How Do You Know if an Oyster Has a Pearl

In this essay you'll learn nigh the history of pearls , how they course in oysters, and how cultured pearls are more often than not cultivated, harvested and processed for market.

Cultured pearls ... their very name conjures images of lustrous jewels nestled deep in oysters far below the surface of the bounding main. Yet cultured pearls are more than just jewels. Since the beginning of time, pearls have been revered as one of the world's about beautiful and magical gems. Today, cultured pearls are the foundation of every woman's jewelry wardrobe. Stylish, feminine and fresh, cultured pearls truly enhance a woman's palette of styles. Rich and adaptable, a lustrous star in the world of fine jewelry, a simple cultured pearl necklace can accept a adult female through every moment in her life, every outfit in her wardrobe. The possibilities are countless.

Many thousands of years ago, long before written history, human beings probably discovered the first pearl while searching the seashore for food. Throughout history, the pearl, with its warm inner glow and shimmering iridescence, has been one of the most highly prized and sought-after gems. Endless references to the pearl can be establish in the religions and mythology of cultures from the primeval times. The ancient Egyptians prized pearls and then much they were buried with them. Cleopatra reportedly dissolved a unmarried pearl in a glass of wine and drank it, simply to win a wager with Marker Antony that she could consume the wealth of an entire nation in just ane meal.

In ancient Rome, pearls were considered the ultimate symbol of wealth and social standing. The Greeks held the pearl in loftier esteem for both its unrivaled dazzler and its association with beloved and marriage. During the Dark Ages, while off-white maidens of nobility cherished fragile pearl necklaces, gallant knights frequently wore pearls into battle. They believed the magic of these lustrous gems would protect them from impairment. The Renaissance saw the royal courts of Europe awash in pearls. Because pearls were so highly regarded, a number of European countries actually passed laws forbidding anyone just the nobility to article of clothing them.

During the European expansion into the New World, the discovery of pearls in Central American waters added to the wealth of Europe. Unfortunately, greed and animalism for the sea-grown gems resulted in the depletion of nigh all the American pearl oyster populations by the 17th century. Until the early 1900's, natural pearls were attainable merely to the rich and famous. In 1916, famed French jeweler Jacques Cartier bought his landmark store on New York's famous Fifth Avenue -- by trading two pearl necklaces for the valuable belongings.

But today, with the appearance of pearl cultivation, pearls are bachelor and affordable to all.

The birth of a pearl is truly a miraculous event. Unlike gemstones or precious metals that must be mined from the world, pearls are grown by live oysters far beneath the surface of the sea. Gemstones must be cut and polished to bring out their beauty. But pearls need no such treatment to reveal their loveliness. They are built-in from oysters complete -- with a shimmering iridescence, lustre and soft inner glow different any other gem on world.

A natural pearl begins its life as a foreign object, such as a parasite or slice of vanquish that accidentally lodges itself in an oyster'south soft inner body where it cannot be expelled. To ease this irritant, the oyster'south torso takes defensive action. The oyster begins to secrete a smooth, hard crystalline substance around the irritant in order to protect itself. This substance is called "nacre." As long as the irritant remains within its trunk, the oyster will continue to secrete nacre around it, layer upon layer. Over time, the irritant will exist completely encased by the silky crystalline coatings. And the event, ultimately, is the lovely and lustrous jewel called a pearl.

How something and so wondrous emerges from an oyster's way of protecting itself is 1 of nature's loveliest surprises. For the nacre is not but a soothing substance. It is composed of microscopic crystals of calcium carbonate, aligned perfectly with ane another, and then that light passing along the axis of one crystal is reflected and refracted by another to produce a rainbow of light and color.

Cultured pearls share the aforementioned backdrop as natural pearls. Oysters grade cultured pearls in an most identical fashion. The just divergence is a person advisedly implants the irritant in the oyster, rather than leaving it to chance. Nosotros then step aside and let nature create its phenomenon. How pearls are cultivated and harvested Early, pearl cultivation depended entirely on wild oysters. After you'll larn that, in some cases, the same applies today. But modern pearl tillage has go more selective.

