Urban Code Magazine

Archive for August, 2009

Rings first became popular during the medieval years. Rings were typically made of iron, copper, silver, or gold. The material of the ring worn usually indicated the class of the wearer. It wasn’t until around the 14th century that faceted jewels appeared in rings.

The start of wedding rings has an interesting story. Richard Joyce was among the crew of a fishing boat from the village of Claddagh, Ireland that was captured, he was to have been married that very same week. During slavery Richard Joyce was put to learning the trade of the goldsmith. Through the years of capture neither married. Richard Joyce created a ring for his love with a heart for love, a crown for loyalty, and two hands indicating friendship.

After Joyce escaped capture, he returned to the village of Claddagh and was overjoyed to see his love again and to know she had never married. She always knew he would return to her. He gave her the ring that has become known as the Claddagh ring. If the Claddagh is worn on the right hand with the crown inward (toward the wrist) the heart is not yet committed. If it is worn on the right hand with the crown turned outward the wearer is committed to someone. Finally if it is worn on the left hand with the crown outward it means “Let our love and friendship reign forever, never to be separated.”

Rings are worn for a variety of reasons including adornment. There are rings given as a reward for a job well done such as the Super Bowl victory. They are given to represent commitment as in engagements and marriages. Class rings are traditional for high school and college seniors. Parents and grandparents have rings with their children’s or grandchildren’s birthstones in them. These are but a few of the many rings today.

Despite the many advantages of online shopping there are also problems which may occur with this type of shopping. These problems such as ordering the wrong item, receiving the wrong item and the need to return an item can often be significant enough to make a potential online shopper reconsider the decision to purchase an item online. Although these problems are some of the most common which occur in online shopping they do not necessarily happen frequently. However, when these problems do occur they can cause a great deal of stress and frustration for the online shopper. This article will discuss some of these common problems in an attempt to help the reader make a wise decision about whether or not to purchase an item online.

Ordering the Wrong Item

When shopping in traditional stores it is quite difficult to accidentally purchase the wrong item because the sales process typically involves the consumer physically carrying the item up to the sales counter to make the purchase. However, in online shopping where the consumer never physically handles the item before the purchase is complete and the item delivered it is certainly possible to purchase the wrong item. This can occur when the shopper uses the website to make the purchase and clicks on the wrong item or when the consumer contacts customer service to make the purchase and provides the wrong product number. Even if the consumer clicks on the correct product and provides an accurate product number he may still make a mistake in the ordering process if there are options such as size or color associated with the item. This problem can be rather troubling because the consumer will be disappointed when the incorrect item is received.

Receiving the Wrong Item

Even when online shoppers do not make mistakes during the ordering process it is still possible for the consumer to receive the wrong item. This often occurs when the orders are filled by hand and a mistake is made in the warehouse. A warehouse maker may ship the wrong item completely or may ship the correct item in the wrong size or color. Again the consumer will likely not know a mistake was made until the order arrives. The online retailer will likely take responsibility for returning the incorrect item and will ship the correct item as soon as possible. However, this may not completely correct the problem in all cases. For example a consumer who purchased an item for a specific event may not receive the replacement item in time for the event.

The Need to Return an Item

In situations where the online shopper orders the wrong item as well as situations where the online retailer mistakenly ships the wrong item there may be a need to make returns. Although this may not seem to be a huge problem it can be particularly troubling for some consumers. In particular online shoppers who opt to do their shopping online specifically because they work odd hours may have a great deal of difficulty making returns. This is because the process of shipping the item back to the online retailer will generally involve taking the item to a post office. Depending on the hours in which the consumer works, it may be difficult to get to a post office during regular business hours and may require the shopper to take time off from work to make the return.

Are all Tahitian pearls black? What’s the difference between a cultured pearl and a natural pearl? Are freshwater pearls inferior to saltwater pearls? Are South Sea pearls really golden?

Good questions. With all the different pearl colors and types out there, it can be difficult to know just what you’re looking at. For those interested in buying pearls, or for gem enthusiasts who wish to learn more, here are answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about pearls.

Are All Tahitian Pearls Black?
Not only are Tahitian cultured pearls not exclusively black, they’re also not grown in Tahiti. Called “black” because of their exotic dark colors, Tahitian cultured pearls can also be gray, blue, green and brown. And they’re grown in the lagoons of small islands that are part of a group known as French Polynesia. Tahiti, the largest island, serves as the group’s center of commerce, and not as a pearl growing mecca.

Tahitian pearls are cultivated for about two years in Pinctada margaritifera cumingi, a large mollusk native to French Polynesia. One of the ways this unique oyster differs from other species is its interior shell color, which is dark. This so-called “black lipped” oyster also has black mantle edges—the “lips” that give this animal its descriptive name.

