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Among all of the gemstones available
in this world, the pearl is absolutely unique.
This is due to the fact that it is the only one
which is formed entirely within a living being.
Pearls are produced in two basic
ways: the Natural way – without human intervention
– and the cultured way – when they
are farmed by people.
Natural pearls occur when some
form of irritant – be it a piece of shell,
bone, scale, or even a parasite – lodges
itself into a pearl producing mollusk such as
an oyster, mussel, or abalone. To protect itself
from the foreign body, the mollusk forms a nucleus
over the foreign element, and continues to coat
it with layers of nacre over the next several
years. The factors that determine the size, color
and shape of the pearl have to do with the size
and shape of the nucleus, and the region of the
ocean in which the mollusk resides.
Today, almost any pearl that
you’d encounter is a cultured pear. Desirable
natural pearls are extremely rare, and hence are
quite prohibitively expensive. In fact, only one
in approximately 10,000 oysters not in farms will
ever produce a pearl, and of those, only a very
small percentage would ever yield a gem that is
the right shape, size and color of something desirable.
Furthermore, the majority of
natural beds of pearl-producing mollusks have
been depleted due to over-harvesting in the past.
This is the reason that such efforts were made
to grow pearls artificially, which the Japanese
accomplished in the early 1900s, by planting a
nucleus into the pearl-bearing mollusk, and then
returning it to the ocean.
The primary difference that
exists between cultured and natural pearls is
in the thickness of the nacre – the outer
shell that holds the color and luster of the pearl.
In order to make pearls more quickly, cultured
pearls are usually implanted with larger nucleuses
than those which would begin a natural pearl.
Even with the larger nucleus, it still takes two
to three years to grow a fine pearl, so it’s
easy to understand why time reduction is important
to pearl farmers.
Natural pearls have always been
deemed rare, and are universally costly. They
are most commonly sold by their carat weight,
however, most of the natural pearls on the market
today are vintage pearls, as virtually every pearl
producer now relies on cultured pearls. Natural
pearls are simply too risky, rare, and expensive
to find and sell.
It is recommended that if you
do have the opportunity to buy a natural pearl,
you should refrain from buying it unless it comes
with an official gemological x-ray certificate,
which proves that it is natural, and states its
quality. For something so rare, expensive, and
beautiful, a little security is a must.
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