Blissy jewellery Blog
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Swarovski Crystal

Swarovski crystals are expertly faceted and polished to create the world’s finest quality crystals. In 1892 glassmaker Daniel Swarovski invented a machine that revolutionized the crystal cutting and polishing process. For over 120 years Swarovski has continued to lead the world in crystal quality.

Swarovski crystal contains approximately 32% lead to maximize refraction. 
In order to create a crystal that allows light to refract in a rainbow spectrum, Swarovski coats some of its crystals with special metallic chemical coatings. Aurora Borealis, or "AB", is one of the most popular coatings, and gives the surface a rainbow oil slick appearance. 

Swarovski Crystal Pearls 

Made in Austria using the finest materials. They are called crystal pearls because they are created around perfect spherical lead crystal cores, which give them their ideal weight similar to natural/cultured pearls.

Each pearl is uniformly coated with layers of a special mother-of-pearl like coating developed by Swarovski, which combined with its crystal core give the pearls a natural luminosity and lustre similar to that of natural pearls.

When you first put on an item of natural pearl jewellery it will feel quite cold on your skin, over time the pearls will warm to your skin’s temperature. Swarovski pearls have this same sensual quality which is one of the many reasons they are so valued by pearl enthusiasts.

To make an item of pearl jewellery that we see in the shops thousands of pearls are sorted through, to find matching sizes and uniform shapes. With Swarovski pearls you eliminate this problem as they are all manufactured to uniform sizes and shapes. They can also be washed, dry-cleaned and are abrasion-proof, resistant to perspiration, perfume, UV light and scratches.

Sterling Silver

Sterling silver is a precious metal containing at least 92.5% silver. This is the legal standard of purity set by the assay offices in Britain and used for most silver jewellery throughout the world. It means that the metal used is of a specific quality. Pure silver is never used as it is too soft to be practical.


Pearls

A pearl is a hard, roundish object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of mollusks, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers.

The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but many other shapes of pearls (baroque pearls) occur.
The finest quality natural pearls have been highly valued as gemstones and objects of beauty for many centuries, and because of this, the word pearl became a metaphor for something very rare, very fine, very admirable and very valuable.

Almost any shelled mollusk can, by natural processes, produce some kind of "pearl" when an irritating microscopic object becomes trapped within the mollusk's mantle folds, but virtually none of these pearls are valued as gemstones.

Saltwater pearls

Can grow in several species of marine pearl oysters in the family Pteriidae. Freshwater pearls grow within certain (but by no means all) species of freshwater mussels in the order Unionida, the families Unionidae and Margaritiferidae.

These various species of bivalves are able to make nacreous pearls because they have a thick iridescent inner shell layer called "mother of pearl", which is composed of nacre. The mantle tissue of a living bivalve can create a pearl in the same manner that it creates the pearly inner layer of the shell.

Fine gem-quality saltwater and freshwater pearls can and do sometimes occur completely naturally in the wild state, but this is rare. Many hundreds of pearl oysters or pearl mussels have to be gathered and opened, and thus killed, in order to find even one wild pearl, and for many centuries that was the only way pearls were obtained.

This was the main reason why pearls fetched such extraordinary prices in the past. In modern times however, almost all the pearls for sale were formed with a good deal of expert intervention from human pearl farmers.


A pearl being extracted from an akoya pearl oyster
A nacreous pearl is made from layers of nacre, by the same living process as is used in the secretion of the mother of pearl which lines the shell. A "natural pearl" is one that formed without any human intervention at all, in the wild, and is very rare.

A "cultured pearl", on the other hand, is one that has been formed on a pearl farm. The great majority of pearls on the market are cultured pearls.
Imitation or fake pearls are also widely sold in inexpensive jewelry, but the quality of the iridescence is usually very poor, and generally speaking, fake pearls are usually quite easy to distinguish from the real thing.
Pearls have been harvested, or more recently cultivated, primarily for use in jewelry, but in the past they were also stitched onto lavish clothing, as worn, for example, by royalty.

Pearls have also been crushed and used in cosmetics, medicines, or in paint formulations.

Pearl is considered to be the birthstone for the month of June.

Stick Pearls

The stick or the Biwa pearls are produced in the Lake Biwa in Japan. The Biwa Pearl Mussel called Hyriopsis schlegelii is has now become very rare, but they were responsible for the formation of Biwa Pearls form an oyster. Its life cycle, included a specific larval stage known as glochidium, this must get attached to the gills or the fins of a fish before it metamorphoses the juvenile clam. This leads to the formation of the most beautiful and wonderful stick pearl!

Vermeil

(Pronounced: Vermay) is sterling silver that has been gold-plated. Most of our vermeil is plated with 24K gold. This is a good combination for those with allergy to normal, plated findings.

The difference between vermeil, and gold-filled, is in the thickness of the gold and the base metal used. In vermeil, the base is sterling silver. The standard is for the gold plating to be much thicker than ordinary plating

Gold-filled also called rolled-gold. These jewellery findings are not actually filled with gold! They are made of a base metal (usually brass or copper) covered by sheets of gold in a mechanical bonding process.

Effectively a thick coat of gold: the gold content is 5% or 1/20 of the total weight. Use gold-filled items for your top-of-the-line jewellery. Usually made with 14k gold, it is hard wearing. With reasonable care it will not peel or flake, and should last as long as solid 14k gold jewellery. It is safe for most people with sensitive skin.

Gold filled

Gold filled is a process of pressure bonding a thin layer of gold to a base metal core (usually brass). Gold filled (unlike gold plating) has an actual layer of gold, giving it more value and making it tarnish-resistant.

Gold jewellery reacts with chlorine. Never take your gold jewellery into a pool or spa.