How Are Pearls Created?

Pearls are beautiful pieces of jewelry

Pearls are some of the most valued pieces of jewelry in the world and have been popular for centuries. While pearls are naturally harvested from shellfish, people have figured out how to intervene and create them as well. Most pearls sold today are cultured, or farmed.

Natural

Natural pearls are formed in the wild, when a foreign object finds its way inside an oyster or mussel. The irritant could be a piece of sand, food, bacteria or shell. The animal begins coating the foreign object with a secretion called nacre. After a time, the result is a pearl. Wild pearls are very rare today, because most pearl-producing oyster beds are gone, due to oil drilling, over fishing, pollution and other factors.

Salt Water Cultured

Because wild pearls are so rare, people have figured out how to make pearls themselves. Seawater cultured pearls are created by taking mature oysters, usually about 2 years old, and inserting a base, or nucleus, around which the pearl will form. The base is usually a round shell bead from a freshwater mussel. The process of creating the pearl then begins. The oysters are kept in the ocean, suspended from rafts in holding buckets. It takes two to four years for the pearl to develop, depending on the size and quality desired.

Freshwater Cultured

Freshwater pearls are made with mussels in much the same way seawater pearls are cultured. One difference is that mantle tissue is inserted in the mussel as the irritant. The mussels are kept in inland lakes and rivers.

Features

Pearls come in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors. The ideal shape is round, although many pearls are drop or pear shaped. Some are irregular, oval or button shaped. The type of mollusk, irritant, food or water the mollusk is raised in can affect the color of the pearl. Pearls can be anywhere from stark white to pink. So-called black pearls are rarely actually black. The most common color is green, while they also can be blue, gray or purple. The size of the pearl depends on how long the irritant is left inside the mollusk. The longer it's there, the bigger the pearl.

Warning

Some people may try to pass off artificial pearls as genuine. False pearls are usually glass beads, possibly incorporating a coating made of fish scales. Others are made of coral, conch shells or mother of pearl. Telling the difference can be difficult if you aren't familiar with pearls. If you aren't sure, take the pearls to a skilled jeweler for an expert opinion.

References

• Kari Pearls: How Are Pearls Made?
• The Pearl Market: How Pearls Are Formed