Pearl Society

Pearls Buried in Soil as a Quality Test

Recently a reference librarian at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's Walter Royal Davis Library made an inquiry on behalf of a patron.  The patron recalled reading "a tidbit about pearls" but was unable to place the source.  Specifically, the information they were trying to verify was that "chemists" or others in the Middle Ages would bury pearls in the dirt or soil to somehow test the quality of the pearls, and had we ever heard of this activity?

Eve's response: "I do believe the fact of the assertion is correct, the stated purpose is incorrect.  To explain: Pearls are made up of calcium carbonate, and are soluble in acids. Quite often a (natural) pearl would be found, of a certain size, but perhaps with a cloudy or blemished surface. Because pearl nacre is laid in layers by the mollusks, if a top layer could somehow be removed, there would be some hope of finding a better, brighter, unblemished layer below, albeit of a smaller size pearl.

One method used until this century in Europe was to run the pearl "through a chicken": allowing the chicken to swallow the pearl, then anxiously watching for its re-emergence at the other end.  The stomach acids would have dissolved the outer layer, hopefully resulting in a prettier pearl.

To this day, there are, in the pearl world, a few individuals known as "Pearl Doctors", who have mastered the delicate skill of painstakingly peeling the outermost nacre layer from important pearls.  They can command hefty fees, and possess the ability and experience of deciding whether a given pearl is likely to be improved or not. The Pearl Society owns some pearls from the collection of the late, and renowned pearl specialist, Lowell Jones, who collected $5000 dollars a day, payable in dollars or Swiss Francs, plus expenses and travel on the Concorde, and that was in the 1970's!    

It is thus more than likely that the individuals who sought to bury pearls in soil in the Middle Ages were in fact hoping that acidity would eat away the surface of the pearl and cause an improvement. It may well be that, being unable to test the pH of the local soil, they were reduced to experiment. Hence the vague idea that "they were testing the quality of the pearl", when actually it was the quality of the soil that was in question. 

I hope that is of help.  You probably found us through the website  www.evejewelry.com , which leads to our Pearl Blog, www.pearlsociety.typepad.com . If you would like to subscribe to the Pearl Society printed newsletter, which appears 4 times a year (sometimes 5) and carries separate material, please let us know.
Subscription, which includes membership in The Pearl Society, is $25.- a year.

-Eve Alfille
Founder, The Pearl Society

A GOOD DESIGN NEEDS MAGIC

To  be able to reach the magic you must be in a state of grace.  You put yourself there by saying a mantra. That can be anything, as long as it insulates you from other thoughts. Financial thoughts, domestic thoughts- banish them.  My mantra is usually a paradox, something that emerged from nowhere, but now is filling my brain, a single question. One year I spent months worrying about Atlantis.  Or about the fall of Rome. Or the fall of Icarus, this year.

I am very loose, a window in my attic open, and a wind is blowing in. I start noticing things. Lines and shapes suddenly fall into place, and  things start looking like other things, only you wouldn't know it.  With my eye I lift and move shapes just like with a mouse. And now, faster and faster, things fall into place.  An arch of pearls here, like a sword's slash. 

Startling blue , indolent pearls a medieval girl at her window. A ring is not a ring is not a mere round object - it is me, the knight's glove, offered sacrifice. A ring is an Ice Castle, protector of the self.

This golden pearl needs these gray crystals needs this green gold needs this fan of quartz a green o green o green..- This pearl, the horn of a stag-  like- I know- the Spirit of Dance. Of all the ballets I've ever imagined..I wind down. Five in the morning, and I'm cold. Time to call it a night.  A special night, elated. The open window of the brain now nearly closed, ajar. I go to bed like returning from a party

In the morning, there are these works, a little shrunken, on my table.  I have a mild amnesia. This morning I will go to work properly, finding calibrated rubies to fit this wax, adjusting a necklace, answering a question, hunting for a pearl, the right pearl, interviewing trays of pearls.  But the trail is cold. This is the wrong brain for me.

Inspiration is not linear. That's all I was trying to say. But you can encourage it, by letting go. I can study a pearl for hours, trying this and that, and it isn't right.  And then suddenly, when the time is right- there is the solution, and it was so simple.

That is the fast lane- everything blurs and connections open freely. a known high. Is there magic in the light of day and how do you access it?
Here's one way. Think of your all- time favorite work. The one you just knew was good before anyone else saw it. Examine it in your mind's eye . You don't want to re-make it, just recall the feeling.

Sometimes I do it differently.  With reason, not emotions I assemble the colors and lines and shapes that make sense and do not seem to violate any laws. Carefully I weigh the pros and cons, until everything seems in balance.  Then, and only then, I start removing some bricks from the edifice.  Maybe we don't need this; everything is still standing.

Then - roll of drums- I suddenly reach out for the most key element, and set it upside down, looking for danger, knowing that  to be any good, the work  has to have danger, tension, surprise. I have no fear, it always works.

The art gods  protect those who dare, those who care, and those who prepare...