In Japanese pearl tillage, scientists have isolated strains of oysters that possess superior pearl-producing qualities. These selectively-bred oysters produce pearls of exceptional lustre and colour clarity. In a process referred to as "nucleation," also chosen "grafting" or "seeding," highly skilled technicians carefully open up live pearl oysters, and with surgical precision make an incision in the oyster'south body. So, they place a tiny piece of "pall tissue" from some other oyster into a relatively safety location. So, they place a small round slice of shell, or "nucleus," beside the inserted mantle tissue. The nucleus is a female parent-of-pearl bead fabricated from an American freshwater mussel. The cells from the mantle tissue develop effectually the nucleus forming a sac, which closes and starts to secrete nacre, the crystalline substance that forms the pearl. The nucleated oysters are then returned to the body of water where, in sheltered trophy rich in nutrients, they feed and grow, depositing layer after layer of lustrous nacre around the nuclei implanted within them. The oysters are given the utmost care during this time, while suspended in the water, from the rafts above. Technicians bank check h2o temperatures and feeding conditions daily at various depths, moving the oysters upwardly or down every bit advisable.

Periodically, the oysters are lifted from the sea for cleaning and health treatments. Seaweed, barnacles and other seaborne organisms that might interfere with their feeding are removed from the oysters' shells. The shells are also treated with medicinal compounds to discourage parasites. Over time, afterward many months of growth and care, the oysters are ready for harvest. Those that accept survived the many perils of the ocean are brought ashore and opened. And then, when everything has gone well, a beauty is revealed -- the upshot is a lovely, lustrous and very valuable cultured pearl.

How pearls are processed for market

Saltwater cultured pearls can never be a mass-produced, factory-similar product. The whims of unpredictable Female parent Nature do not allow it. Millions of oysters are nucleated every year, but only a small proportion live to produce fine-quality cultured pearls. Many oysters don't survive the nucleating process, others are weak and fall prey to affliction. Heavy rains may flood the bays with fresh h2o, reducing their salinity, and killing the oysters. Sometimes, certain species of phytoplankton undergo explosive growth, creating the dreaded "ruby tide," which exhausts the oxygen in the h2o, and suffocates the oysters. Then there are typhoons, the attacks of predators and parasites, lack of sufficient nutrients in the water.

On average, just l pct of nucleated oysters survive to conduct pearls, and of them, only 20 percent bear pearls that are marketable. The rest are only as well imperfect, too flawed to be called jewels. And so, a perfect pearl is truly a rare effect, blessed by Nature. Less than v percentage of nucleated oysters yield pearls of such perfect shape, lustre and color every bit to exist considered fine gem quality.

These are the precious treasures of pearl tillage, the rare prizes of whatever jewelry drove. After harvesting, gem quality pearls must exist sorted. Because no two pearls are e'er exactly alike, sorting pearls is an extremely hard and time-consuming effort performed by experts. Each pearl must be sorted by size, shape, color and lustre, so it is handled hundreds of times. Later sorting, the pearls are drilled with great care and precision. An inexperienced operator tin can split or ruin pearls with careless treatment. A hole drilled fifty-fifty slightly off-eye can ruin a necklace or other slice of jewelry that depends upon the symmetry of its associates of pearls. Finally, information technology's time for matching and stringing. This can be even more than hard than sorting, because at present experts must compare pearls that are like in size, shape, lustre and color -- looking for nearly exact matches. The art of assembling pearls into a necklace, a pair of earrings or other jewelry calls for refined skills in matching. Only highly-trained experts with years of experience tin perform this task. To detect 47 pearls for a perfectly matched 16-inch necklace, a pearl processor must cull through more 10,000 pearls.

CULTURED PEARL PRODUCTS

In this essay you lot'll larn about Akoya.html">Akoya, South Bounding main, and Tahitian cultured pearls -- 3 kinds of pearls that together satisfy the entire range of customer desires. You lot'll learn about the history of each type of pearl, some details on the ways each is cultivated, harvested and processed, and the special qualities each possesses.

