Hello!
Today we will talk about pearls.
For centuries, pearls have been a symbol of elegance and wealth.
Maharajas of India and European queens adorned themselves with pearls, symbolizing their
prestige.
At the Met Gala, the most important ball in the world of fashion, celebrities walked along
the red carpet strewn with pearls.
More than 3,000 white pearls were sewn to Uma Thurman's dress, and Rihanna's Pope-inspired
outfit was encrusted with pearls.
At the 2019 Grammy Awards, American hip-hop artist Cardi B wore an oyster-like outfit.
The most expensive pearl ever sold is Marie Antoinette's pendant.
At a 2018 auction, it was sold for $32 million.
Marie Antoinette's pearls were part of the diamond pendant and are of great historical
importance, adding to their value.
But there are other factors that determine the value of pearls.
Experts believe that pearls are probably the most difficult gemstone to value.
The science of precious stones, their composition and properties is called gemology.
Gemologists believe that part of the reason Marie Antoinette pearls are so expensive is
because they are natural pearls.
This brings us to one of the main qualities that determine the value of a pearl.
Natural versus cultured.
Natural pearls are hard to find.
In the wild, only one in 20,000 oysters contains such a treasure, which is why it costs a lot
of money.
But in order to understand this issue, one should understand what natural pearls are
and how they are formed.
Natural pearls are formed when an irritant, usually a small organism, enters the shell
of a mollusk such as an oyster or mussel.
To protect itself from the invader, the mollusk begins to cover the foreign body with mother-of-pearl,
that is, the same material that covers the inner layer of its shell.
The mollusk continues to do this until the irritant turns into a brilliant pearl.
Cultured pearls are formed as a result of the same process, only the irritant does not
enter the shell by accident, but is deliberately placed there by a person.
This is the most important moment in the process of creating, for example, the pearl of the
South Seas.
The moment when a person inserts a core into an oyster, around which a pearl is formed.
If he is careless, then the resulting pearl may be deformed.
The purpose of this operation is to obtain an almost perfect round pearl, with a large
diameter of about 20 millimeters.
This is more than twice the size of the more common Akoya pearl, which is mainly grown
in Japan.
Such a single pearl can be sold for $1,500, which is much more expensive than a high-quality
$75 Akoya pearl.
A necklace of near-perfect South Sea pearls can fetch upwards of $200,000.
So, why are cultured pearls so difficult to make, and why are these pearls so expensive?
The South Seas are located in the South Pacific.
In these waters, not far from the coast of Indonesia and the Philippines, pearl farms
are located.
They are quite isolated and well guarded.
On one of them, such as Afdhol Pearl, located near the island of Lombok, cultured pearls
are grown.
For this pearl, human intervention is required.
He must put something inside the oyster, and in return receive natural pearls.
South Sea pearls are the most expensive variety of cultured pearls.
This is partly due to the length of time it takes to make South Sea pearls.
At the same time, some freshwater oysters can produce dozens of smaller pearls within
three months.
But it takes about five years to grow one pearl of the South Seas.
Gold pearls look especially beautiful.
An oyster called Pinctada maxima can only produce one pearl at a time.
When grown, only one quarter of all oysters survive.
This is why pearl farmers have to work so hard to keep their oysters alive.
It all starts in this tightly controlled laboratory, where lab technicians must create ideal conditions
for oyster larvae to develop into healthy, pearl-producing individuals.
Farmers must keep the indoor temperature at exactly 20 degrees Celsius and also feed the
larvae with the phytoplankton they need to grow.
To do this, they combine salty sea water with sodium hydroxide and store the mixture for
five days until there is enough plankton.
Lab technicians feed plankton to oyster fry in the net and observe their growth for about
45 days.
During this period, oyster fry reach a diameter of at least 1 millimeter and become old enough
to be transferred to the sea.
The oysters are sent to sea to save on the costs that would be required to grow larger
oysters.
Since growing large oysters is quite expensive.
If you grow them in an aquarium, you will have to buy plankton, and this can double
the cost of production.
In the sea, oysters are kept in warm water, where they get enough food they need to mature.
