Why does a pearl form in a shell? For example, the ancient Greeks were absolutely sure that these mother-of-pearl stones were the frozen tears of nymphs. In this they were practically right. Only in the role of nymphs is an amazing genus of mollusks. When some foreign body, for example, a grain of sand, gets inside their shell, the pearl oyster perceives this as an injury, starting to “cry” with its mother-of-pearl tears, thereby enveloping this foreign object with them. This is how pearls are born.
Natural pearls belong to the category of the rarest gemstones, therefore, their value is appropriate. Such single stones are mainly sold at auctions and purchased by collectors.
Today, most of the minerals sold in stores are cultivated.
Description
Cultured pearl is a mineral grown by man in conditions similar to natural, on special farms. There, the shells are looked after and monitored. Today, 99% of the stones in the world's jewelry market are cultured pearls. Its price is $2000-5000 depending on whether it is freshwater or marine. It should be emphasized that this is also a natural mineral, since it is grown in pearl oysters in natural conditions, but only with the help of a person and under control. Thus, the breeder places an irritant in the form of a mother-of-pearl ball (“core”) into the body of an oyster, and then the process of pearl formation proceeds in the same way as in the case of a natural stone.
The difference between cultured and imitation pearls
Once again, cultured pearls are a natural mineral. It is a mistake to consider it artificial. The cultivation process is very delicate and complex, it takes an average of 5 years. The people who grow it are deprived of the opportunity to influence in any way the result and the process of the growth of the pearl, they have no idea how the result of their labors will look like, in addition, they cannot be sure that the mollusk will not reject it ahead of time. Not all grown minerals meet quality standards, which means that this business has a fairly high percentage of rejects. And the result depends mainly only on nature.
Pearl cultivation methods
There are two main ways to grow it.
Nuclear free. This is an inexpensive method that is most widely used in the cultivation of freshwater pearls.
Nuclear. In this case, a seed (core) is placed in the shell. This method is used to cultivate sea pearls.
Nuclear method
So how exactly does this happen? Initially, a donor pearl is located. Basically it is a young oyster with a good mantle (as the mother-of-pearl shell is called). Also pay attention to the well-developed gonad (the reproductive gland that secretes mother-of-pearl), which the mollusk possesses. Pearls are formed in it in the following way. A shell with a pearl oyster is opened with pliers, after which a real surgical operation is performed: a small incision is made in a very soft tissue with special tools, into which a transplant is inserted - a piece of the donor's mantle. A small ball taken from a freshwater bivalve mollusk is placed near it. Then the pearl mussel goes back to the lagoon, and there it spends another 2 years in peace.
It should be emphasized that this is the most dangerous period: she can eject the core or die - the probability of this is high. If everything goes smoothly, then after a few years, pearls form. Here, one of the visual advantages is the ideal surface of the stone, since mother-of-pearl grows in a thin layer on an artificial even ball. On such pearls, the actual thickness of mother-of-pearl is 0.2-1 mm. At the same time, a 10 mm mineral grows in a year. Such pearls can be called natural with a stretch. When you pick it up, it immediatelyheats up like a piece of plastic - a person and an inexperienced person will instantly distinguish a real, cold and weighty stone from its weightless imitator that warms up easily.
Nuclear-Free Method
The advantages of this growing method is that with long growth and a fairly small core, the cultivated mineral is in no way inferior, and often surpasses natural stone in color and size. At the moment, almost all freshwater cultured pearls, the size of which is not more than 8-9 mm, are grown using this technology. Here, a tiny grain of mother-of-pearl is used as the core, which is taken from the shell itself.
Also grown minerals are freshwater and marine, depending on the habitat of the pearl mussel.
Freshwater pearls
It grows in fresh river or lake water, including former Chinese rice fields. The fields are completely flooded with water, in this place a comfortable microclimate has developed for mollusks, where they quickly multiply and also bear pearls. Farmers monitor water temperature, pH and composition all the time. During the maturation of the clam pearl, you need to turn it over from time to time so that the stone does not turn out to be “one-sided”. In other words, round pearls are obtained by very hard work, including on a farm. Cultured freshwater pearls are a very popular mineral due to their variety in size, color and shape. Its average size is 4-6 mm. A very rare size of such pearls is about 10mm, therefore, the price of such pearls rises sharply!
The most common shell is "Hyriopsis schlegeli", which comes from the Unionide family. In it, the outer sides are mostly brown, while the inner ones are white and smooth. Freshwater pearls do not have a core. The exception is those minerals whose size is more than 10 mm. After 1.5 years, the size of the stone reaches 3 mm, after another 3 years - 7 mm. They will become 7 mm in diameter in another 4 years. Therefore, pearls of 10 mm or more grow for about 7 years!!!
There are the following shades of freshwater mineral: cream, white, champagne, brown, light purple, mauve and pink pearl.
Shapes can range from drop-shaped, egg-shaped, oval to potato-shaped. Very rare are large, perfectly round pearls.
Cultured sea pearls
This is a mineral that is grown on the same farms, but only located on the high seas. It is valued more than fresh water. From one shell, usually no more than one, sometimes three pearls are extracted. Basically, they have the right shape, beautiful shine. Why is the price of such pearls higher? Sea s alt water gives it a more even color and a special shade than fresh water, and therefore its value is higher.