Know your Akoya pearls

The story of Akoya pearl tillage is a fascinating ane, the upshot of the hard work and creativity of several of import individuals. But the story of Akoya pearls is particularly associated with the life of 1 human: Kokichi Mikimoto. In the tardily 1800's, Kokichi Mikimoto, a son of humble beginnings, began to experiment with pearl cultivation. Convinced he could subcontract pearls, Mikimoto worked for years -- usually unsuccessfully -- trying to coax pearls from oysters.

Then, in 1905, after 12 years of painstaking piece of work and trial-and-error, he successfully produced his offset totally round pearl. What had in one case been a gem reserved for the upper grade and dignity, would now exist available for all to own and cherish. In the 1920's, when Japanese cultured pearls were first introduced into the jewelry market, they dislocated pearl buyers, and raised much argue every bit to whether or not they were "real" pearls. Only soon the world realized that cultured pearls were every bit real as natural ones, and that nature had simply been encouraged past man ingenuity. What Kokichi Mikimoto had helped create was an industry, ane and then closely associated with Japan today. The bounding main around the southern one-half of Nihon is the largest habitat in the world for Akoya oysters.

Here, over the past hundred years, Japanese pearl growers take refined the techniques of pearl tillage to a high art -- to a point where some of the earth's loveliest pearls are grown, in a land where attention to detail combines so well with the dearest of beauty. Today, some 2 chiliad independent growers harvest pearls in the waters of Japan -- large and pocket-size cultivators alike, employing the same bones techniques to abound these lustrous gems to perfection.

You learned how cultured pearls are more often than not cultivated, harvested and candy for market. Now let's run into what points of involvement apply in these areas to the Akoya pearl specifically. We'll practice the same with South Sea and Tahitian pearls besides. Akoya Pearl Cultivation Akoya pearls take their name from the insufficiently minor Akoya oyster in which they form, also known by its scientific name Pinctada fucata. Most Akoya oysters used in pearl farming are bred in hatcheries, to ensure the prophylactic of the species. Much research has gone into convenance hearty, healthy Akoya oysters -- to produce pearls then well-known for their superior lustre and color. As with all cultured pearls, Akoya oysters are nucleated with a hard-shell bead and mantle tissue from an oyster that has produced a loftier-quality pearl in the past. But compared with the other species of saltwater cultured pearl oysters, many more than Akoya oysters are nucleated.

Generally, Akoya cultured pearls take 10 to 18 months from the time they are nucleated to the point they're ready for harvest. Akoya Pearl Harvesting Akoya cultured pearls are the most difficult and costly to abound considering of the depression survival rates of their host oysters. Less than 50 per centum of Akoya oysters survive the nucleation process, and those that do get on to produce pearls can practise so only once. Of all Akoya pearls produced, less than 5 percent are considered high quality. Nevertheless, the total number of Akoya pearls harvested every year generally exceeds other types of saltwater cultured pearls. This is why most cultured Pearl Necklaces are made of Akoya pearls.

Akoya Pearl Processing

The exacting process of sorting cultured pearls is specially time-consuming with Akoya pearls. I reason is: there are then many pearls to sort through. Another is that Japanese matching requirements are generally stricter than those for other pearl types. In fact, Akoya cultured pearl producers seek nigh perfect matches amid their pearls. Such high matching standards result in 90 percent of all Akoya pearls harvested to be lightly bleached and tinted after drilling. These color enhancements are intended to be permanent, and should not alter over time.

Akoya Pearl Quality Evaluation

It's by and large accustomed that Akoya pearls, the archetype cultured pearls of Japan, are the most lustrous of all pearls. Merely "lustre" is just one of the 5 quality factors used in judging cultured pearls, the others beingness "surface," "shape," "color" and "size." Let'south review these quality factors, and see how each applies to Akoya pearls. A chip later on, we'll do the same with South Bounding main pearls and Tahitian pearls.

Quality Factor One: Lustre

Lustre is considered the about important quality cistron in pearls. Lustre refers both to a pearl'south brilliance -- the way its surface reflects light -- and its inner glow: the mode it refracts calorie-free. A pearl's lustre is mostly evaluated in terms of "high" to "low," with grades of "medium" in betwixt.

