HISTORY CHARACTERSTICS TYPES CARE CREATION

Pearls have fascinated people all over the world for hundreds and hundreds of years. They have magic and mystique, a warmth and glow, and are the only gem created by a living organism.

Pearls are found in pearl oysters, although it wasn't until the late 19th century that people fully understood how pearls were created. It was then that the relationship between pearl oysters and parasites was discovered.

It is when a foreign body of some sort, such as a grain of sand or a parasite finds its way into the oyster that it reacts. It coats the irritant with layer upon layer of the pearly substance known as 'nacre', and this gives the pearl its unique appearance and iridescent beauty.

This is the natural pearl, but its rarity and high price could not satisfy the demands of the consumers. What was needed was a way to guarantee a steady supply, and this lead to the discovery of the cultured pearl.

Culturing is a way to entice oysters to produce round pearls on demand. In this case, humans rather than nature introduce the irritant. The secret is to insert a piece of oyster epithelial membrane (the lip of mantle tissue) with a nucleus of shell or metal, into an oyster's body. This causes the tissue to form a pearl sack, and that sack then secretes nacre to coat the nucleus, thus creating a pearl.