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Selecting Cultured Pearls
Selecting a Necklace
Choose your cultured pearl necklace based on your appearance, personality and style. Short necklaces are best for women with long necks, while longer lengths tend to slenderize and elongate the body. Let your expert jeweller customize a necklace so its proportions and color are a good match for you. Use this guide to necklace lengths and terminology:
Choker - A necklace 14 inches to 15 inches in length that rests on the collarbone.
Princess – An 18-inch necklace strung with either graduated or uniform cultured pearls.
Matinee – A slightly longer necklace, usually 20 to 24 inches in length.
Opera – A 30- to 36-inch necklace. This length necklace should WHAT YOU
fall to the breastbone and can often be worn long or doubled.
Rope or sautoir – Any necklace longer than opera length. Ropes are often worn knotted or with a shortener for added versatility of style.
Dog collar – A multiple strand necklace that fits closely around the neck.
Bib –A single necklace with multiple strands of varying lengths that are worn nested together.
Torsade – A necklace in which several strands of cultured pearls (usually freshwater) are twisted together and held with a special clasp.
Graduated –A necklace with cultured pearls of gradually increasing size with the smallest at the back and the largest at the center.
Uniform –A necklace in which all cultured pearls appear to be the same size, although there is usually a slight difference between the center and end cultured pearls.
Your Cultured Pearl Wardrobe
Begin your cultured pearl jewellery wardrobe with a matching necklace, earrings and bracelet. The necklace can be lengthened to a rope or sautoir by letting your jeweller match new cultured pearls to the size and color of existing ones, or it can be updated with a pendant or jewelled clasp. Add a ring, pin or earrings set with dramatic mabé cultured pearls or South Sea cultured pearls. Or, consider a long cultured pearl strand with several invisible clasps that allow it to be worn in different lengths or combined with a matching bracelet. Go for high drama with a ring or earrings set with one white cultured pearl, one black.
Caring for Cultured Pearls
Remember that cultured pearls are precious jewels and should always be treated as such. Follow these guidelines to care for your cultured pearl jewellery:
Do treat your cultured pearls gently. Keep them in a chamois bag, or wrap them in tissue when you put them away.
Don’t toss them in a purse or jewellery box where they can become scratched by metal or stones.
Do apply perfume, hairspray and cosmetics before putting on your cultured pearl jewellery.
Don’t clean cultured pearl jewellery with any chemicals or abrasives.
Do wipe them with a soft, clean cloth after each wearing to remove any traces of hairspray or perfume, and occasionally wash them with mild soap and water.
Do buy strands of cultured pearls that are strung with a knot between each cultured pearl, to avoid abrasion and to prevent loss if the string should break.
Do bring your cultured pearl necklace to your jeweller for restringing once a year, as cosmetics and ordinary wear can damage or stretch the threads on which the cultured pearls are strung.
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