Sea pearls grow faster than river ones. At the same time, the life expectancy of such a pearl shell is 8-10 years. You need to understand that in the sea it is very difficult to protect mollusks from sudden changes in water temperature and storms. So, when the temperature changes by 2˚ the bodythe mollusk immediately begins to produce acid, which corrodes the pearl, or rather its upper layer, and from this it loses its luster and becomes cloudy. Consequently, pearl farmers often lose the result of several years of work in 1 day. Due to this, to reduce the maturation time of the mineral, many marine farms today use a seed core.
Akoya cultured pearls
This marine natural pearl is grown in southern Japan. At the end of autumn, its best harvest of pearls is harvested. Then the mineral acquires maximum brilliance. This stone reaches 9 mm in diameter and is very expensive. Its price begins to grow with each new millimeter if its diameter is more than 8 mm. It is mainly cultivated in Japan, although now China has also begun to export it.
The mineral is grown in 2-leaf molluscs, which belong to the genus Pinctada, their name in Japanese sounds like Akoya-kai. Actually, this is where the name of this stone came from.
These clams reach 7-8 cm, while the size of their pearls is 6-8 mm. At the same time, minerals of larger sizes come across much less frequently. The main part of pearls is collected on the islands of Kyushu and Honshu. The oldest and most famous cultivation site is Ago Bay.
Usually the growing process takes 1.5-4 years.
Akoya pearls with their quality characteristics are called Hanadama. It belongs to the class AA and AAA. At the same time, class B and A minerals make up about 30-40% of the total volume.
Main colors of the stone: light cream,mother-of-pearl white and pink pearls. Minerals of silvery-greenish and silvery hues are occasionally found.
The shape of pearls is different, while the most ideal is spherical.
South Sea Pearls
Expensive, rare, while it occupies an elite niche in the market. Indonesia and Australia produce golden and white pearls. Despite the fact that the cultivation process is almost the same as that of Akoya, these stones are much larger: for example, the size of the mineral reaches 20 mm.
This is a variety of pearls grown with the mollusc Pinctada maxima. To date, it is grown along the coasts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, in the Philippines, Australia, Myanmar and Indonesia.
The bulk of the crop is 9-20 mm. This size of pearls is provided by various factors:
- Pinctada maxima clams are found along the coasts between South China and Australia. Excess plankton and clean warm water allows pearls to grow faster and also speeds up the metabolism inside the oysters.
- The size of Pinctada maxima in adulthood can reach 30 cm, which makes it possible to implant a nucleus much larger than that of Akoya into the gonads.
- Pinctada maxima pearl mussels are nucleated at 1 year of age and take a couple more years to mature. The long term of cultivation makes it possible to obtain an elite variety of this large size.
These stones are distinguished by their particularly large size, warm shades of color and satin matte sheen. On farms mainly2 types of Pinctada maxima are used: gold-lipped and silver-lipped, in other words, pearl mussels with gold and silver mother-of-pearl, which determines the color of the pearl.
A unique property of this mineral is a surprisingly thick layer of mother-of-pearl - 2-6 mm (the thickness of Akoya pearls is 0.35-1.2 mm).
On the world market, black pearls are also sometimes ranked among these stones, sometimes Cortez pearls. But this is absolutely not true. Although according to the classification of CIBJO (International Jewelery Confederation), the concept of "Pearl of the South Sea" can only be attributed to stones that were grown in Pinctada maxima.
Also, the density and structure of the mother-of-pearl shell of the Australian mineral is much better than that of the Japanese one.
Black Pearl
Each such pearl is a stunning work of nature, especially considering that none of them repeats in form. Such a mineral is perfection itself. At the same time, it does not need special processing, it does not need to be given some other form. Each - pear-shaped, round, "button" - mineral is incredibly valuable, because it does not require chemical treatment, since pearls are extracted from the oyster already quite smooth, dry and clean. But not every black stone that can be seen in jewelry stores is actually black. Sometimes craftsmen paint specially white minerals to create a special effect. You need to understand that this is still a fake, albeit of very high quality.
Such a mineral of the highestsamples appear in Tahiti. It is distinguished by the ability to shimmer in the sun, in addition, by an interesting “metallic” coloring, which is not typical for any other varieties of pearls. There is an opinion that it is most often “black”, hence its name came from, but it is actually gray with its various shades. There are also stones of this variety with colors that are not typical for them: blue, eggplant, green, olive, blue and red.
The most expensive type of Tahitian pearls
It includes cob alt blue and iridescent blue. In a necklace, each pearl should have a rounded shape, at the same time be at least 12 mm in diameter and, of course, ideally match its neighbors in color. Such an ornament is worth a real fortune, as it takes years to collect, since not every master will be lucky to create such a miracle. Nature creates too few of these ideal black minerals. Sometimes two similar balls are not enough for earrings.
You need to understand that black pearls always remain in the foreground. His individuality makes the master in his decision to build on the magical, hot, swarthy mother-of-pearl radiance. Of course, products from it are always quite extravagant. They can make a woman unique, bright, memorable. Of course, for every girl, black pearl is a real witch's drink, a search for oneself, constant renewal, eternal exploration of the depths of one's own personality, as well as the discovery of an uninhabited mysterious island in the ocean of the soul.
