The Pearl ~ A Natural Wonder

Unique Among Gems
The pearl is unique among all other gemstones in the world. It is the only gem that is grown inside a living organism.

Cultured pearls are real, genuine pearls that are formed inside a living oyster with human intervention. When a nucleus is surgically implanted in the oyster's flesh, the oyster recognizes it as an irritant and begins to coat it with smooth layers of nacre. Over time, the growing pearls gets completely covered with the beautiful iridescent substance we call nacre, or mother-of-pearl. All pearls sold today are cultured pearls, with the exception of vintage estate jewelry and heirloom pieces that are more than 80 years old.

Natural pearls, on the other hand, are formed naturally by free-range "wild" oysters living at sea - without any encouragement from humans. When a natural irritant, such as a fragment of shell, a scale, or a parasite, becomes lodged inside an oyster or mollusk, it gets coated with layer upon layer of nacre inside the oyster. Grains of sand do not form pearls, contrary to popular belief - if sand were enough of an irritant, our ocean floors would be littered with millions of natural pearls! Natural pearls are actually very rare, especially since most pearl-producing species of mollusks were nearly hunted to extinction in the 1800's. Nowadays, the only pearls on the market today are cultured; natural pearls can only be found on display in a museum or in antique jewelry. (Bahrain is the only country in the world where pearl divers still search for natural pearls on the ocean floor, but these novelty pearls account for less than one percent of the pearl industry).

Desirable Natural Pearls are Rarely Found
Today, natural pearls are extremely rare. Only about one in 10,000 wild oysters will yield a pearl, and of those, only a small percentage achieve the size, shape and color of truly desirable gems. Most natural beds of pearl-bearing oysters were depleted by over-harvesting in the 18th and 19th centuries. However, early in the 1900s, the Japanese discovered a way to grow pearls artificially, by implanting a nucleus inside an oyster and returning it to the ocean.

The Secret Behind the Pearl's Radiance
The lustrous outer surface, or nacre, of natural and cultured pearls is made up of the same material. Its chemical composition is about 90% calcium carbonate; the rest is water and organic materials. Pearl nacre is composed of microscopic crystals. The crystals are aligned perfectly so that light passing along the axis of one is reflected and refracted by the others to produce a rainbow of light and color. The iridescence that we commonly associate with pearls is produced by this arrangment of layers.

How Natural and Cultured Pearls are Different
The key difference between natural and cultured pearls lies in the thickness of the nacre, the lustrous outer shell. To speed the growth process along, the implanted nucleus of a cultured pearl is usually bigger than the tiny particle at the center of a natural pearl. The size and shape of a cultured pearl are determined by the size, shape, and position of the implanted nucleus. The size, shape, and color of a natural pearl are determined by type of irritant, the water conditions, and food supply.

Cultured Pearls Get a Facelift
Over the last decade or so, Chinese pearl farmers have greatly improved processes for growing cultured freshwater pearls that are made up completely of nacre. They have also developed ways to reshape pearls by repositioning them during the growth process to result in more perfectly rounded ones. Akoya pearls, produced by small Japanese oysters, are implanted with spherical beads carved out of natural shell, resulting in pearls that are characteristically rounder than freshwater pearls.