Cultured Pearls

Cultured pearls are by far the nicest pearls in the world. Cultured pearls refer to pearls that have grown on official pearl farms around the world. At Laguna Pearl, we only offer the highest quality cultured pearls in the world and offer one of the biggest selections of cultured pearl necklace, cultured pearl earrings, cultured pearl bracelet, and cultured pearl pendants in the world. Our most popular pearl offering is our amazing collection of Akoya cultured pearls, which are by far the most sought out pearls in the world. In order to understand the cultured pearl, you need to view these pearls first hand. The amount of brilliance in their luster and the cleanliness of the surface quality are unmatched and we guarantee that we offer the highest quality pearls on the internet. If you have any questions regarding cultured pearls or a specific question on one of the pearl jewelry products, please feel free to call one of our pearl experts at 888-897-3275.

Distinguishing Cultured Pearls from Natural Pearls

Unlike natural pearls, which are naturally formed from the secretion of nacre or mother-of-pearl in an injured mollusk, cultured pearls are produced by eliciting calcium carbonate production through the insertion of a foreign object to cause infection into the shellfish. Round cultured pearlswere innovated by Mise and Nishikawa, two Japanese researchers who perfected their own technique during the turn of the twentieth century. The method, which involves inserting the tissue graft within an oyster’s gonad, was patented by entrepreneur MikimotoKokichi and yielded the first batch of round synthetic pearls in 1916.Cultured pearls can take up to seven years to create and should not be compared to imitation pearls, which are only made of glass or plastic.

Pearl Diving and Farming

Before the cultured pearl industry blossomed in the twentieth century, people would go pearl diving for natural pearls, fishing for oysters in rivers and oceans. Only about three or four round pearls on the average are harvested per roughly one ton of oysters. The rarity of natural pearls bolstered their value and price in the jewelry industry. The pearl industry took a pivotal turn in the early 1900s when the Japanese technique of producing cultured pearls was adopted by pearl farmers. In their farms are thousands of oysters cultivated for 2-5 years. They are propagated -- their sperm and eggs collected and fertilized. The young oysters are then nucleated, the term for inserting foreign matter to cause irritation and prompt the oysters to secrete nacre, from which the pearl is formed. While both types of pearl are challenging to raise, cultured pearls currently outnumber natural ones in the market.

Differences in Features

By appearance, cultured pearls are more round than natural pearls. Their luminosity and thickness are also distinguishing factors. Natural pearls have thicker nacre, because they undergo a longer development than the cultured kind. Some pearl producers tend to sacrifice the thickness of the pearl by hastening its development, and this results in lower quality cultured pearls with thin layers and less luster. These kinds of pearls are less durable than those that were given more time for nacre secretion. Experts also have different apparatuses for detecting cultured pearls. They may use X-rays to look into the pearl’s inner nucleus and determine whether it is a cultured or naturally grown pearl.

Sources of Cultured Pearls

China is well known for its cultured pearl industry, notably its freshwater pearls. It cultivates the pearls from the triangle shell mussle, or Hyriopsiscumingii. Japan used to be a major supplier of freshwater pearls because of its famous Lake Biwa, but its market performance has waned in recent years. Nevertheless, it remains the biggest producer of other types of cultured pearls. The South Sea, which covers the southern Philippines, Cook Islands, Tahiti, Burma, Malaysia, the Gulf of Thailand, Indonesia’s Arafura Sea and northwestern Australia, is the largest region that produces cultured saltwater pearls. South Sea pearl production is abundant particularly in Australia, which has been harvesting mother-of-pearl for thousands of years.