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All About Pearls

Mabe` Pearls

A mabe` pearl is a semi-circular shaped pearl which is grown against the inside of the oyster's shell, rather than within its tissue. Mabe`s occasionally appear in nature. Cultured mabe` pearls are grown intentionally, by using a semi-circular nucleus, rather than a round one. The nucleus is implanted against the oyster's shell, rather than within its tissue. The pearl then develops in a hemispheric form, with a flat back. While in the oyster they are called blister pearls. The blister pearls are then worked by cutting the pearl out with a circle-bit drill. The nucleus is removed and replaced with resin. The back is then capped with a piece of mother of pearl. After the blister pearl has been 'worked' it then becomes a mabe` pearl.

Freshwater Pearls

Freshwater pearls are a kind of pearl that comes from freshwater mussels. Freshwater pearls are produced by various species of bivalve mollusks that live in lakes, riverbeds, and creek bottoms in China, Japan, and the United States. The global freshwater market is overwhelmingly dominated by Chinese pearl farms, which account for nearly all of the freshwater pearls sold today. Freshwater pearls come in various pastel shades of white, black, pink, peach, lavender, plum, purple, and tangerine, depending on the type of mussel.

A single mussel can produce up to 50 pearls. While saltwater pearl-bearing oysters are nucleated in a small organ known as the gonad, freshwater mussels are nucleated in the actual mantle tissue. Each mussel is surgically implanted with up to 50 tiny pieces of mantle tissue, a process known as nucleation. Once they have been nucleated, the mussels protect their flesh from the irritants by secreting nacre, this is the same beautiful, iridescent substance that lines the inside of mollusk shells and coats the surface of pearls. Over the course of 3 to 5 years, the mussels deposit layer upon layer of nacre around the growing gems. By the time the pearls are harvested, each mussel has produced dozens of pearls densely clustered on the inside of its mantle tissue.

Cultured Pearls

History

Pearls are organic gems, created when an oyster covers a foreign object with beautiful layers of nacre. Long ago, pearls were important financial assets, similar in price to restate, because thousands of oysters had to be searched for just one pearl. They were rare because they were created only by chance.

Today pearls are cultured by Man. Mother of Pearl beads are placed inside an oyster and the oyster is returned to the water. When the pearls are later harvested, the oyster has covered the bead with layers of nacre. Most cultured pearls are produced in Japan. In the warmer waters of the South Pacific, larger oysters produce South Sea cultured pearls and Tahitian black cultured pearls, which are larger in size. Freshwater pearls are cultured in mussels, mostly in China

Cultured pearls are usually more spherical in shape than natural ones. Less regular, baroque or pear-shaped pearls are also found, or specimens slightly flattened at one or both poles, which are of more limited use. On the average, about fifty percent of the nucleated oysters do not survive to bear pearls. And only twenty percent bear marketable pearls. The rest are too imperfect, too flawed to be used as jewels. A perfect pearl is a rare event, blessed by Nature and highly valued. Less than five percent of nucleated oysters yield pearls of such perfect shape, luster and color as to be considered fine gem quality.