(Wahroongai News, Volume 28, No.6, June 1994) H Komatsu writes:
How to take good care of pearl can be summarized into the following 4 points:
1. After wearing your pearl, you make it a custom to clean and dry it with a soft cloth, and keep it in a jewelry box. This is to prevent from the dullness of pearl luster from perspiration or cosmetic.
2. Your pearl should not touch with other jewelries such as diamonds, precious stones, gold jewelry, etc otherwise, some flaws might occur on the surface of your pearl.
3. Your pearl should not be exposed to light while it is kept, because light might make it yellowish after many years.
4. Your pearl should avoid extreme dryness and humidity; otherwise, cracks might occur after many years.
What is most important among the above 4 points is (1), that is, to clean and dry your pearl with a cloth after you wear it.
A pearl is far stronger than a marble.
The principle ingredient of a pearl and a marble consist of calcium carbonate, or a sort of calcium crystallization. It is reported that a marble is damaged by acid rain in Europe. Grand edifices and sculptures made of marbles are exposed to weather in ancient European cities, such as Paris, Rome, etc. And those historical structures are deformed, being melted by acid rain caused by waste gas from automobiles. Calcium carbonate is strong and solid crystallization, but it is melted by chemical reaction when influenced by acidity. On the other hand, the principal ingredient of a pearl is calcium carbonate, but the structure of its principal ingredient is greatly different from a marble. A marble is simply a mass of crystallization, but a pearl appears to be tiny bricks which are visible only with an electron microscope. Pearl nacre composes of many, many brick-looking materials. As a matter of fact, a pearl of 7mm composes of 220, 000, 000, 000 bricks. To our further surprise, every brick is covered up with a protein film. Generally speaking, protein is strong against acidity, and a pearl covered with a protein film is much stronger than a marble.
The surface of a pearl will become clouded with perspiration.
Since a brick near the surface of a pearl is exposed to the air and touches with your skin, its protein film may be damaged and it may become melted with acidity, such as perspiration and cosmetic. When a brick becomes melted, the surfaces of a pearl become uneven, though it is a micron in size, and loses its luster, which is called ‘cloudy phenomenon’. The same principle applies for a frosted glass which becomes clouded when a flaw or unevenness is found on the surface of a transparent glass.
It is easy to make clouded surface clean by cutting and polishing its surface.
Cloudy surface appears to be very serious when you notice it one day. You will be shocked to find powdery materials or white cloud on the surface of your pearl. However, it is easy to solve the above problem. By principle, we can remove one brick with flaws on the surface, and take out a new brick below the old one. You can restore pearl luster by polishing its surface with a cloth containing an ordinary abrasive. Since the thickness of a brick is 0.5 micron, you can feel relieved that cutting off such thickness does not reduce the size of your pearl.
To clean and dry your pearl with a cloth is the fundamental rule regarding how to take good care of your pearl.
We advise you not to have your pearl clouded, though you will be able to restore it. There will be two methods:
- To stay away from acidity. In case of a pearl jewelry, it is impossible to do so unless it is coated with special chemical, because you wear it on your skin.
- To remove acidity. The only method will be to remove perspiration and cosmetic on the surface of a pearl. Any soft cloth will do, but strictly speaking, the cloth which is suitable for soaking up the chief ingredient of perspiration, that is, water and oil, will be the best.
A pearl is one of the softest gems.
According to Mohs hardness index, a pearl is harder than a marble, but it is softer than any other gems. It is true that the hardness index of a pearl, which is 4.5, creates its unique luster, but we advise you not to mix it with other gems in a jewelry box.
Let’s not get your pearl sunburnt.
As we told you, pearl brick is covered up with a protein in film. This protein film will become yellowish and get sunburnt. This is the same principle with human beings becoming sunburnt in the sun. However, in case of a pearl, it takes many decades before it becomes discolored. You need not worry much about it so far as your pearl is carefully kept in a jewelry box.
A pearl is breathing.
Furthermore, water inside a pearl is actively moving around. When water inside becomes dry, it will get outside. Then, a pearl will become dry up, and lose its transparency, and may get cracked. On the other hand, when water becomes wet, it will get inside. Then, the protein film will get melted. Therefore, your pearl should be kept at a certain moderate state, not in too high nor too low humidity.
In conclusion, we would like to advise you to keep your pearl in a jewelry box which is designed to function, adjusting humidity naturally.
No comments:
Post a Comment