Much like fruit, a pearl is valued by an element of time. Get them before they are ripe, and you really have a problem.

Pearls are unique among gemstones - they're not really a stone at all. The chance creation of a pearl in nature happens when an oyster has an irritation within its shell, which causes the oyster to build up layers of nacre (shell material) around the irritant. These layers eventually become a pearl, one of the most treasured natural materials in the world. This process is tricky and random at best - so science came up with a solution to obtain more of these beautiful items - cultured pearls.

Cultured pearls (the saltwater variety) were developed in the early 20th century by Japanese researchers. Before this time, other countries and cultures had been able to culture freshwater pearls from mussels, but these pearls were smaller and less perfect than the saltwater pearls being found in nature. Kokichi Mikimoto was the most well known of these researchers, because he was able to come up with a technique that assured round, beautiful cultured pearls each time.

These cultured pearls were created on pearl farms, where oysters were implanted with "seeds" (small pieces of irritants) are left to grow pearls. After two to three years, each oyster yields a pearl - which is usually discarded due to small size or irregular shape. Then, the oyster is re-seeded, and the resulting pearl (produced in another two to three years) is sold as a cultured pearl. Over 95% of the pearls sold in jewelry today are cultured pearls, coming from places such as Australia and Japan. Before the surge in cultured pearls, pearls had to be exported from very specific places in the world. Prior to 1930, Kuwait was one of those places; the cultured pearl craze is what led them to search for oil as an alternate means of driving the economy.

Pearl jewelry has long been seen as the pinnacle of "ladylike" jewelry, with a pearl choker being the favorite necklace of many First Ladies of the United States. Jackie Kennedy, Barbara Bush and many others have been photographed and painted in their pearl necklaces. In these modern times, most of these pearl necklaces were made with cultured pearls, which are indistinguishable from "natural" pearls on sight. The only true way to find out if a pearl is natural is to x-ray the jewelry.

Cultured pearls have made it so that more and more people can afford the beauty and splendor of this natural wonder. With many more pearls being produced annually, it is easy to be able to obtain the pearl jewelry that fits in your lifestyle and budget.