High-lustre pearls are vivid, and accept a deep-seated glow. They reverberate objects near them clearly. Though loftier-lustre pearls usually have a thick nacre coating, thick nacre doesn't always guarantee a pearl will have high lustre. This is true because genetic imperfections in some oysters don't allow them to secrete nacre in perfect patterns that result in high lustre. Depression-lustre pearls, on the other hand, have low cogitating and refractive qualities. They may appear too white, or dull or chalky, and they usually have only marginal nacre thickness.

Lustre of Akoya pearls

Many experts believe that Akoya pearls take the highest lustre of all cultured pearls, and it has to do with their nacre coating. The Japanese waters in which Akoya pearls grow are considerably cooler -- 10 to 15 degrees libation -- than those in warmer climates, where other types of saltwater cultured pearls are grown. The libation weather condition crusade Akoya pearls to develop their nacre coating more slowly, and with a more meaty crystal structure. This is what increases Akoya pearls' reflective and refractive qualities. Fifty-fifty though Akoya pearls' nacre coating is generally thinner than that of about other saltwater varieties -- virtually a one-half millimeter thick -- their lustre shines the brightest.

Quality Factor Ii: Surface

Surface is the second nigh important quality cistron in pearl evaluation. Surface quality refers to the amount and kinds of flaws that appear on the outside of a pearl. Surface is generally evaluated in terms of "clean" to "heavily blemished," with grades of blemishing in between. "Clean" pearls have nearly no spots, bumps, pits, cracks, circles or wrinkles on them. "Heavily blemished" pearls, on the other hand, are dominated past such flaws. It's important to note the difference between "damaging" and "non-damaging" blemishes. Damaging blemishes are those that tend to become larger over time. "Cracks" and "chips," often almost a pearl's drill holes, are dissentious blemishes. Not-damaging blemishes do non worsen over fourth dimension. Spots, bumps, pits, circles, and wrinkles are considered non-damaging blemishes.

Generally, the cleaner the surface of a pearl, the more valuable information technology is. But information technology's very important to remember that, as products of nature, pearls are almost never flawless -- and imperfections, because they're natural, don't necessarily detract from the beauty or value of a pearl.

Surface of Akoya pearls

Akoya pearls are typically clean, generally gratis of heavy blemishes. This is a consequence of their comparatively brusque cultivation time, and the strict quality standards Japanese pearls are subject to.

Quality Gene Three: Shape

pearls are placed into 8 basic shape categories: "round," "drop," "button" "oval," "semi-round," "circle -- or "ringed", "baroque," and "semi-baroque." By and large, the rounder the pearl, the more valuable it is. Perfectly round pearls are very rare. Merely though baroque pearls are oft less costly, they tin can be just as lustrous and appealing as the round.

Shape of Akoya pearls

Akoya pearls are mostly sold in the "round," "semi-round," "driblet" and "baroque" shapes. They don't often announced as "buttons," "circles," or "ovals."

Quality Factor Four: Color

Saltwater cultured pearls display a fascinating assortment of colors, the entire spectrum, in fact: from white to black, and virtually e'er color in between. Information technology'due south of import to notation that no color is considered superior to another, and, as always, preferences are entirely up to a client'southward gustatory modality. Yet, equally a general annotation when making suggestions: ros� and silver/white pearls tend to expect best on fair skins, while cream and gold-toned pearls are more flattering to darker complexions.

Color of Akoya pearls

Akoya cultured pearls come in rose, silver/white, cream, aureate, and blue/gray.

Quality Gene Five: Size

The size of a pearl is measured in millimeters, through its diameter. pearls can be smaller than 1 millimeter in size to every bit large as twenty millimeters and more. The boilerplate and about pop size sold today is seven to vii-and-a-one-half millimeters. Though a pearl'due south size is non an indicator of its quality, it will determine its price. With all other quality factors being equal, the larger the pearl, the more valuable it is. The reason is elementary: information technology's just more hard to grow a large high-quality pearl. Therefore, pearls that are seven millimeters and larger volition ever control higher prices.

