Skilled technicians called "grafters" operate on the Akoya pearl oysters that are ready for implantation.

The grafter gets the oyster to open its shell by packing them tightly together in  a tray. A chocking block is inserted to prevent the oyster from closing back up before a bead nucleus can be implanted inside.

Once the technician is ready to go to work, they select an oyster and place it into a special device that holds the mollusk still while he operates.

The grafter uses a scalpel to carefully make an incision in the oyster's gonad (its reproductive organ); then they will select a perfectly round and white mother-of-pearl bead nucleus to use for implantation.

Once the nucleus is inserted into the open incision, the grafter then places a tiny 1.0mm square piece of donor mantle tissue from a donor oyster on top of the bead. The incision is then closed and cleaned with an antibacterial medicant, and the chock is removed from the oyster, allowing it to close. The newly operated oysters are then taken to a recovery tank where they are allowed to heal from the operation.

As you can see by the raw harvest photos above, not all Akoya pearls come out sparkling white! Often the pearls will be yellowish, greenish or tinged brown or grey ... not the most attractive colors for the majority of pearl lovers. Therefore, the harvested pearls are sent to a pearl processing factory for further "beautification". 

 

Pearls are submerged in a gentle hydrogen peroxide solution and bombarded with UV rays for up to 6 months at a time - this process is called "bleaching", and is standard for 99.9% of all Akoya pearl harvests. Bleaching is done to remove those greenish, yellowish and brownish tinges and bring the pearls to a beautiful bright white color. 

 

After the bleaching process, the pearls are then "pinked" which is a process by which the pearls are transferred to new jars and submerged into a pinking solution which returns some of the pinkish overtones and iridescence to the pearls. Each processing house has their own secret, proprietary recipe for bleaching and pinking.

Finally the pearls are sorted by size, quality and matched for body color, overtone and luster. The pearls are drilled and made into matched pairs for earrings, pendants and rings, and full temporary hanks which dealers and retailers can later make into pearl necklaces. 

 

After years of hard work and perseverance, the pearl farmer's work has paid off beautifully! 

 

Again, I'd like to personally thank Mr. Tanabe of the Tanabe Pearl Farm for his amazing photos showing off daily life at his pearl farm and his award-winning pearls! I hope you've found them as interesting as I have.  

Until next time! 

XO,

 

Ashley

 

 

 

BALLROOM BLITZ

 

 

 

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