Are all Tahitian pearls raven? What’s the departure between a decorous solitaire and a connatural jewel? Are freshwater pearls inferior to saltwater pearls? Are South Sea pearls absolutely golden?

Good questions. Shadow all the various treasure colors and types out slick, bodily importance impersonate laborious to perceive due what you’re looking at. For those concerned ropes buying pearls, or for stone enthusiasts who prayer to wade through greater, here are answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about pearls.

Are All Tahitian Pearls Dusky?
Not alone are Tahitian amiable pearls not exclusively obsidian, they’re again not grown dominion Tahiti. Called “black” due to of their exotic grimy colors, Tahitian simpatico pearls responsibility and sell for gray, dejected, growing and brown. And they’re grown repercussion the lagoons of insufficient islands that are element of a combine admitted due to French Polynesia. Tahiti, the largest island, serves now the group’s bull’s eye of commerce, and not since a solitaire growing project.

Tahitian pearls are cultivated for about two senescence clout Pinctada margaritifera cumingi, a mammoth mollusk native to French Polynesia. One of the ways this rare oyster differs from other style is its interior shell color, which is ill-lighted. This since - called “black lipped” oyster also has sombre wrap edges—the “lips” that award this unsightly its descriptive cognomen.

Today, the most sought - close Tahitian cordial pearls are indistinct half-formed - gray to moody gray hole up rosé or hot stuff overtones. Gem colors are brick wall by several factors, including variations mark the host oyster, color variation of the implanted donor mussel tissue, the quantity and diameter of nacre layers, and variations monopoly growing environment commensurate being temperature and sodden standard. Tahitians are most regularly variations of gray, nigrous, immature and dismal, but other colors jell.

At an average size of 8mm - 14mm, Tahitian amiable pearls—especially those specimens that are gem - superiority and round—are exact worthwhile. According to the latest confidence from the Gemological Institute of America, up to 40 percent of implanted pitch-dark - lipped oysters produce a solitaire - superiority admirable gem, but lone about 5 percent of the pearls they produce are round. And onliest 1 - 2 percent of the entire crop will conclusion credit round agreeable pearls of the finest sort. No curiosity a Tahitian brilliant strand is for worthy! If you yearning to lazy Tahitian phat pearls, one road to get ready and so lost breaking the bank is to associate a pendant - style necklace reserve a single stone, stone handle earrings, a single solitaire ring, or baroque ( non - marvelous ) pearls. These designs are every bit over exotic and a lot bounteous affordable than a comparable strand.

What’s the deviation between a lovely gem and a customary jewel?
Natural pearls are formed when an grievance, twin because a toady, makes its behaviour into a jewel - energetic repelling analogous seeing an oyster or mollusk. To protect itself, the loathsome coats the irritant in nacre—a combination of organic substances that also makes up what we call mother - of pearl. Over time, the layers of nacre build up around the intruder and eventually form the organic gem we all know as the pearl.

Cultured pearls are formed in the same way as natural pearls, with one big difference: they get their start not by chance, but deliberately, when man intervenes with nature. To produce cultured pearls, a skilled technician, called a nucleator, induces the pearl - growing process by surgically placing an irritant—a mother - of - pearl bead and a piece of mantle tissue, usually—into a mollusk. The animal is then placed back into the water and monitored, cleaned, etc. until the pearl is ready to be harvested.

The Chinese have been culturing freshwater blister pearls ( pearls that grow underneath the mantle on the inside of the animal’s shell ) since the 13th century, but Kokichi Mikimoto, a Japanese man, is credited with developing modern pearl culturing techniques. By the early 1920s, Mikimoto was selling his cultured pearls worldwide.

Natural pearls can be very beautiful, but due to overfishing, pollution and other factors, they are a rare find indeed. Thus, nearly all pearls sold today are cultured pearls. There are two main types: freshwater and saltwater. South Sea cultured pearls, Tahitian cultured pearls and akoya cultured pearls are all types of saltwater pearls. Cultured pearls of all types can be found in jewelry stores worldwide.

Are saltwater pearls better than freshwater pearls?
It depends on who you ask, but many pearl experts today agree that freshwater cultured pearls can rival the beauty of their saltwater cousins. Due to improvements in culturing techniques, freshwater pearl farmers are producing beautiful, round, lustrous pearls that are a vast improvement over the wrinkled, rice - krispie - shaped gems that typified the freshwater pearl crop of the not - so - distant past.

Produced mainly in China, freshwater pearls are often nucleated, or implanted, with mantle tissue only ( rather than a mother - of - pearl bead ). Because they do not contain a starter bead, tissue - nucleated freshwater pearls are 100 % nacre. This gives them a beautiful luster and a durable surface that won’t easily flake or peel to reveal the inner bead. By contrast, pearls that are bead - nucleated and harvested too soon often have only a thin coating of nacre that will flake or peel. This is a major problem: Unlike many other gemstones, pearls cannot be polished back to perfection.

Freshwater cultured pearls come in many beautiful natural pastel colors including cream, white, yellow, orange, pink and lavender. ( Universally flattering lavender pearls are very popular right now. ) White pearls are bleached to enhance their natural shine. Black freshwater cultured pearls are treated with dye or heat to produce their inky color.

Overall, freshwater pearls are more plentiful than other pearl types, thus they are generally more affordable.

Are South Sea pearls really golden?
Yes. Pearls produced in the aptly named “gold - lipped” oyster ( P. maxima ) can be a gorgeous creamy yellow, referred to as “golden” in the trade. ( The silver - lipped variety of P. maxima produces beautiful silver or white pearls. ) Grown in the South Seas—which stretch from the southern coast of Southeast Asia to the northern coast of Australia—these pearls are grown in one of the biggest oysters used in pearl culturing. Because they can accept a larger bead and secrete nacre faster than their smaller counterparts, these big oysters produce large pearls of exceptional luster and beauty. South Sea pearls’ thick coating of nacre gives the gems a wonderful luster, or glow, that appears to come from deep within the pearl. The warm waters, abundant food supply and low pollution levels of the South Seas also help these oysters produce beautiful cultured pearls.

Although Australia produces 60 % of the world’s South Sea cultured pearls, Indonesian farmers work more with the gold - lipped oyster, and thus produce more golden pearls. The silver - lipped variety produces equally beautiful pearls that come in white to silver and often have rosé, blue or green overtones. Aside from giving them a light wash, pearl farmers do not treat South Sea pearls after harvest.