Today, the most sought-after Tahitian cultured pearls are dark green-gray to blue gray with rosé or purple overtones. Pearl colors are determined by several factors, including variations in the host oyster, color variation of the implanted donor mussel tissue, the number and thickness of nacre layers, and variations in growing environment such as temperature and water quality. Tahitians are most often variations of gray, black, green and blue, but other colors exist.

At an average size of 8mm-14mm, Tahitian cultured pearls—especially those specimens that are gem-quality and round—are very expensive. According to the latest information from the Gemological Institute of America, up to 40 percent of implanted black-lipped oysters produce a gem-quality cultured pearl, but only about 5 percent of the pearls they produce are round. And only 1-2 percent of the entire crop will result in round cultured pearls of the finest quality. No wonder a Tahitian pearl strand is so costly! If you want to wear Tahitian cultured pearls, one way to do so without breaking the bank is to choose a pendant-style necklace with a single pearl, pearl stud earrings, a single pearl ring, or baroque (non-symmetrical) pearls. These designs are every bit as exotic and a lot more affordable than a matched strand.

What’s the difference between a cultured pearl and a natural pearl?
Natural pearls are formed when an irritant, such as a parasite, makes its way into a pearl-producing animal such as an oyster or mollusk. To protect itself, the animal coats the irritant in nacre—a combination of organic substances that also makes up what we call mother-of pearl. Over time, the layers of nacre build up around the intruder and eventually form the organic gem we all know as the pearl.

Cultured pearls are formed in the same way as natural pearls, with one big difference: they get their start not by chance, but deliberately, when man intervenes with nature. To produce cultured pearls, a skilled technician, called a nucleator, induces the pearl-growing process by surgically placing an irritant—a mother-of-pearl bead and a piece of mantle tissue, usually—into a mollusk. The animal is then placed back into the water and monitored, cleaned, etc. until the pearl is ready to be harvested.

The Chinese have been culturing freshwater blister pearls (pearls that grow underneath the mantle on the inside of the animal’s shell) since the 13th century, but Kokichi Mikimoto, a Japanese man, is credited with developing modern pearl culturing techniques. By the early 1920s, Mikimoto was selling his cultured pearls worldwide.

Natural pearls can be very beautiful, but due to overfishing, pollution and other factors, they are a rare find indeed. Thus, nearly all pearls sold today are cultured pearls. There are two main types: freshwater and saltwater. South Sea cultured pearls, Tahitian cultured pearls and akoya cultured pearls are all types of saltwater pearls. Cultured pearls of all types can be found in jewelry stores worldwide.

Are saltwater pearls better than freshwater pearls?
It depends on who you ask, but many pearl experts today agree that freshwater cultured pearls can rival the beauty of their saltwater cousins. Due to improvements in culturing techniques, freshwater pearl farmers are producing beautiful, round, lustrous pearls that are a vast improvement over the wrinkled, rice-krispie-shaped gems that typified the freshwater pearl crop of the not-so-distant past.

Produced mainly in China, freshwater pearls are often nucleated, or implanted, with mantle tissue only (rather than a mother-of-pearl bead). Because they do not contain a starter bead, tissue-nucleated freshwater pearls are 100% nacre. This gives them a beautiful luster and a durable surface that won’t easily flake or peel to reveal the inner bead. By contrast, pearls that are bead-nucleated and harvested too soon often have only a thin coating of nacre that will flake or peel. This is a major problem: Unlike many other gemstones, pearls cannot be polished back to perfection.

Freshwater cultured pearls come in many beautiful natural pastel colors including cream, white, yellow, orange, pink and lavender. (Universally flattering lavender pearls are very popular right now.) White pearls are bleached to enhance their natural shine. Black freshwater cultured pearls are treated with dye or heat to produce their inky color.

Overall, freshwater pearls are more plentiful than other pearl types, thus they are generally more affordable.

Are South Sea pearls really golden?
Yes. Pearls produced in the aptly named “gold-lipped” oyster (P. maxima) can be a gorgeous creamy yellow, referred to as “golden” in the trade. (The silver-lipped variety of P. maxima produces beautiful silver or white pearls.) Grown in the South Seas—which stretch from the southern coast of Southeast Asia to the northern coast of Australia—these pearls are grown in one of the biggest oysters used in pearl culturing. Because they can accept a larger bead and secrete nacre faster than their smaller counterparts, these big oysters produce large pearls of exceptional luster and beauty. South Sea pearls’ thick coating of nacre gives the gems a wonderful luster, or glow, that appears to come from deep within the pearl. The warm waters, abundant food supply and low pollution levels of the South Seas also help these oysters produce beautiful cultured pearls.

Although Australia produces 60% of the world’s South Sea cultured pearls, Indonesian farmers work more with the gold-lipped oyster, and thus produce more golden pearls. The silver-lipped variety produces equally beautiful pearls that come in white to silver and often have rosé, blue or green overtones. Aside from giving them a light wash, pearl farmers do not treat South Sea pearls after harvest.