Size of Akoya pearls

Akoya pearls range from 2 to 10 millimeters, with 7 millimeters existence the average size.

Know your South Sea Pearls

South Sea cultured pearls ... Many consider them the "Rolls Royce" of cultured pearls. They're certainly amidst the rarest and nigh plush cultured pearls bachelor today. Cultivated in the waters off Commonwealth of australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Japan and Thailand, the S Sea pearl's legacy reaches back thousands of years, when early Australian people believed the natural gem had supernatural powers, even using them in dream estimation.

These ancient people used oyster shells, and the pearls found within them, not only as decorative elements in their tribal costumes, just traded them for food and tools. In fact, native peoples did the same throughout the S Pacific, wherever the oyster that produces South Sea pearls was institute. But it wasn�t until the 16th and 17th centuries, after European explorers arrived in the Due south Pacific, that these unique pearls adult a global demand. And so much so, that the Western World�southward voracious appetite caused Southward Bounding main pearl-producing oysters to be harvested well-nigh to the point of extinction in the 18th and 19th centuries. At the turn of the 20th century, over 400 sailboats dedicated to pearl diving and shell-collection were operating in Australia alone, and over 3,500 difficult-lid divers were employed, to gather shells for female parent-of-pearl buttons and inlay, and of course, South Body of water natural pearls.

It was in the early part of the 20th century, when pearl-culturing technology arrived from Nihon, that pearl tillage operations began appearing in the South Pacific, in the countries known for it today. Withal, it wasn�t until the 1950�s when South Body of water pearl farms began producing harvests of commercial value.In the decades to follow, however, the number of pearl farms grew to where South Bounding main pearls were fix to make their splash in the cultured pearl market. Recently, in the mid-1990�southward, South Sea pearls became bachelor in quantities big enough to run into the needs of prestige retailers around the world. Today, in terms of dollar value, Southward Bounding main pearls compose almost 10 per centum of the saltwater cultured pearl market.

South Sea Pearl Tillage

Due south Sea Pearls form in the "White Lipped" oyster Pinctada maxima. Because most Southward Ocean pearls are cultivated from these wild, hand-picked oysters, strict quotas take been established to forestall their depletion.

Pearl-subcontract divers go 10 to 80 meters deep in search of healthy and only mature oysters for growing South Sea pearls. Though almost South Bounding main pearl-oyster divers today employ modern scuba equipment, in the Philippines, oysters are still routinely nerveless past "gratis-divers" who use no equipment at all. Some South Bounding main pearling operations employ pearling ships, unique to Due south Sea pearl tillage. Nucleated South Sea pearl oysters are nurtured in isolated bays of the purest h2o, far afar from industrial areas. Afterward 3 or 4 months, each oyster is x-rayed to confirm that its nucleus has not been rejected. Oysters with nuclei still inside are returned to the water to keep tillage, a menstruation that lasts 2 to 3 years.

South Sea Pearl Harvesting

Because of their long, 2-to-three twelvemonth cultivation menstruum, South Sea pearls develop an uncommonly thick coating of nacre -- from 2 to 6 millimeters -- perhaps the thickest of all saltwater cultured pearl varieties. When extracting S Sea pearls from their oysters, technicians accept special care not damage them. If the oyster is healthy, some other nucleus is placed inside -- a process that may be repeated upwardly to iv times for a single oyster.

Southward Sea Pearl Processing

Fine South Sea cultured pearls await exactly like natural pearls. One can only tell the difference by examining them past x-ray. Therefore, most South Sea pearls are not treated, dyed or enhanced in any manner. Simply cleaning and slight polishing are needed to bring out their natural beauty and glow.

South Sea Pearl Quality Evaluation

Because of their rarity, tremendous size, and silky lustre, South Sea pearls command premium prices, and are coveted past jewelry aficionados.Gem quality South Sea pearls are extremely rare for 2 important reasons: 1 is that the Pinctada maxima oyster used to cultivate them is a wild species -- one can never exist sure how many will exist available for cultivation. The second reason rests in the pearl's long cultivation period -- any pearl is more than probable to go flawed the longer it's left in the oyster, and therefore, big, circular, unflawed pearls are e'er extremely rare.

