Freshwater Pearls

Freshwater Pearls For Beauty And Color

Japan was the first country to produce freshwater cultured pearls in Lake Biwa using the Biwa pearly mussel. Pollution caused this operation to cease to exist. Other attempts in Japan have been unsuccessful. Interestingly enough there was also a cultured pearl center in Tennessee, but it remains open today only as a tourist attraction. China is the primary producer of cultured freshwater pearls.

Early cultured freshwater pearls resembled Rice Krispies cereal, but the triangle pearl mussel and hybrid mussels today produce almost perfectly round pearls. This is done by grafting small pieces of the mantle of a donor mussel into the pearl mussels. This is done by trained technicians and typically 16-20 grafts per side of the mussel are performed. Saltwater cultured pearls are made by the implantation of beads, and do not produce as many pearls.

A pearl naturally forms when an irritant or parasite enters the mussel. Nacre is what produces shell and the mussel starts to produce the nacre in layers to wall off the intruder and a pearl is formed.

Any kind of mollusk is capable of producing pearls, but most are worthless. There have been reports of pearls in clams and other mollusks, but most are kept just as a curiosity. The largest known pearl was found in a giant clam in the Philippines in 1934. This is not pearly, but has the appearance of porcelain and weighs an astonishing 14 pounds.

China is the world leader in production of freshwater pearls. Through increasingly advanced technology the resulting pearls are quite beautiful and rival natural pearls. They come in many colors and are widely used in jewelry making, with fashion colors being very popular. They are certainly much more affordable than natural pearls so we can all enjoy pearl jewelry.

The Chinese today are experimenting with implanting rejected pearls back into the mussels and early results have been promising. The resulting pearls have been tested and are hard to distinguish from a naturally formed pearl. With continued advances, we may soon be able to afford a beautiful strand of pearls.

 

 

 

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• Freshwater Pearls
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• Pearl Earrings
• Strand Of Pearls
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• Mikimoto Pearl Necklace
• Yellow Pearls
• Baroque Pearls
• South Sea Pearls
• Pearl Pendant



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