Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Tahitian Pearls

One way to understand the difference between a natural pearl and a cultured pearl is to think of the natural pearl as a product of the oyster working alone, and the cultured pearl as a product of humans "helping" nature. In the natural pearl, the "irritant" around which the oyster secretes the nacre and produces the pearl is a foreign object which accidentally finds its way into the oyster tissue. In the cultured pearl, humans implant the irritant; a mother-of-pearl bead called the "nucleus." After the initial implantation, however, the process by which the cultured pearl is produced is very similar to that in the natural pearl; the oyster produces "nacre" to coat the irritant, layer after layer building up and producing the pearl. The oyster produces the "nacre;" the oyster produces the finished pearl. The pearl producers washed the oyster periodically, and control available food, try to maintain constant water temperature and control pollutants, but the oyster itself still has control of the pearl product it produces.

Akoya pearls are grown in the akoya oyster, which s the smallest of the saltwater pearl oysters. As a result, akoya pearls are some of the smallest saltwater Pearl Jewelry available, and are rarely seen at more than 8mm. Akoya pearls were traditionally farmed in China and Japan, although these days most Japanese Akoya pearls are actually imported from China. Akoya pearls have a deep rich luster, and are generally round or near round, and either white or cream with rose pink overtones. They are extremely desirable for matching with existing jewelery due to their consistency of shape, colour and quality, and can command fairly high prices.

Tahitian Pearls

Tahitian pearls are formed in the black lipped oyster in and around the French Polynesian Islands. The black lipped oyster is one of the largest pearls producing mollusks, and so the size of the resulting Tahitian pearls is larger than Akoya Pearls. Tahitian pearls are much darker than other saltwater pearls, and naturally occur in a range of colours, often touted as black, although a true black pearl is quite rare. Most have hues of other colours, usually green.more:pearl necklace jewelry

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