Lustre of South Ocean pearls

Lustre refers both to a pearl'southward brilliance -- the way its surface reflects light -- and its inner glow: the way it refracts lite. The nacre coating of Due south Body of water pearls is especially thick, giving them a soft yet deep, rich lustre dissimilar that of any other type of pearl. Their lustre may be referred to equally "satiny," less "mirror-like" than that of Akoya pearls. Southward Sea pearls too possess a beautiful soft iridescence establish only in pearls with uncommonly thick nacre.

Surface of Southward Sea pearls

Surface quality refers to the amount and kinds of flaws that appear on the outside of a pearl, ranging from "make clean" -- virtually free of spots, bumps, pits, cracks, circles and wrinkles -- to "heavily blemished" -- pearls dominated by such flaws. Non-damaging blemishes such every bit spots, bumps, pits, circles and wrinkles volition occur on South Ocean pearls. But remember, every bit products of nature, pearls are almost never flawless, and flaws don't always detract from the value or beauty of a pearl. This is especially so with South Sea cultured pearls, whose uncommonly long cultivation period makes flawless or slightly flawed Due south Sea pearls extremely rare.

Shape of South Body of water pearls

South Sea pearls tin can be plant in all the shapes possible: all beautiful in their own right -- "round," "drib," "button," "oval," "semi-round," "circle -- or "ringed"," "baroque," and "semi-baroque." Because of their popularity, the "round" and "driblet" shapes are usually the most expensive, but equally e'er, personal preference dictates the shape each customer will notice well-nigh cute.

Color of South Bounding main pearls

South Sea pearls appear in a wide range of colors, with the most common beingness white, silver/white, pink, and golden. As a annotation, South Sea pearls produced in Commonwealth of australia ordinarily come in white; and then likewise with those from the Philippines and Indonesia, though they tend to be creamier, more champagne or golden in color.

Size of Southward Sea pearls

S Sea pearls are among the largest of all saltwater cultured pearl varieties, ranging from eight millimeters to as large every bit 22 millimeters. Their average size is 15 millimeters. Note that Due south Body of water pearls are as well constitute in smaller sizes, between 2 and 8 millimeters. pearls of this size are unremarkably very baroque "keshii" pearls, a very rare type of pearl that is all nacre with no nucleus. [kesh-ee]

Know your Tahitian Pearls

In Tahiti, the story is told of the god Oro, who long agone used his rainbows to visit Earth, giving mother-of-pearl its iridescence and Tahitian pearls their entrancing colors. And and so it's true, that Tahitian pearls are not simply "blackness" as they're commonly chosen, simply themselves rainbows of colour that brand them such prized possessions today. Though information technology'due south true they take their proper noun from French Polynesia's most well-known island, Tahitian pearls are in fact not cultivated in Tahiti, simply elsewhere throughout the waters of French Polynesia, a drove of islands and atolls in the eye of the Southward Pacific Ocean. Tahitian pearl'south rich history helps explain their attraction and ever-increasing demand in today�due south market. With the European discovery of the Pacific Islands in the late 1700's came a rush of traders and explorers who shortly learned of the water�s riches, amid them: mother-of-pearl, turtle-beat out, sandalwood, and of form, natural pearls. In time, the pearl oysters of two islands -- Gambier and Tuamotu -- chop-chop became depleted, about to the point of extinction. Indeed, Europe�due south growing need for mother-of-pearl buttons acquired the exploitation of the islands� oysters to last another 150 years. So, by 1880, France gained control of the isle group we now refer to as French Polynesia, and some actions were taken. Strict regulations were applied to curtail the intense angling amongst these islands, including zones designated as off-limits, to allow oyster beds to repopulate. This conservation plan has been in outcome e'er since, specifying the islands and atolls where fishing is permitted, causing divers and their families to apace migrate to them for work. In the mid-20th century, edifice on the successful pearl culturing techniques of Kokichi Mikimoto in Japan, experimentation began with the oyster that produces Tahitian pearls. In fact, it was through the skillful efforts of Japanese cultivation experts that the oysters were first nucleated, and that finally produced some of the earliest Tahitian cultured pearls. The first k Tahitian cultured pearls were harvested in the mid-1960'due south. Today, the atolls of French Polynesia -- coral crowns in the middle of a great bounding main -- continue to provide the perfect nutritious, pristine environment necessary for Tahitian pearl cultivation.

