Pearls Part 2: Cultured Pearls
Welcome to Pearls Part 2: Cultured Pearls. We are going to explore why cultured pearls came to be and how cultured pearls form. Through answering the why and the how, we will also come to answer a question I have been asked many of times, “Are cultured pearls real pearls?” Here is a hint: Thomas Edison and the year 1927. I know, I know it is a pretty obscure hint but I promise you it will make sense by the end.
Let us begin with the why. Why did cultured pearls become a thing? And why did they become so popular? There were beautiful natural pearls, especially in the Gulf. Some stats to start: 1 in 10,000 mollusks will contain a pearl. That is a lot of mollusks to go through to find a single pearl. Then if you want a classic 16” strand of pearls which can have approximately 60 pearls in it, if each pearl is 6.0-6.5mm, you are looking at give or take 600,000 mollusks to complete the necklace. Next, if you want them to be matched in shape, graduated size, colour and lustre, you are looking at millions of mollusks for a single necklace! Hence, the need for culturing of pearls.
Cultured pearls allows humans to take some of the guess work and risk out of creating pearls. Please note, I said some risk not all risk. Cultured pearls are not created in a lab, they still form in a mollusk. This mollusk just happens to be meticulously cared for.
Due to the breathtaking beauty of natural pearls, pearls became very popular throughout the world. So popular that this portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, shows her dress adorned with natural pearls along with ropes of pearl necklaces. The love affair with natural pearls continued all the way up to end of the 19th century where the demand far outweighed what could be supplied. Remember only 1 in 10,000 mollusks contain a pearl.
Welcome to the year 1893 and “Kokichi Mikimoto successfully cultures a pearl in Japan.” (GIA, Pearl Gemstone) By culturing pearls, Mikimoto allowed (and still allows) for a more constant supply of pearls. This would eventually bring pearls out of the hands of the select few and into the hands of emerging middle class. It also enabled greater control of the finished product.
So that sums up the why cultured pearls came to be, now onto how do cultured pearls form? Quick overview before we get into the details. There are different types of cultured pearls depending on the mollusk they are cultured in. This is why you have South Sea, Akoya and Tahitian cultured pearls. Some cultured pearls form with a bead nuclei and some without. Cultured pearls can also form in freshwater and saltwater. In general, the cultured pearls that form without a bead nuclei are formed in freshwater. Freshwater cultured pearls can also produce more than one pearl per mollusk, but more on that later on.
Cultured pearls are tended too are on pearl farms. The saltwater farms, are in remote location with pristine water as mollusks are very sensitive marine creatures. Just like with any farm, pearl farmers want to keep their mollusks in good health, away from pollution and predators. Freshwater farms are smaller are found in lakes or ponds. Here, farmers may even switch their crops from one year to the next depending on the profitability of the pearls.
For this post, I will be discussing how cultured pearls form in two categories: saltwater cultured pearls and freshwater cultured pearls. Within freshwater and saltwater pearl culturing there are different types. There will be links at the end for more information.
Saltwater Cultured Pearls
The bead nuclei cultured pearl is most often formed in saltwater. To start, humans implant a bead nuclei and a piece of mantle tissue from a donor mollusk into the host mollusk. A nucleator is very skilled at what they do. The implantation of the bead is major surgery for the creature. The procedure is as quick as possible to minimize the amount of stress placed on the host mollusk. The nucleator has surgical precision in implanting both the bead and the piece of mantle tissue. If they are not places precisely then the mollusk can reject the bead and no pearl forms or worse the mollusk can die.
Once the implantation is complete, the mollusks go back into the water where the piece of mantle tissue will start to form a pearl sac around the bead. The bead acts as the irritant that would cause the mollusk to go into protection mode in the wild. The mollusk begins to coat the bead with layers and layers and layers of nacre. Under the watchful eyes of the pearl farmers and years of growth, cultured pearls form.
The longer the pearl is left to form, the bigger it will be. This does not come without risk as even minor changes in the water temperatures can effect the mollusk. Environmental conditions over the past 100 years have even wiped out entire pearl farms!
When the pearls are fully grown, they are removed from the mollusk. Again, great care is taken in removing the pearl to reduce the stress on the mollusk and keep it alive. Pearl farmers do everything they can to keep their mollusks healthy and safe.
Once the pearl has been removed, they are cleaned and polished to get ready for the journey into a breathtaking piece of jewellery.
Freshwater Cultured Pearls
Freshwater pearl culturing is a bit different than their saltwater counterparts. The mollusks that are used are freshwater mussels since they are grown in bodies of freshwater. They predominately are cultured in China in manmade ponds the size of an American football field.
The biggest difference is that freshwater cultured pearls have no bead inserted; it is only a pieces of donor mantle tissue that is inserted into the host mollusk. Since there is no bead, multiple pieces of donor mantle tissue can be inserted into the the host mollusk. At one time, farmers would insert 25 pieces on each valve of the mollusk. This resulted in up to 50 pearls forming in one mollusk, 25 pearls on each valve. Now, more is not always better as when there were more pearls formed in a single mollusk they were more often than not of lower quality. To have higher quality cultured pearls, the mussels will be implanted with up to 16 pieces of mantle tissue per side for a total amount of 32 pearls per mussel.
It should be noted that very few cultured pearls that only have donor mantle tissue end up being round or near round. This is because the nacre does not have a bead or shape to form around. You will frequently find baroque or semi-baroque shaped cultured pearls. Although, they are different from your classic strand there is modern twist to a necklace like this that makes it versatile.
We now know how cultured pearls form in both freshwater and saltwater and now to the oh-so important question of if cultured pearls are real pearls. As I mentioned above, I said that the answer had to do with Thomas Edison and 1927. In 1927, Mr. Mikimoto was touring the United States and he met Thomas Edison. Upon seeing Mikimoto’s cultured pearls, Mr. Edison declared:
“This isn’t a cultured pearl, it’s a real pearl. There are two things which couldn’t be made at my laboratory - diamonds and pearls. It is one of the wonders of the world that you were able to culture pearls. It is something which is supposed to be biologically impossible.”
Thank you, Mr. Edison for the correct answer that cultured pearls are real pearls. Even today, it is difficult to tell a cultured pearl from a natural pearl unless you have proof the origin and culturing or cut it in half to see if there is a bead nuclei, or use x-rays to see the nuclei. Although, Thomas Edison would end up being wrong about diamonds being able to be created in a lab; pearls today must be formed in a mollusk. We will forgive him for lab created diamond part as it was 1927 and he did give us the lightbulb after all!
And that my friends, ends our discussion on cultured pearls. The next post will be about Qatar’s pearling history. This is one of my favourite topics and am thrilled to share it with you!
Further Reading for Cultured Pearls
Photo 1: Portrait of Elizabeth I, Queen of England, by Anonymous, c. 1550-99 by Everett Collection
Photo 2: Oyster Farm in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam by Melissa Tarabula
Photo 3: Pearl implantation at Pearl farm in Halong bay, Vietnam in a summer day by S-F
Photo 4: French Polynesia black pearl in a pearl farm by Gesa Schenkluhn