Twelve Pearls gives everyone the opportunity to own and enjoy these stunning underwater gems. Our collection consists of Freshwater, Saltwater Akoya, Tahitian & South Sea Pearls. Whichever you choose, we're sure they will take pride of place in your jewellery collection and treasured forever.
Pearl Types
| FRESHWATER | AKOYA |
| TAHITIAN | SOUTH SEA |
| KESHI | MABÉ |
| CONCH "PEARLS" | MELO MELO "PEARLS" |
The scarcity of natural pearls, whether new or old, makes them hard to find today. Mollusks still produce natural pearls, although these gifts of nature are discovered much less frequently than they were centuries ago.
Thanks to today's culturing techniques, finding a beautiful, desirable pearl is no longer as difficult - or as accidental - as it used to be.
There are basically three different types of saltwater cultured pearls: akoya, Tahitian and South Sea. Though they share many of the same characteristics, they can look vastly different or remarkably similar. Each comes from a different kind of Oyster.
Then we have Freshwater cultured pearls which China produces the overwhelming majority. They are produced in a wide variety of farms, anywhere from a farmer's fishpond to massive lakes with hundreds of thousands of mussels.
FRESHWATER CULTURED PEARLS
Summary
Freshwater pearls, as their name implies, are formed in freshwater mussels that live in lakes, rivers, ponds and other bodies of fresh water. Freshwater pearls are mantle tissue nucleated. This means a piece of donor mantle tissue is inserted directly into the freshwater mollusks mantle tissue, which creates a pearl made up of solid nacre. This is what makes freshwater pearls so durable and beautiful for a lifetime.
Many people once thought that freshwater pearls were inferior to saltwater pearls but are now taking another look at them and finding that the best of them are comparable in quality to their saltwater counterparts.
Size
Sizes are comparable to akoya cultured pearls, with a range between 2mm and 13mm, although larger sizes are very rare. Most measure between 4mm and 7mm.
Shape
Because most freshwater cultured pearls are nucleated with pieces of mantle tissue only, they're rarely spherical. Only about 2 percent of tissue nucleated freshwater cultured pearls are round or near round. But there is such a massive quantity produced, even 2 percent is a large number of round or near round pearls. Tissue-nucleated freshwater pearls are composed almost completely of nacre.
Colour
Freshwater cultured pearls vary widely in colour. Some Chinese farmers produce dozens of colours. Among them, you'll most often see neutrals like white, near neutrals like cream, and natural hues like yellow, orange and purple.
Processors bleach most Chinese freshwater cultured pearls. They immerse the cultured pearls in a bleach solution in large glass jars and place them on wire shelves in small rooms flooded with fluorescent light. The cultured pearls remain in the bleach solution for one to two months.
Some processors dye Chinese freshwater cultured pearls. When they do, it's usually to give them a black colour. They sometimes use radiation to colour-treat others. Please see our treatments page to find out more information.
About the Mussel
Freshwater pearls are cultured in mussels belonging to the family Unionidae. Chinese Unionids include H.cumingi ("triangle shell") and C. plicata ("wrinkle shell" or "river shell".) In the US, the chief cultured pearl producing mussel is the "washboard" - M. nervosa. Only a small fraction of the total number of freshwater cultured pearls are cultured in the US. Today, cultured pearl farmers in China produce the overwhelming majority of cultured freshwater pearls.
A mussel can accept up to 50 pieces of mantle tissue and it can yield up to 40 tissue-nucleated freshwater pearls from those implants. The growth period for freshwater cultured pearls ranges from two to six years. Mussels may be nucleated up to two times.
AKOYA CULTURED PEARLS
Summary
Akoya cultured pearls grow in oysters that live in the ocean, usually in protected lagoons. Akoya pearls get their name as they come from the Akoya oyster. Akoya oysters are bead nucleated. The bead is made up of a perfectly round bead made of mother of pearl. This is then inserted into the mantle tissue along with a small piece of donor mantle tissue. An Akoya pearl will therefore only have .1 - 2mm of nacre surrounding the bead.
Even though a freshwater cultured pearl is made up of solid nacre, an Akoya pearl with only .1-2mm of nacre surrounding the bead, is still considered more valuable.
It is rare to find freshwater pearls of the same quality and lustre as the Akoya pearl. Yet with today's pearl farming techniques, there are more and more freshwater pearls of comparable quality to an Akoya pearl. These can be very valuable.
