All Pearls commercially produced today are cultured pearls.

This includes cultured freshwater pearls !

 

The ideal pearl is perfectly round and smooth, but also comes in many other shapes, oval ,round ,near round , button,  drop  pear shape , semi barouque , barouque can occur too. 

 

Types of Pearls 

 

Natural        extremely rare. you may be able to purchase small, natural pearls, but they will be costly.

 

Cultured       grown in pearl farms , can be found in saltwater and in  freshwater too.

 

Fresh water   grown in freshwater rivers and lakes mostly in China. (cream/white in color) many resemble the akoya in color and shape but also comes in  other pastel colors and shapes. 

 

Salt water       includes:

       - Akoya cultured pearls grown in Japanese and Chinese waters,

             size range 2-10mm ,(cream,white in color) - round shape

       - South sea pearl  grown in Australia, Indonesia & Philippines waters,

             size range 9- 20mm   (white,cream,golden in color)  

       - Tahitian pearls grown in several islands of French Polynesia incl.Tahiti,

             size range 8-16mm , (grey, blue, green, purple or black in color)

 

There are 7 factors  that affect the pearl value;

 

   

Almost all real pearls you see today are cultured...historically, manywere found in the Persian Gulf.

 

    Both cultured and natural pearls are real pearls.

 

 

Price Range 

 

 

How are They grown ?  

They are grown from pearl-bearing oysters in either saltwater or freshwater. The pearl formation process is exactly

the same for both natural and cultured pearls, they are formed when a mollusk produces  layers of nacre around some type of irritant inside its shell.

In natural pearls, the irritant may be another organism from the water.

In cultured pearls, a mother-of-pearl bead or a piece of tissue is inserted (by man) into the mollusk to start the process.