Information about cultured and freshwater pearls with links to Pearl Jewelry

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Click on the underlined varieties below. For information,
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Fresh Water - Salt Water - Tahitian Black
Mabe - Keshi Keshi - South Sea

The Organic Gemstone Pearl

Nearly all pearls sold today are cultured pearls. Cultured pearls are a product of pearl farmers helping nature. Several inventors at the beginning of the 20th century discovered techniques of pearl cultivation, Kokichi Mikimoto being the most famous of these inventors.

Cultured pearls can be from saltwater or freshwater mollusks. Pearl farmers introduce a shell bead into the oyster or mussel and the mollusk deposits layers of nacre around the bead. Many people use the term cultured pearls to refer only to pearls produced from saltwater oysters. However, the process to make freshwater pearls is the same.
The correct usage is freshwater cultured pearls or saltwater cultured pearls

Cultured Saltwater Pearls
Japanese saltwater cultured pearls come from the Akoya oyster. Akoya oysters are also used by the Chinese to produce saltwater cultured pearls. If the country of origin is not Japan, the pearls are called Akoya pearls. Mikimoto pearls come from the Akoya oyster and are the best known Japanese saltwater cultured pearls. Japanese Akoya pearls are the most difficult to grow due to the low survival rates of the host oysters. Less than 5 in 10 will survive the nucleation process.

Of the survivors, about 40% will successfully encircle the shell nucleus irritant with nacre. Overall, less than 5% of pearl output can be considered "high quality." At the center of every Japanese cultured pearl lies an American heart. Shell beads used as nuclei in the cultured pearl process come from freshwater mussels grown in the US Japanese Cultured Pearl Farming Pictures.

.Cultured Freshwater Pearls
Freshwater cultured pearls come from freshwater mussels and are produced by Japan, China, and The United States. The most famous type of freshwater cultured pearl is the Biwa (pronounced bee-wah) pearl which use to come from mussels grown in Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest freshwater lake. Because of pollution, production has stopped. Freshwater shell and pearl mussels are from the family Unionidae, from which about 20 different species are commercially harvested.

The tones of the freshwater pearls are dictated by the mother shell. White is the most common, followed by pink. Other colors depend on the type of mussels. Big washboard mussels (Megalonaias nervosa) usually have pink pearls, as do the wartyback mussel (Quadrula nodulata). Threeridge mussels (Amblema plicata) have pearls in shades of blue-green and lavendar. Muckets (Actinonaias ligamentina) produce fine pink pearls, and sand mussel (Lasmigona costata) have salmon-pink pearls.

Other mussels used to produce freshwater pearls include the ebony, heelsplitter, pimple back, elephant ear, mapleleaf, three-ridge pigtoe, pistol grip, and butterfly. The Chinese freshwater pearl has greatly improved in quality in the last five years and is of a better quality that Japanese salt water pearls at 10 times the price.

According to Fred Ward, one of the world’s most respected gemologist and author of a half dozen books on jewelry,Chinese cultured freshwater pearls rival the quality of the most expensive natural pearls ever found.

South Sea Pearls
Other Freshwater Pearls such as the White South Sea pearls which are saltwater pearls cultivated using the Pinctada maxima oyster, also known as the Silver or Gold-Lipped oyster. Found in the South Seas (an area centered around Northern Australia and Southeast Asia including Myanmar and Indonesia). They produce 10-20 mm pearls of silver or gold color.

For centuries, pearl divers harvested these exotic shells for their valuable Mother of Pearl shell to make buttons. Occasionally pearls were found inside, and these pearls were regarded as a rare and valuable bonus.

Tahitian Black Pearls
Tahitian Black Pearls (also called South Sea Black pearls) are grown in the waters of French Polynesia. They are saltwater pearls from the Pinctada margaritifera or black-lipped oyster and can range from gray to black with red, green or blue overtones. This oyster also is found in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, New Caledonia, the Philippines, Panama, and the Gulf of Mexico.

An adult Pinctada oyster can reach a diameter of 30 centimeters, with weight exceeding 5 kilograms (over 10 pounds). Rare specimens as large as 9 kilograms (over 19 pounds), in fact, have been harvested. It takes about two years before the oyster ready for harvesting. Only about 30 percent of the oysters cultured produce a pearl.

Mabe Or Blister Pearls
Mabe Pearls are assembled from a cultured blister pearl produced by the same oysters that make South Sea pearls. Most come from Japan, Indonesia, or Australia. A large half bead is attached to the inside of the shell between the epithelial mantle of the mother-of-pearl and the animal's internal shell. The blister pearl that is produced is cut from the shell and the hollow inside is filled with wax or glue. A mother-of-pearl backing is often added.

Keshi Keshi
(in Japanese it means "poppy seed") are sub-products of the pearl. When the mother-of-pearl rejects a nucleus or a pearl, the fragments of epithelium may yield keshi, baroque-shaped pearls of small diameter which have no nucleus. Keshis come in different size, shapes and coloration.

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Chuck and Virginia Brown
Golden Arts Fine Jewelry
1127 Snake River Ave.
Lewiston, Idaho 83501
1-208-746-1506