Size
Akoya cultured pearls range from 2mm to 11mm in diameter (A 10mm akoya is uncommon, and an 11mm akoya is rare.) Saltwater cultured pearls are bead nucleated, and their nacre thickness typically ranges from 0.2mm to 3.0mm.
Shape
Saltwater cultured pearl producers nucleate oysters with round beads, so more of their cultured pearls - as many as 80 percent - turn out round and near round. So the spherical shape occurs pretty consistently. The percentage of round and near round akoyas in a given harvest is generally much higher than in a similar group of freshwater pearls. This is also true when akoyas are compared to other cultured pearl types.
Akoya harvests still contain shapes like baroques and semi baroques and occasionally, drops.
Colour
Processors bleach almost all akoyas after they purchase them from the farmers. They usually use hydrogen peroxide. The bleaching process, which cleans and brightens the akoyas, is carefully monitored and can take two weeks to six months to complete (better quality pearls take less time.) The characteristic white, cream, and pink hues become apparent only after post harvest processing which might include tinting to highlight body colours. Please see our treatments page to find out more.
About the Oyster
Akoya oysters are smaller than other pearl oysters. Fully grown, the akoya measure about 8cm to 13cm in diameter. Given the small size of akoya oysters, it isn't surprising that the culture pearls they produce also tend to be relatively small. Akoya cultured pearls range from 2mm to 11mm in diameter (A 10mm akoya is uncommon, and an 11mm akoya is rare)
An akoya oyster can accept up to five small beads, and might yield as many cultured pearls. A Japanese akoya cultured pearls growth period can be as short as eight months. Usually though, farmers wait one to two years to harvest an akoya crop. By waiting that long, they hope to produce larger, better quality cultured pearls. Usually, pearl growth period and nacre thickness are closely related.
TAHITIAN CULTURED PEARLS
Summary
Tahitian cultured pearls first appeared on the international market in the mid-1970s, introduced as "black" because of their dark colours. Although, calling these "Tahitian black pearls" is technically inaccurate for two reasons. They are not actually grown in Tahiti, which is only one of the many islands of French Polynesia. Tahiti is the biggest island in the group. Pearl culturing takes place on other islands in French Polynesia.
Second, and more significant, not all Tahitian cultured pearls are black. They also come in a range of greys, blues, greens, and browns.
In the marketplace, one of the most striking features of Tahitian cultured pearls is their high value, which is comparable to South Sea cultured pearls but much more than other types. This is due to a combination of factors, including physical features like their larger size and unusual colours, and production factors like the remote location of Tahitian pearl farms and the cost of nurturing and maintaining the black lipped oyster population. Another factor is that there are far fewer of them being produced than , for example, akoya cultured pearls.
A first-quality, top of the market, unusually large single Tahitian cultured pearl can cost thousand of dollars.
Tuamotu islands French Polynesia pearl farm sea South Pacific
Size
Most Tahitian cultured pearls measure between 8mm and 14mm. Occasionally, a Tahitian cultured pearl will reach 16mm, and once in a great while 18mm. The largest on record as of early 1998 is 26.95mm.
Shape
Of the four pearl types, only akoya cultured pearls are almost exclusively spherical. Less than half of Tahitian cultured pearls are spherical. This is one reason that a whole strand of round Tahitian pearls that are well matched is of very high value.
Colour
Three colours are often associated with Tahitian cultured pearls, and the trade uses special terms for them. Peacock, is the trade term for the colour that's often most highly valued: a dark green grey to blue grey, with rose' to purple overtones. Aubergine, the French word for eggplant, is most often used in the trade to describe dark greyish purple Tahitian cultured pearls. Pistachio is the trade term for yellowish green to greenish yellow Tahitian cultured pearls.
About the Oyster
The Tahitian cultured pearls are cultivated in a bivalve mollusk that's commonly called the black-lipped oyster. It is native to French Polynesia. The reason it is called 'black-lipped' is because of the unusual black inside edges of the shell and the edges, or lips of the mantle tissue are also black.
Free Diving for Natural Pearls
In spite of the fact that the shells and pearls are lovely, and that both the pearls and their islands have a romantic allure, pearl diving was not a glamorous occupation. Divers sometimes descended to depths greater than 30m (100ft.) with nothing but a rope, a heavy rock or lead weight, and the air in their lungs. Until about 1910, they didn't even have goggles.
