has made its way into the
mollusk's
shell. The mollusk secretes nacre, a lustrous substance that coats
the intruding object. As thousands of layers of nacre coat the
intruder, a pearl is formed; this process takes up to seven or
eight years
(an oyster's useful life span). The most valuable pearls are perfectly
symmetrical, large, naturally produced, and have a shimmering iridescence
(called orient luster). There are many types of pearls, including
natural pearls (made with no human interference), cultured pearls
(pearls made by inserting a bit of a mother-of-pearl) into
a living oyster or by inserting a bit of foreign tissue), baroque
pearls (irregularly-shaped pearls), freshwater pearls, seed pearls
(tiny pearls), Biwa pearls (a type of freshwater pearl from Lake
Biwa, Japan, Mabe or "blister"
pearls (grown attached to the shell), black pearls (gray to black
pearls), Mabe pearls (cultivated blister pearls), etc. Pearls can
be gently cleaned with mild soap and water. The biggest natural pearl,
known as the "Pearl of Allah" or "Pearl of Lao-tse," weighs
14 pounds (6.4 kg).
- Hematite - a lustrous, opaque, blue-black to silvery gray
mineral often used in jewelry. Hematite is iron oxide (Fe2O3).
Hematite was often used as seal stones, cut as intaglio. It is also
used as beads and is faceted, carved or cut as a cabochon for use
as a gemstone. The ancient Egyptians carved hematite into scarabs.
Hematite is found in England, Mexico, Australia, Brazil, and the
Lake Superior region of North America.
- Jade - a semi-precious stone that ranges in color from
green to white to lilac to brown to almost black. Translucent jade
is more
highly
valued than opaque jade. Jade is often cabochon set; stones with
imperfections are often carved (the imperfections are simply carved
away). Two different minerals are known as jade: jadeite and nephrite.
Jadeite is the harder of the two; it is usually used in jewelry
production. Nephrite is slightly softer and is often veined; it
is used in carvings,
for making beautiful bowls and vases. The Chinese have prized jade
for thousands of years and regarded it as having medicinal properties
when worn or ingested as a powder.
- Labradorite - a fairly abundant
grayish mineral that has brilliant flashes of color (usually green,
blue or red) after it is polished (called labradorescence). The
crystals are transparent to translucent. There is a darker variety
of labradorite
(called "black moonstone") which has bluish inclusions.
Labradorite is usually cut with a flat surface in order to highlight
the flashes of color. Labradorite was originally found along the
coast of Labrador about 1805; it is also found in Newfoundland,
other parts of Canada.
- Larimar - is a form of pectolite (with copper) found only
in a single place in the Dominican Republic. It is an opaque sky
blue stone with
white streaks. There are often some red to brown impurities. Larimar
is usually
shaped and polished (but not faceted).
- Peridot - a yellow-green semi-precious stone with
an oily luster; peridot is a transparent, green form of olivine. Peridot
exhibits
double refraction; when you look through the stone, things appear
double. For example, when looking into a faceted peridot gemstone,
the number of bottom facets appears to be double the actual number
of facets. Most peridots are from a volcanic island in the Red
Sea, Zebergit/St. John, the "Serpent Isle." Peridots have been
found in meteorites.
- Quartz - a crystalline mineral that come in many
forms, including amethyst, aventurine, citrine, opal, rock crystal,
tiger's
eye, rose
quartz,and many others. Rutilated quartz and tourmalinated quartz
have needle-like inclusions of other minerals.
- Rhodochrosite - a mineral whose color ranges from rose
to pink to almost yellow or brown. Although it is very pretty,
this stone
is
soft and brittle; it is used in jewelry and for carvings and figurines.
Rhodochrosite is Manganese Carbonate; its chemical formula is MnCO3.
Rhodochrosite has a hardness of 3.5 - 4.5 (glass has a hardness
of 4) and a specific gravity of 3.5. Rhodochrosite is found in
Argentina,
Peru, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Russia, Italy, USA (Colorado
and Montana), and Romania.
- Seed pearls - are tiny,
round pearls that are less than 2 mm in diameter and weigh under
1/4 grain. Seed pearl
jewelry was
popular from the mid- to late-Victorian era, when the tiny pearls
were strung on horsehair to form intricate designs and were also
used as accents on other
jewelry.
- Tiger's Eye - a yellowish-brown to reddish-brown
gemstone that has a silky luster. This gemstone has bands of yellow
and brown;
when viewed from the opposite direction, the colors are reversed.
Tiger's eye is usually
highly polished and set as a cabochon (or cut as a bead) to display
the stone's chatoyancy (light reflected in thin bands within the
stone). Tiger's eye is
a type of chatoyant quartz with fibrous inclusions.
- Tourmaline - a dichroic gemstone that comes in many,
many different colors; it also appears to have different colors depending
on the
angle at which it is seen. Tourmaline has the greatest color range
of any gemstone
- the lighter colors are more valuable than the darker colors.
It ranges in color from pink to green to red (rubellite) to purple
to blue-green (indicolite)
to colorless (achroite) to black. Watermelon tourmaline is both
pink and green. Tourmaline is
mined in Brazil,
The Ural mountains in Russia, Namibia, Sri Lanka, and California.
Tourmaline was only discovered in the 1700's.
- Turquoise - a non-translucent, porous semi-precious stone
(it is a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminum) that is usually
cut as a cabochon. Turquoise was believed to have been first found
in Turkey, hence its name (Turquie is the French word for Turkey).
The oldest turquoise mines are located in Alimersai Mountain in
Persia (Iran) and in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Turquoise is found in
desert regions worldwide. The finest turquoise is Persian (Iranian)
turquoise; it is robin's egg blue and has no matrix (streaks of
the
mother stone from which they were found). North American turquoise
is greener and has a matrix streaks. Over the years, oil from your
skin is absorbed by the stone and it will change color slightly.
- … and many more. All are genuine and of the finest quality.
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