Almost all Julietas jewellery carries freshwater cultured pearls. It is a name that comes up a lot and is not always fully understood, so let us explain it slowly.
What a cultured pearl is
A pearl forms when a mollusc coats a foreign body that has entered it with nacre. In a natural pearl that body gets in by chance; in a cultured pearl a person introduces it, and the mollusc does the rest over months or years. A cultured pearl is a real pearl, made of nacre, with the same light and the same feel. The difference from a natural one lies in how it began, not in what it is made of.
Freshwater versus saltwater
Saltwater pearls (Akoya, Tahiti, South Sea) are cultured in marine oysters, usually one pearl per oyster, and tend to be very round and very uniform. Freshwater pearls are cultured in river and lake mussels, and each mussel can produce several pearls at once. They tend to be slightly less round, with more variety of shapes and tones, and with a very thick nacre, because the pearl is almost entirely nacre. That makes them resistant and gives them a soft light, less mirror-like than the Akoya.
Baroque pearls
Among freshwater pearls, baroque pearls are the ones that are not round: elongated, rippled, with shapes of their own. They are the ones we love most. Pieces like Sabi, Nami or Le Baroque are made with them, and that is why no two are alike.
How to tell if a pearl is real
There is a simple test you can do at home: gently rub the pearl against the edge of a tooth. A nacre pearl feels slightly gritty, like very fine sand. A plastic or glass one is completely smooth. You can also look closely: a real pearl has small irregularities on its surface and a glow that seems to come from within; an imitation is too perfect and shines only on the outer layer. And if you have two pearls identical to the millimetre, they are probably not pearls.
Why we choose freshwater
For two reasons. Because the thick nacre stands up well to daily wear, which is what we make our jewellery for. And because the variety of shapes and light lets us choose each pearl one by one for each piece, until we find the one that suits it. If you want them to last, our care guide tells you how to clean and store them.
