September 1999

Feature

Pearl Passions

These lustrous gifts from Mother Nature – with a helping human hand – come in an array of types, shapes and colors to suit any customer.

The latest waves in the rising tide of pearl popularity are the improving quality of freshwater cultured pearls from China and the growing consumer interest in colored pearls. Both offer sales opportunities for jewelers.

When China began commercial production of freshwater pearls in the 1970s, the market quickly flooded with tiny "rice krispie" pearls that sold for pennies apiece. Predictions quickly filtered through the trade that one day China would produce larger, rounder and better-quality freshwater pearls. These predictions have come true – so true, in fact, they're now challenging traditional Japanese akoya cultured pearls in many consumers' minds, especially since their abundance and minimal production costs allow for lower prices.

The Chinese pearls also are available in a range of colors popular with consumers, including pink, lavender, peach, apricot and beige in addition to white. What's more, thick nacre makes them durable.

But be sure not to confuse cultured pearls with natural pearls, or freshwater pearls with saltwater pearls.

Sorting It Out
"The FTC Guides for the Jewelry Industry require that if a pearl is cultured, it must be described as such," says Cecilia Gardner, executive director of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee. This can confuse customers interested in Chinese freshwater cultured pearls because they've come to associate cultured pearls with the saltwater variety from Japan and the South Seas. Here – on a very simple level – is how you can explain the differences to customers:

• Natural pearls form around an irritant that enters a mollusk on its own and are extremely rare today. Cultured pearls form around an irritant – or nucleus – inserted into the mollusk by a human; these comprise almost all pearls harvested today.
• Saltwater pearls grow in mollusks in oceans, gulfs and tidal bays. Freshwater pearls grow in mollusks in rivers and lakes.

There are some visual clues to these differences. "Chinese freshwater cultured pearls are slightly off-round," says Devin Macnow, executive director of the Cultured Pearl Information Center, New York City. While Japanese cultured akoya pearls are formed with 0.5mm or less of nacre (the lustrous, protective material on the surface of a pearl) around a perfectly rounded mother-of-pearl shell bead, freshwater cultured pearls are largely nacre and rarely completely round. So it's harder to build well-matched strands with freshwater pearls.

There has been some argument about the content of Chinese freshwater cultured pearls. Some say the product is 100% nacre, nucleated with a bit of mantle tissue (which secretes the nacre and lines the inner shell of mollusks) that dissolves as the pearl develops. Others argue this is misleading, confusing consumers into believing the pearl is natural. To achieve rounder shapes, some Chinese farmers round off tiny "rice krispies" and other commercial pearls and reuse them as nuclei for rounder pearls. Macnow says he's heard some Chinese freshwater pearls are cultured with shell nuclei, like Japanese pearls, creating cultured freshwater pearls that are 60% to 70% nacre. "This will show up if the pearls are X-rayed," he says.

Pearl Designs
Along with the technical knowledge, you should be current with pearl jewelry trends:

• Focus on the neck – For South Sea cultured pearls, the latest looks are pendants with a single pearl, chain interspersed with pearls, minichandelier necklaces, station necklaces and solitaire necklaces with chain or wire through the pearl. For black Tahitian cultured pearls, a possible trend-in-the-making is a single pearl on a black choker for men, a casual athletic look geared toward Gen Xers with retail prices around $300. For Chinese freshwater pearls, the lower prices have made the dog collar (multiple rows that fit close against the neck), chokers and bibs popular again. Also look for pearls cut in half and used in invisibly set looks.
• Size – Bracelets will look bigger this fall thanks to more use of white or black South Sea cultured pearls. Speaking of size, consumers are leaning toward bigger jewelry, so single 13mm to 15mm baroque or circle pearl (with ring-like formations around it) pendants are expected to sell well.
• Metal – White is dominant. "But there is a significant movement into yellow gold with matte or textured surfaces," says Macnow.
• Shape – For customers with flare, offer drop pearls (often but not always pear-shaped) and circle pearls, which should put you slightly ahead of the curve. (Mikimoto recently introduced an ad featuring a woman wearing a strand of black circle pearls.) "High-quality mabé pearls are really moving also," adds Joe Nakamura, president of Shogun Trading, New York City.