Pearl divers faced perils like burst eardrums, progressive hearing loss, sinusitis, and underwater blackout which often led to drowning. The Tahitian word for madness, taravana (tare-uh-VAN-uh), applied to divers who went too deep too often. And if the pressures of the deep didn't get them, a stonefish, moray eel, or shark might.
SOUTH SEA CULTURED PEARLS
Summary
The South Seas lie between the southern coast of Southeast Asia and the northern coast of Australia. The region is the natural home of Pinctada maxima, one of the biggest of all the oysters used to culture pearls. Farmers use P. maxima to grow pearls in the warm South Seas waters of Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, and Thailand.
One of the characteristics that sets South Sea cultured pearls apart is their large size.
Size
The cultured South Sea pearls range from 9mm to 20mm in diameter, with the majority about 13mm. Because of the large size of the oyster, a larger bead can be inserted than for instance a small akoya oyster. Also, for the same reason, it deposits nacre faster than a smaller oyster, especially in warm water.
Shape
Typically, only 10-30 percent of a harvest will be round or near-round pearls, with oval, button or drop pearls being the most common and Baroque and Semi-baroque being quite common also.
To match one pair of gem-quality cultured pearls might require sorting through 10,000 specimens.
Colour
The thick nacre produces a soft glow rather than a metallic sheen, and with the glow comes colour. P. maxima's silver-lipped variety produces predominately white to silver pearls that can have a rose', blue, or green overtones. The gold-lipped variety produces pearls that range mostly from yellow to yellowish orange (called "golden" in the trade.)
The neutrals and near neutrals (white, cream, and silver) account for about 90 percent of the production.
Australian farmers do not process or treat South Sea cultured pearls in any way. After harvest, most cultured pearls are simply washed, sorted and graded. Some are processed and treated after export, however.
About the Oyster
The Pinctada Maxima is one of the biggest of all the oysters used to culture pearls. Because the P. Maxima is a large oyster, it accepts a large bead. Because of its size and the warm pristine water its grown in, it deposits nacre faster than a small oyster too. In the warm water pearl farms of the South Seas, the environment is pristine and plankton is abundant. This also promotes relatively rapid nacre deposition.
The growth period for most South Sea cultured pearls is about two years. The longer the pearl growth period, the more nacre the oyster deposits, and the bigger the cultured pearl.
Over time, if conditions are favourable, an oyster might accept a larger bead after harvest. Some South Sea oysters might be nucleated up to three times in succession over a period of six years. Most often, the third nucleation will produce the largest cultured pearl.
P. maxima can grow to about 30cm in diameter.
There are two varieties of P. maxima: silver-lipped and gold lipped. The names are derived from the colour of the shell interiors outer edge. Both varieties exist in P. maxima's South Sea range.
In addition to size, P. maxima gives South Sea cultured pearls three other distinguishing characteristics: thick nacre, a satiny luster, and a subtle array of colours. Because P. maxima oysters live in warm South Sea waters, they deposit a thick coating of nacre (2mm to 6mm) more quickly than oysters in cooler climates.
KESHI CULTURED PEARLS
Summary
Keshi is Japanese for "poppyseed". Keshi pearls are just accidental byproducts of the culturing process.
Keshi pearls which can form in both freshwater and saltwater mollusks in a couple of ways. The first way is when the mollusk expels the bead nucleus, but the implanted mantle tissue still remains. This stimulates the pearl sac which instead of coating the now missing round bead nucleus with its nacre, it forms a small keshi pearl instead.
The second way is when the bead nucleus remains and is successfully coated with nacre, but implanted mantle fragments create additional pearl sacs which also creates keshi pearls as they also lack round bead nucleus.
Shape
Even though these keshi pearls are unintentional, they are still highly profitable for the pearl farmer. They can be made into a variety of jewellery types, from necklaces, earrings and other pieces that take advantage of the interesting shapes they provide.
Colour
Depending on where the keshi are farmed, they can come in all sorts of colours from blues, greys to yellows and white. They can also come in green and purple!
Because they are almost entirely made up of nacre, they are often very lustrous and full of orient - the shimmer of rainbow colours that appear on or just below a pearl's surface. Normally only the highest quality pearls show the kind of luster and orient that most keshi display.
Value
Keshi pearls that result in freshwater or akoya saltwater mollusks are quite inexpensive which makes it an affordable alternative to round pearls although Keshi pearls that occur in South Sea and Tahitian mollusks are especially rare. As such they are highly coveted and priced quite a lot higher than other keshi pearls.
