Gems and pearls have been known to make beautiful jewellery that accentuates one’s look. Since ages ago, the tradition of wearing gems and pearls as jewelry has been profound. Of course, with jewelry originating from such an early time, many superstitions and myths have attached themselves to these adornments. For generations, jewelry has been passed down as heritage and so are these myths and superstitions that we will dive deep into today.
You might have been taught from a young age that if you’re wearing jewelry made out of silver, you must not take a bath or shower with it still on your person. Beautiful black pearl earrings might have been passed as pearls that could not have been real but a synthetic draft of the original pearl but in a different color. You must have bitten into a gold medal to check if it was really as if any metal could break from just a bite!
These pieces of information, may in some way, sway your decisions when you’re trying to purchase some jewelry. Believe it or not, these myths have been passed down for generations and have a knack to stick around. If you’ve grown up with these superstitions discussed around you or believed in, there is a high chance that you will also think about these things while buying jewelry. This article is to help debunk these myths and give you some crystal clear clarity.
Here are some of the most common jewelry superstitions:
PEARLS
You cannot be surprised to find out that there are myths and superstitions around pearls, keeping in mind how they are procured. Snap open a marine oyster to find the hidden pearl. Sounds right out of a Disney movie right? But that is the truth and that’s how Nature never fails to amaze us. From being called ‘God’s Tears’ or evolved sand particles, we are here to chuck such myths!
You can find pearls only in Oysters.
False. Many people believe that pearls can be found only in oysters. You must have seen tonnes of pearl extraction videos on Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, and many other platforms where harvesters open oysters to find the hidden pearl. There are ways to cultivate pearls commercially through oysters too but all types of molluscs can create pearls. That’s right. The animal making the pearl usually just changes the color and shape of the pearl.
Pearls can dissolve in vinegar.
This is not entirely a myth. Partially true, pearls can dissolve in vinegar. But, it does not happen in a small span of time. We’re talking several months, if not several years. For a pearl to dissolve in vinegar, it could take forever but that does not mean for you to experiment. Vinegar can easily mar the quality of pearls.
Pearls can only be white. All other colours are fake.
That is nonsense. Yes, the most beautiful and naturally available pearls are white in color. White pearls are more commonly found than any other color. But that does not mean that pearls do not exist in different colours. They surely do. You can find different colours of pearl drop earrings to add to your collection.
Pearls are just grains of sand that have evolved.
Oysters and molluscs create pearls as a counter-reaction to irritants present in the water. It sounds straightforward to imagine that sand stuck in an oyster can turn into a pearl. Pearl farms usually induce such irritants into the water so that oysters create pearls.
DIAMOND AND GEMS
Big gems are more expensive.
Yes, gems are usually pricey if they’re bigger and weigh more, but that’s not entirely true. You can easily find smaller diamonds that are much more expensive than the bigger ones depending on the quality of their cut, clarity, where it is from, colour, etc.
Diamonds are rare.
Diamonds used to be rare. We can blame big businesses here that have made diamonds abundantly available. Diamond companies can easily create artificial scarcity to up the rates and make more money off of these gems!
Diamonds can never be broken.
While it is extremely difficult to break a diamond, it is not impossible. Only a diamond can indeed cut a diamond, but, with the right pressure applied at the right angle, a diamond can easily split open. Diamonds are one of the strongest materials that occur in nature. Breaking a diamond is not easy and would require extensive knowledge about gems. Don’t worry, your jewelry will not break if you drop it, it requires much more pressure.
There are many more myths that have been going around the world for a very long time. Some believe you can bite gold to test if it’s genuine. But did you know, the purest form of gold is actually soft! Some believe that fine silver is the same as sterling silver whereas that is not the case. Just like black pearl earrings are not fake and are very much real! We hope this helped you debunk a few myths and left you in awe!