Tahitian Pearl Cultivation

Tahitian Pearls course in the "Blackness Lipped" oyster Pinctada margaritifera, about twice the size of the Japanese Akoya oyster. This warm water species naturally ranges across the cardinal and s Pacific, only its main homes are in the great atolls of French Polynesia. Tahitian cultured pearl farmers generally raise their oysters from young, in especially designated areas, in the lagoons in which they'd normally alive. As with all pearl oysters, just those that have reached maturity are nucleated. Tahitian pearls accept 2 to 3 years to grade.

Tahitian Pearl Harvesting

Compared to harvests at Akoya pearl farms, harvests at Tahitian pearl farms are much smaller, simply because the oysters used to grow them are far less plentiful. Tahitian pearls generally develop a nacre blanket 2 to three millimeters thick.

Though the survival rate of nucleated Tahitian pearl oysters is low, some may be nucleated up to 4 times, the terminal fourth dimension existence to produce a "mabe" pearl -- a one-half-spherical cultured pearl grown on the inside shell of an oyster rather than within its body.Technicians take great care not to impairment the oysters when removing pearls. If, after extracting a pearl, a technician determines the oyster is salubrious, he or she will immediately insert another nucleus to produce another pearl.

Tahitian Pearl Processing

Tahitian pearls undergo no form of chemic processing or enhancement. When harvested, they are simply cleaned, dried and lightly polished.

Tahitian Pearl Quality Evaluation

These big, dark beauties, are treasured for their rarity and their intriguing, exotic color and lustre. The most beautiful Tahitian Pearls increment in value, and then, are not bad investments.

Lustre of Tahitian pearls

Lustre, the style low-cal plays on a pearl, is a combination of a pearl'south brilliance and inner glow. Lustre is one of the nearly of import quality factors of Tahitian pearls. Their lustre spans the unabridged range, from high, to medium levels, to low ... yet regardless of which, i should stress lustre equally 1 of Tahitian pearls' finest features.

Surface of Tahitian pearls

Tahitian cultured pearls display a wide range of surface qualities, from "make clean" to "heavily blemished." High-quality Tahitian pearls may occur virtually free of flaws such equally spots, bumps, pits, wrinkles and rings. Every bit with all pearls with long tillage periods, Tahitian pearls possess surface imperfections that tend to add to their interest and allure.

Shape of Tahitian pearls

Tahitian pearls come in all the shapes cultured pearls are plant: "round," "drib," "button," "oval," "semi-round," "circumvolve -- or "ringed," "bizarre," and "semi-bizarre." ALT: "circular," "semi-round," "drop," "button" "oval," "circumvolve -- or "ringed", "semi-baroque," and "bizarre."

Color of Tahitian pearls

Tahitian pearls are known for their iridescent, vibrant, almost metallic colors, unique among saltwater cultured pearls. Though commonly called "black" pearls, Tahitian pearls are actually gray, to lighter or darker degrees. But, in improver, Tahitian pearls accept the unique power to brandish a diverseness of colors at the same time, shimmering about their surfaces in varying shades -- colors such equally Peacock, Eggplant -- or Aubergine, Green, Olive Dark-green, Blue and Magenta. The most highly prized Tahitian pearls are those of the iridescent peacock and cobalt blue colors, followed by the rainbows, grays and golds. Other fancy Tahitian pearl colors may range from parchment, to lemon, to a aureate-orange.

Click here for more history on pearls.

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Source: https://www.americanpearl.com/history.html

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