All posts tagged Japan

How Is A Freshwater Pearl Made

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Pearls are something every women loves. It makes them look very classy and elegant. It is important that every woman has one. It is also important that we also know interesting and important facts about a freshwater pearl.

The formation of a freshwater pearl is by accident. It happened when some alien matter ended by in the tissue of a mollusk. The mollusk defended itself by the secretion of nacre inside its body. The mollusk attacks the external object by coating with this nacre. This coating keeps going on and on till the shell is opened. The nacre is actually calcium carbonate. It creates a very shinning build. The cores of these pearls are made by humans as the process of secretion of nacre is unending.

Natural freshwater pearls are never perfectly round in shape. The color and shape of the pearls varies from mollusk to mollusk. In ancient times, pearls were symbols of royalty and exclusiveness. They were discovered by explorers. They were found in abundance in streams, ponds, lakes, rivers etc. but as time passed by, the freshwater pearls started to dry up. But there demand never decreased. It is when people came up with artificial ways of making pearls.

It was japan who initially started to cultivate pearls artificially. As we know that mollusks grow pearls, so they started using these mollusks only for makingartificialpearls also. But it is a known fact that not all the mollusks have the mother of pearl mantles in them. So what people started to do was to take some nacre from a mollusk known as the donor mollusk and twisted it into a tissue. This way many and many chips of nacre were implanted in another mollusk know as the parent mollusk. It takes about 4 to 6 years for the pearls to get ready inside the parent mollusk. Later these pearls are removed and the mollusks are used for making other pearls again.

It is seen that an artificial pearl is much harder and durable than an original freshwaterpearl. It is only because the nacre that is used here is used seeds here. It way the core is also made up and hence it becomes hard.

Another latest development in artificial pearl harvesting is to use beads to reduce the growth time which results in a perfectly shaped round pearl. Even these pearls are found in a number of different colors which is not possible in the natural pearls as only a few colors are found there.

The Appeal of Freshwater Pearl Jewellery

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Freshwater pearls originate from freshwater mussels, which live in ponds, lakes and rivers. Traditionally, they are produced in Japan and the United States on small scales but currently China dominates the freshwater pearl market. Production has greatly improved from the 1990s through to 2000s in China. According to the Times Online, China produces approximately 90% of pearl necklaces globally and with 1,600 tonnes of pearls produced annually, accounting for more than 95 per cent of world pearl production.

Prior to the 90s, China was accused for undermining the pearl market with poor quality pearls. Over the last two decades, China starts to commercial its pearl production processes and investing in R&D to eliminate mussel related diseases. China is now making much higher quality pearls at low costs, stirring its counterpart pearl markets. The high-end pearls from China are freshwater farmed, a process that has become increasingly automated, allowing producers to sell their pearls at lower prices.

While the Chinese freshwater pearls are not the same as the saltwater forms, they do make the gems more affordable to the average consumers. The price gap reveals remaining differences in hue and lustre between saltwater pearls and freshwater pearls. It is very easy for a jeweller to spot these differences when comparing freshwater pearls against saltwater pearls.

A white south sea pearl necklace strandis gleaming with silvery white pearls whereas an equivalent size freshwater pearl necklace with similar blemish free pearls will have a slightly chalky hue. This is largely due to the species of mussels used. Freshwater mussels are usually pinky or orangey on the insides, resulting in less than whiter pearls. However, freshwater pearl necklace with great shape and surface costs much less than south sea pearl necklace or Tahitian pearl necklace, sometimes at about 10 times less or more.

Affordability aside, freshwater pearls have solid nacre, making them quite durable, resisting chipping, wear, and degeneration under normal wearing conditions.