Editor: Zhong Yuanyuan
When they first hear the name "Edison Pearl", many people will think that this is a pearl invented by Edison, but it is not. Edison pearl is a kind of artificially farmed freshwater nucleated pearl, the reason why it is called "Edison", because the inventor Edison once said that "there are two things that I can't make in the laboratory, that is, pearls and diamonds", in order to make up for Edison's regrets, people named this pearl "Edison pearl".
Edison Pearls
【Classification of pearls】
To better understand Edison pearls, let's first look at how pearls are classified.
There are many ways to classify pearls, and pearls can be divided into natural pearls and cultured pearls according to their origin.
It is worth mentioning that because natural pearls are very rare, most of the pearls on the market are cultured pearls, so China's national standard stipulates that cultured pearls can be directly named pearls.
According to the structure of the pearl, cultured pearls can be divided into nucleated cultured pearls and seedless cultured pearls.
In addition, it can also be divided into saltwater pearls and freshwater pearls according to the water environment in which pearls grow. The well-known Nanyang gold pearls, Tahitian black pearls and akoya pearls are all saltwater pearls, and the Edison pearls we are talking about today are freshwater pearls.
Generally speaking, among cultured pearls, seawater cultured pearls are usually nuclear, freshwater cultured pearls are usually seedless, but Edison pearls are a special case, which belongs to freshwater nuclear cultured pearls.
【The Formation of Edison Pearls】
Pearls are formed due to foreign foreign bodies (such as sand grains, biological detritus, parasites, etc.) entering the interior of shellfish or mussels, giving the outer epithelial tissue of the mantle membrane (that is, the soft body inside shellfish or mussels) to effectively stimulate it to secrete naupine, wrapping the foreign body layer by layer, thus forming pearls.
Pearl formation process
The principle of Edison pearl formation is like this, but the foreign body becomes a perfectly round bead nucleus artificially inserted, and after the nucleus master inserts the bead core into the pearl cavity of the spinnaker mussel, the pearl mussel needs to be cultivated for a week and then put into fresh water for hanging, the breeding time varies from half a year to four years, and the longer the breeding time, the larger the pearl.
【Characteristics of Edison pearls】
Having said all that, what are the specific characteristics of Edison pearls?
First of all, Edison pearls not only have the same milky white, pink orange, pink purple and other colors as ordinary freshwater cultured pearls, but also brilliant orange and bright purple, and some Edison pearls also have a variety of different metallic colors, which are the unique colors of Edison pearls.
Pink orange, pink purple Edison pearls
Bright orange and bright purple Edison pearls
The diameter of the general freshwater seedless cultured pearl is about 5-9 mm, while the Edison pearl is relatively large compared to the ordinary freshwater pearl because it is a nuclear cultured pearl, and the diameter is usually more than 10 mm, and the largest can reach 20 mm. At the same time, because the Edison pearl contains a perfectly round bead core inside, its perfect round is also much higher than that of ordinary freshwater seedless pearls, such a large size and high positive round is comparable to the top seawater pearls, and its price is much lower than that of seawater pearls, which is really a very cost-effective gemstone.
Luster is an indispensable part of pearl quality evaluation, the luster of Edison pearls is stronger than the luster of ordinary freshwater pearls, but after wearing a period of time, the bead surface of Edison pearls will appear like fine lines like "capillaries", the bead surface becomes uneven, and the luster will become dull, which is the most fatal shortcoming of Edison pearls.
The most important point is that Edison pearl is a patented technology independently developed by China's pearl culture experts, with independent intellectual property rights, is the real "Made in China", but also the pearl in the "light of domestic goods".
Resources:
YU Xiaoyan. Colored Gemology
LI Geng,RUAN Liguang,CHAI Meng. Species and Breeding Status of Freshwater Pearls in China
Dai Huiru, Su Jun, Fang Jiesheng, etc. "Identification characteristics of "Edison" freshwater nucleated pearls"
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