MAB´E CULTURED PEARLS
Summary
Another popular pearl style is the cultured mabé (MAH-bay), also known as a half pearl.
Culturing Process
The pearl is created on the inside of the mollusks shell rather than inside its tissue. Mabé pearls are grown intentionally by a technician placing a flat bottomed plastic nucleus inside the shell beneath the mantle tissue. The nucleus can be any shape but most often, round, oval or heart shaped. As the oyster grows it continually deposits nacre on the inside surface of its shell, covering the nucleus and forming a cultured blister pearl.
After the nucleus is coated with about 1mm of nacre, a technician harvests the blister pearl and removes the original nucleus, cleans the inside surface, fills it with a resin and voers the open end with a cap. The result is a cultured mabé pearl.
Shape & Use
As these pearls have a unique shape with a flat back, they are particularly popular as earrings, rings or pendants and are often inexpensive. They are easily damaged, so they need to be handled with extra care.
Conch "Pearls"
Summary
These "pearls" are non-nacrous and as such are not considered true pearls by gem experts, so they use the term "pearl" in quotation marks when referring to them. These beautiful gem-quality "pearls" come a gastropod mollusk called a conch (KONK) snail, Strombus gigas.
Gem lovers are drawn to the famous and rare pink "pearls" this species of conch can produce. These "pearls" are rare and very desirable, made even more so because they're natural, not cultured.
S. gigas can be found in the warm waters of around Bermuda, south to the Bahamas, Cuba, the Florida Keys, and rest of the Caribbean.
Prevalence
Like abalone and other mollusks, conchs probably produce "pearls" in response to a small irritant in the mantle. The S.gigas is not usually harvested for its "pearls," so fisherman who are fishing for their highly desirable shells, occasionally find "pearls" when they clean their boats. The odds of finding a conch "pearl" are about 1 in 10,000. And only 10 percent are considered gem quality. A conch with a gem-quality "pearl" inside is a very rare catch!
Shape & Size
Most conch "pearls" are less than 3mm in diameter, but some much larger ones do exist. They are rarely spherical, typically being baroque or oval. Symmetry is a major value factor, colour ranking a close second.
Colour
The colour range for conch "pearls" includes pink, yellow, brown and white. Dark brown and white colours are unusual, and brownish yellow ("golden") colours are highly sought after by collectors and dealers. However the pink "pearls" that come to mind when the word "conch" is mentioned typically command the highest prices.
One quality peculiar to the conch "pearls" is flame structure. Described by some as looking like "wet silk", flame structure appears almost exclusively in the pink "pearls".
The instability of the colour is another factor adding to the mystique and rarity of conch "pearls". Pink "pearls" like the pink conch shells, will eventually fade. Researchers rarely agree about the reason although it is most likely due to sunlight, heat, age or dehydration. There is no way to restore the colour. Because of this, conch "pearls" jewellery is usually better suited for evening or occasional daily use.
Value
At a Christie's auction in London in the summer of 1998, a diamond necklace set with a 14.1mm x 10.4mm pink conch "pearls" sold for $34,362. In the fall of 1998, Chrisite's Hong Kong sold a pendant necklace featuring an extremely fine 30.0mm x 14.98mm pink conch "pearl" for $188,500.
Melo Melo "Pearls"
Summary
These "pearls" are non-nacrous and as such are not considered true pearls by gem experts, so they use the term "pearl" in quotation marks when referring to them. These beautiful gem-quality "pearls" come a gastropod mollusk called a melo melo snail.
This snail inhabits the South China Sea, the waters around the Phillipines, the eastern coast of India, and the Andaman Sea. Countries like Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam harvest the large gastrapod for food.
Prevalence
Melo melo "pearl" formation is most likely stimulated by an irritant on the top of its foot. These beautiful "accidents" are among the rarest gems on earth.
Colour
The calcareous concretions this volute produces are colourful, non-nacreous, and very rare. Its "pearls" range from light tan to brown, but the orange is the most prized colour. Orange melo melo "pearls" can exhibit pronounced flame structure. Experts believe the colour of melo melo "pearls" is fairly unstable and prone to fading.
Size
Melo melo "pearls" are usually spherical and quite large. One of the largest melo melo "pearls" examined weighs 397.52 cts. and is about three quarters the size of a golf ball.