The Birth of a Pearl

Pearls are one of the only Gemstones that are created in our lifetime.  It takes as little 8 months to create a Gem-Quality Pearl...AND THEY ARE REAL!!!!

Freshwater Pearls.

Akoya Pearls

South Sea Pearls

Tahitian Pearls.

All are Cultured.  A small piece of foreign material is inserted into the mollusk to start the creation of a Pearl. Yes, it does happen naturally in the wild, but Natural Pearls account for less than .001% of the Pearls available for sale today.

So how does it happen?
In Salt Water Pearls a small Mother of Pearl, MOP, bead is inserted into the gonad of the mollusk along with a piece of tissue from a donor mollusk to help stimulate nacre production, the process of nucleation. Layer upon layer until the Pearl is harvested.  Fresh water Pearls are nucleated just a bit of tissue.

Sounds easy. Put something into a Mollusk and then in a matter of months or years you have a Pearl.

Not quite. Even though this is a completely natural process for the Mollusk, there is the possibility of rejection, sickness and even Death of the Mollusk.  Pollution, Storms, excessive heat-or cold, and disease can all also have an effect on Pearl Production. Even destroy an entire Harvest.

The Harvesting Process involves an incision being made and removing the Pearls. South Sea and Tahitian Pearl producing mollusks are saved for further Harvests. The remaining mollusks are used for their meat or other products.

If the process is the same for both Salt Water and Freshwater Pearls, why are Salt Water Pearls so much more expensive than Freshwater Pearls?

A Salt Water Pearl producing mollusk is nucleated once maybe twice per Harvest.
South Sea and Tahitian experience 1 nucleation.
Freshwater Pearls produce 24 to 36 Pearls per Harvest.