Introduction
The sparkling beauty of a strand of pearls has held the attention of brides for millennia. The ancient Greeks believed that wearing pearls would promote marital bliss and prevent newlywed women from crying. During the Crusades in the Middle Ages, pearls were the gift of choice for a knight to give to his lady. During the 14th and 15th centuries, royal wedding scenes closely resembled a sea of pearls, with everyone from the bride down to her male guests adorned with impressive arrays of pearl jewelry.

In modern times, cultured pearls have graced such 20th century brides as Queen Elizabeth II, the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor.

You may have seen the term "cultured" preceding the word pearls at your jewelry store. Cultured pearls are pearls that are nudged to life when a worker surgically implants a tiny bead into the oyster (that's the shellfish in which pearls grow). The host oyster is then lowered back into the water and, if all goes well, it deposits layer upon layer of a substance called nacre around the bead, eventually forming a pearl large enough to harvest. Of course, some oysters continue to produce pearls without any help, forming nacre around a natural irritant that gets inside their shells, they are rare however. Culturing produces far more pearls than nature could alone.

Definition
Pearl (Purl) : Hydrated organic gemstones usually produced by bivalve mollusks, especially Pearl oysters and river mussels. Found between the mantle and shell of these mollusks Pearls consist of a protective material called nacre, or Mother Of Pearl, which is secreted in reaction to an intruding or wayward organic particle trapped inside the shell. Overtime, layers of Mother Of Pearl harden, build up and form the Pearl giving its resulting size, color and luster.