The Art of Culturing Pearls

There is a rather pathetic joke that asks, "How do you culture a pearl, sing to it? No, Irritate it!" As jokes go, this one is truly pathetic but it serves to illustrate the principle behind the creation of a pearl. Be it natural or cultured, the genesis of all pearls is the introduction of an irritant into the soft tissues of an oyster's body. This irritant could be a microscopic bit of food or other organic matter or some parasite that has lodged itself in the soft inner body of the oyster from where it cannot be expelled. The oyster's defensive reaction against this unwelcome intrusion is to coat the offending particle with layer upon layer of nacre and the result is the softly glowing gem we call a pearl.

The nacre is not just a soothing substance. Nacre is a smooth hard crystalline substance that is made up of alternating layers of aragonite and conchiolin. It is composed of microscopic crystals, each crystal arranged in perfect alignment with the others so that light passing through the axis of one is reflected and refracted by the other to produce a rainbow of light and colour. Pearls are unique in that they are the only gems produced inside the body of a living organism and moreover, they are also the only gems that are ready to use when found, there is no need to cut, or polish or shape or facet it. Just drill a hole and it is ready to be used. Natural pearls are wholly created by nature, whereas in the case of cultured pearls, man jumpstarts the process by surgically implanting" the irritant inside the oyster. From there on nature takes over and the remaining steps of secreting the layers of nacre to make a pearl are left to nature.
		Opening an oyster to find a perfect pearl. If all goes well with the culturing process there is a 5% chance that the resulting pearl will be a perfect specimen.

The modern grafting technique, which is derived from the Mise-Nishikawa method, varies a little from farm to farm, but it basically follows a series of common steps. First the oysters are cleaned and scrubbed. They are packed into trays with a little saltwater. When the oysters gape open, a small wooden wedge or speculum is inserted between the values to keep the animal from closing them.

		Then they are taken to the pearl technician who makes a small incision near the oyster's foot. He then inserts a small probe like tool to make a tunnel, guiding it around delicate organs. This is an incredibly delicate operation. If the technician makes even the slightest mistake, the oyster will die. After making the tunnel, the pearl technician uses a cup like tool called the nucleus holder to insert a spherical nucleus made out of the mother of pearl from the shell of the Mississippi freshwater mussel. This nucleus is the core around which the oyster will make its pearl.
Pearl Oyster.

Just the nucleus however, is not enough to get the oyster going about its work. The technician also inserts a small piece of the mantle tissue (the mantle is a skin like organ that secretes the mother of pearl).

This piece of mantle tissue will graft itself onto the surrounding tissues and then it will produce a man induced pearl sac.

1. Freshwater mussels can yield more than one pearl at a time and they can be reused again.
2. Cages of oysters are lined up in shettered bays for cultivation.
3. Implanting a bead nucleus to jumpstart the oyster's nacre production.

The nucleated oysters are then returned to the sea, where they live in sheltered bays rich in natural nutrients. The nucleated oysters are suspended from pearl rafts in order to give them the best conditions for growth. Pearl technicians constantly monitor the water temperature and feeding conditions daily at various depths and move the oysters up or down according to the best growing conditions.


	A foreign object having strayed into the oyster between the shell and the mantle lobe.				Pearl layers (shell) Mantle lobe outer epithelium Mantle lobe inner epithelium


	The foreign object (nucleus) being gradually implanted in the mantle lobe.

	The nucleus closing up inside the mantle lobe and the cell in a pearl-sac secreting nacreous substances

From time to time, the oysters are lifted out from the sea for cleaning and health treatments. Seaweed, barnacles and other undersea growths that might impede their feeding are removed from the shells which are then treated with medicinal compounds to prevent parasites from hurting the oysters in any way.

1. Examining and cleaning the oysters from time is necessary to prevent disease.
2. Bead nucleus of dufferent sizes pearls of corresponding sizes. Smaller beads pose lesser risk while a bigger one will produce a larger piece but with a greater risk of oyster mortality.

There are nevertheless, many hazardous factors that cannot be controlled by man. Natural disasters like typhoons, attacks from predators and even the suffocating red tides are all fatal to the oysters. However, those oysters that survive these natural hazards are finally harvested for their pearls.

Every year, millions of oysters are nucleated but only a fraction of that number survives and even fewer actually bear a pearl. Of all the oysters that yield a pearl, only a fraction bear one of gem quality and of these, only a few bear a perfectly round pearl. Therefore it must be understood that although man may start the process of pearl production by inserting the irritant that forms the core of the pearl, nevertheless after this preliminary interference, everything else is left to the whims of nature. Therefore even cultured pearls are real jewels.

1. Sieving pearls to seperate the different sizes.
2 to 3. Assorting pearls by size, shape, colour, and lustre. It may take as many as 10,000 pearls to yield enough matching pearls make a single necklace.

Like natural pearls, no two cultured pearls are ever identical. Therefore sorting pearls calls for refined skills that blend similar looking pearls together so that they match. When it comes to drilling, a great deal of care and precision is required as a hole drilled even fractionally oft centre can rum the pearl for use in a necklace or jewel that depends upon the symmetrical assembly of its pearls. Because no two cultured pearls are alike, assorters go through about ten thousand pearls before they find enough similar to make a single necklace. Therefore cultured pearls are truly precious and here it is pertinent to point out that all marine pearls in the market today, be they akoya. South Sea, Tahitian or mabe, they are all cultured and cultivated on pearl farms.