Sadly, June's coming to a close, and so is Moon River Pearls' 20% off
pearl jewelry sale. Order through the end of today to take advantage
of Pearl Month, and read some pearl facts, courtesy of www.HowStuffWorks.com
, below:
Most jewelry is fashioned out of precious metals and jewels that are
found buried in the Earth, but pearls are found inside a living
creature, an oyster. Pearls are the result of a biological process --
the oyster's way of protecting itself from foreign substances.
Oysters are bivalves, which means that its shell is made of two parts,
or valves. The shell's valves are held together by an elastic
ligament. This ligament is positioned where the valves come together,
and usually keeps the valves open so the oyster can eat.
These are the parts of an oyster inside the shell:
* Mouth (palps)
* Stomach
* Heart
* Intestines
* Gills
* Anus
* Abductor muscle
* Mantle
As the oyster grows in size, its shell must also grow. The mantle is
an organ that produces the oyster's shell, using minerals from the
oyster's food. The material created by the mantle is called mother-of-
pearl. Mother-of-pearl lines the inside of the shell.
The formation of a natural pearl begins when a foreign substance slips
into the oyster between the mantle and the shell, which irritates the
mantle. It's kind of like the oyster getting a splinter. The oyster's
natural reaction is to cover up the irritant to protect itself. The
mantle covers the irritant with layers of the same substance that is
used to create the shell. This eventually forms a pearl.
Most pearls that we see in jewelry stores are nicely rounded objects,
but not all pearls turn out spherical. Some pearls form in an uneven
shape -- these are called baroque pearls. Pearls, as you've probably
noticed, come in a variety of various colors, including white, black,
gray, red, blue, green and more. Most pearls can be found all over the
world, but black pearls are indigenous to the South Pacific.
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