Pearl

Pearl is the oldest gem in continuous use, and it is grown rather than mined. When a grain of sand or a small irritant finds its way inside an oyster or mussel, the creature coats it in layers of nacre — aragonite and conchiolin, the same material as the shell itself. The layers accumulate slowly, one over another, for years before anything worth wearing appears. Natural pearls remain rare. Most pearls in the catalogue are cultured: the process is guided, the irritant placed by hand, but the living work is still the oyster's own.

The name comes from the Old French perle, which traces back through the Latin perna — a kind of shellfish, named for its leg-shaped outline. Every language that has touched the sea has a word for it.

The tradition places pearl with the heart and sacral chakras, with Cancer and Gemini in the zodiac, and with the water element. In the intention vocabulary it belongs to calm, love and romance, and healing and wellbeing — the softer, wetter end of the shelf. The colour, that particular lustrous white, is part of why: pearl holds light rather than simply reflecting it, and it reads differently in candlelight than in daylight.

The suggestion the tradition makes is a quiet one. Give the pearl a place in a practice — a moment in the morning when it is held and an intention is spoken, a pendant that rests near the skin through the day. The object keeps the note. The practice is yours.

Below you'll find what the catalogue holds in pearl: necklaces, studs, bracelets and drops — each one with its own particular warmth.