Natural, Cultured and Freshwater Pearls

In our world today, pearls are considered as timeless and still modern.  I do remember my grandmother strand of pearls and they still remain valuable and classic nowadays.  It is important that you are aware of different types of pearls prior to adding them to your collection.  Some of the celebrities that wore pearls are Coco Chanel (who did not realise that she was wearing fake pearls) and the Royals (Queen Elisabeth II of the United Kingdom).  These days, celebrities like Audrey Hepburn, Jacqueline Kennedy, Michelle Obama, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kamala Harris wear gorgeous pearls regularly.

 It is very important that you know what sort of pearls you want prior to buying one.  There are simulated pearls and there are real pearls.  I am taking us through the real pearls.

Cultured

A cultured pearl results from the process by which a pearl farmer induces pearl formation by inserting an irritant into the mollusk and then “cultivating” the pearl. Cultured pearls are real pearls that were not formed by accident of nature. Most pearls sold today are cultured. Note: Edible oysters do not produce nacre and thus do not produce pearls, so there’s no need to put them through an MRI before eating.  

A cultured pearl is formed when a pearl farmer induces pearl formation by the insertion of an irritant into the mollusc and afterwards cultivates the pearl.  These pearls are genuine ones and were not formed by chance.  “A cultured pearl is a pearl created by a mussel farmer or oyster farmer under controlled conditions. Cultured pearls can be farmed using two very different groups of bivalve mollusk: the freshwater river mussel, and the saltwater pearl oysters” (Wikipedia). 

 Natural

A natural pearl develops after a small irritant or parasite passes through and lodges in the mantle tissue of a mollusk.   In response, the “invaded” tissue secretes a protective substance called nacre, a combination of crystalline and organic substances that builds and eventually after a few years develops into a pearl.  Natural pearls are rare and expensive. Moreover, natural Pearls are formed by nature and it is more or less by chance. 

Freshwater

Freshwater pearls originates from oysters that develop in non-saline water such as lakes and ponds and they do not develop from saltwater from the sea.  From the middle of 1990s, the quality of freshwater pearls have improved greatly as the pearl farmers changed the type of mussel used and reduced the number of grafts inserted into the mussel and as a result the number of pearls produced.  Freshwater pearls is more used by jewellery designers due to their reduced cost, greater quality and availability.