Fashion - Friday, October 9, 2009 9:12 - 0 Comments

No Way? In Tennessee? Real Pearls?

Pearl jewelry has always evoked the essence of the sea. People think of big clams, or beds of oysters and pearl divers swimming down to grab what they can while holding their breath. The image of the tropic seas, palm trees and white beaches falls away on a full investigation. Uncultivated pink pearls are lovely. Pearls jewelry using these pink beads is rare and enticing. It’s surprising because these unique pearls are found in the Miami River in Ohio.

The Ohio valley provided a lot of fresh water pearls and pearl harvesting was a major industry towards the end of the 19th century. Pearls pulled from the river had a range of colors including; creamy white, alabaster, blue, green, pink and rose colored. These pearls continue to be produced and are sought after because they are naturally grown.

While harvesting pearls by diving is how they were brought to the market in the past, most pearls today are the product of domestic farming. Pearls are now cultivated byinserting an irritant into a mollusk. The mollusk covers the irritant like it would in the wild, with aragonite and conchiolin, and overtime the pearls are removed. Thepearl trade consists primarily of cultivated and synthetic pearls. This opens the market up for natural pearls and the pearls from the Ohio Valley.

Long before boys were digging in the mud with their toes looking for mollusks that might contain a pearl, the Native Americans of the Ohio Valley were gathering them. Relics were discovered in burial mounds that suggest a wealth of pearls. Initially it was believed they came from a trading route with coastal tribes, but latter after the discovery of the fresh water pearls, archeologists believe them to be from the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. These pearls were made into jewelry and sometimes flattened then attached to clothes. Fresh water beads have been found set into copper work. Fresh water pearls, like pearls from the sea come in a variety of shapes and sizes. In fact, it is unusual to get a perfectly round pearl. Less then 1% of fresh water natural pearls are round. Most are oblong or rice shaped. Pearls are defined as organic gemstones, and both Tennessee and Kentucky have named the fresh water pearl the state gem. During theturn of the century many people enjoyed spending a summer day pearling, digging through the mud and looking for the odd shaped pearls.

Fresh water pearlsare less abundant today because of loss of their ecosystem. Fresh water pearls need flowing water and mud flats. The damming of many of the rivers in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee has changed the flow of the river and altered the habitat that the clams thrived on. Fresh water clams can still be found today, but not in as abundant proportions as years ago. The fortunately fresh water pearls can produce more then one pearl at a time, unlike their marine counter parts. While the perfect round pearl is rare, they are naturally produced and come in a broad spectrum of colors making them cherished adornments.