Mommy, Where Do Pearls Come From?
Without getting too complicated or technical, I would love to 
share a
share awonderful story with you about the “birth of a pearl”.
Just like with humans, this miracle can happen naturally or with a little assistance from the scientific world. However, rarely do oysters create pearls naturally, so the majority of pearls on the market today occurred with the assistance of a human being, or cultured as we call it.
In a nut shell, or should I say oyster shell, this is how the story goes for one of those extremely rare occasions when nature takes charge in the creation of a pearl. Imagine, a happy little oyster sitting on the bottom of the sea minding its own business when along comes an annoying little piece of coral and makes its way inside of the oyster’s shell. Of course, the oyster doesn’t know what it is, but it certainly knows it doesn’t belong inside his shell. The oyster thinks that this little intruder might cause it a lot of trouble, so the oyster decides he must protect himself from the irritant! The animal instincts click in and the mantle (an oyster body part) starts producing nacre, a really hard substance which lucky for us also happens to be beautiful too, and encases it around that miserable little piece of coral to protect the happy little oyster from that nasty little intruder. As years go by, the oyster keeps producing nacre on the irritant until the remote possibility that some diver is in the right place at the right time, and finds the oyster with the beautiful natural pearl, a true miracle of the sea. I wouldn’t spend too much time looking for that one in a million oyster, as these days, your odds of winning a state lottery are much better than finding a natural pearl.
Natural pearls were coveted by royalty in many countries, and at one time were somewhat prevalent in many parts of the world including parts of Japan. In the late 1800’s with foreign trade increasingly more common, the natural pearl supply diminished due to the demand and over harvesting. A visionary in his time, a man by the name of Micky Moto (more commonly referred to as Mikimoto) saw the problem early on and started working to figure out a way that the oyster would continue to grow pearls with a little stimulation from mankind. Thus, the cultured pearl as we know it today was born.
After several years of trial and error, the first perfect cultured pearl made its debut in 1905. Micky Moto had learned a lot from his experimentation and went on to perfect the process which has made it possible for pearls to adorn some of the most beautiful necks in the world. So now, I will tell you the rest of this story of miracles from the sea…
When oysters reach the age of 2-3 years old and appear to be healthy, they are ready and able to go under a surgical procedure that gets the process of “pearl making” started. Also known as seeding or nucleating, this is a very delicate procedure and takes many years to learn the technique to successfully perform it. First, the oysters awaiting the procedure are starved for several days, to slow their metabolisms down, decreasing the chances of the oyster rejecting the nucleus. In addition, it is easier to open the oysters if they are really hungry! Next a donor oyster is sacrificed and a piece of the mantle is removed from its outer section. As we already learned, the mantle is an oyster body part responsible for producing the nacre and a live graft from it is necessary so that the host oyster will accept the foreign nucleus graciously. Next the oyster is opened with special instruments and the mantel is inserted into the soft tissue of the oyster through a slit made with a sharp scalpel. Then the core nucleus, picture a round bead, usually made from the a shell of a Mississippi mussel is placed in the oyster‘s soft tissue through the same scalpel slit that received the mantle graft. The oyster is then returned to the water to be irritated by the little intruder that was surgically implanted in its shell. The oyster now proceeds to go through the same process as if a small piece of coral or a pebble had gotten into his shell. The oyster starts producing nacre and encasing its intruder in order to protect itself, thus creating a cultured pearl. The oyster remains in the water to allow the nacre to continue building up around the nucleus. The longer the oyster remains in the water, the thicker the nacre. The thicker the nacre, the more lustrous and beautiful the final pearl is.
When the pearl farmers are satisfied and the pearls are ready, they are harvested. After harvesting, the pearl has to go through a series of processes such as cleaning and polishing, sorting, and sometimes drilling to become ready to be the most prized possession of some lucky girl somewhere in this world. Most pearls will move on to be part of an amazing pearl necklace lying gracefully on the neck of a beautiful woman. Some pearls will dance from the ear lobes of princesses and queens. Many will spend their 1st day out in their new life adorning a bride and her bridesmaids on her wedding day. While it is impossible to know where all cultured pearls will end up, either in a ring or earrings or in a bracelet around your wrist, there is one thing we know about pearls for certain. When a pearl has the privilege of being adopted by someone who loves them, they will certainly live happily ever after, as long as they are together.
