Pearls are a natural for bridal jewelry. Soft and natural looking, they have a feminine look perfect for spring weddings. Since the traditional bridal gown is still white, pearls are one of the best choices to accessorize.

The history of cultured pearls goes back to 13th century China. Entrepreneurial Chinese put small metal pieces and tiny Buddha statues between the mantle and shell of the mollusk and replaced it in its natural environment. They carefully watched them for a couple years, till the foreign substances were coated in layers of mother-of –pearl. How did they figure out this would happen? Maybe the first brilliant man (or woman) dissected a peal and discovered a small rock in the center, and extrapolated from there.

Not until the beginning of the 20th century was a method devised of creating perfectly formed spherical pearls. Personally, I find the irregular naturally formed pearls the most beautiful.

Pearls are in a class all their own. The product of an irritation, the pearl begins as a grain of sand or even a parasite that has gotten inside the mollusk while it was feeding. The animal excretes a substance which coats the invader and eventually forms a pearl.

Amazingly, natural pearl producing mollusks are only one in a thousand. Each species of mollusk produces its own individual color, and that’s why there’s such variation.

Not all mollusks produce attractive pearls; in fact there are just a few varieties that produce the really beautiful specimens. But interestingly enough, all mollusks, whether salt water or fresh water are capable of making pearls.