But this is where most of them will die without producing a single pearl.
That is, 75% of oysters die, which means out of 10,000 individuals only 2,500 will survive.
This forces pearl farmers to check their oysters monthly to make sure they are still growing,
eating and healthy.
The grids are placed at a depth of 15 meters from the sea surface.
A whole staff of divers watches and cares for millions of shellfish every day.
But special attention is paid to royal oysters, which produce golden pearls.
After all, she will produce one pearl only after a few years.
Oyster keepers spend most of their lives on the farm, working for one purpose only - obtaining
the perfect golden pearl.
They pull oyster nets out of the sea and clean their shells.
They do everything to prevent the attack of predators that feed on oysters and ultimately
reduce their numbers.
Regular cleaning will get rid of dirt and all kinds of parasites, including poisonous
snails, as well as sea worms that stick to dirty shells.
They often just get in the way of the oysters eating.
After two years of intensive feeding, when the oysters are large enough, the implantation
process can begin.
For cultured pearls, implantation is the most important step.
When the nucleus is implanted, the oyster perceives it as an irritant and reacts by
building a protective layer of mother-of-pearl around it.
Subsequently, it becomes a pearl.
On an open oyster, the employee shows the place where the nucleus is implanted.
What is called the core is usually made from mussel shells.
The worker tears open the sex glands of the oyster and inserts the nucleus into their
middle.
Then, under the core, he adds saibo.
Saibo is a mantle tissue cut from another oyster that surrounds the implanted core.
The mantle is the organ that builds the oyster shell by digesting food.
The material created by the mantle is called mother-of-pearl.
The quality of the pearl is very important and therefore, without implantation, the oyster
will not produce pearls at all.
Implantation is trusted only by a very experienced employee, and there are only a few of them.
This is due to the fact that the cores are not cheap.
Farmers buy kernels in Japan.
Their cost is such that, in addition to the import tax, the costs take about 20% of the
farm's profits.
Farmers say that it is very difficult to obtain permission to import these kernels, and this
prevents them from buying enough kernels to expand their business.
After implantation of the nucleus, special attention is paid to how the mother-of-pearl
is formed around it.
It is important here to prevent deformation of the pearl.
You need to get a large, almost perfectly round pearl.
Workers regularly turn the oysters over, place them in protective nets, and then return them
to the sea.
The unique soft satin and gold luster of South Sea pearls and thick mother-of-pearl are the
result of exposure to the warm water in which oysters grow.
Thick mother-of-pearl means that the pearl will be large.
In order for the mother-of-pearl to grow evenly, the shells need to be turned over regularly.
And this process cannot be interrupted even once.
Employees must ensure that these sinks are turned over every three days for 40 days.
After 40 days, workers take the oysters out of the sea and clean them weekly.
Every month, specialists check the implanted oysters and watch how the pearl develops.
After about 6 months, specialists can verify whether the implantation was successful.
To do this, oyster shells are passed through an X-ray machine.
The x-ray shows the optimal size, indicating that the pearl should be ready for extraction
in a year and a half.
Here it is worth noting that 20% of oysters get rid of a foreign body.
Careful monitoring of oysters is carried out for two years, until the moment comes when
the first pearl can be harvested.
In the first stage, usually within the first three years, the pearls produced will weigh
0.8 to 1.3 grams and reach a diameter of 7 to 11 millimeters.
Specialists implant the same oyster two more times.
Each time the harvest of pearls becomes more and more.
By the third harvest, a pearl can reach a diameter of more than 20 millimeters and weigh
more than 8 grams.
But no matter how much pearl farms invest in intensive oyster farming, a positive result
is never guaranteed.
Of the surviving oysters, only 20% of the oysters produce the most valuable type of
pearl.
These pearls are almost perfectly round, shiny and large in size.
It is by size, brilliance, shape and color that pearls are judged.
The largest, roundest and most lustrous pearls with the fewest imperfections receive the
highest rating.
Golden pearls can last 70 years.
To appreciate them you need natural daylight.
It will allow you to judge the pearls and see how the light changes on their surface.
Luster, shape, thickness, color and surface size - all this determines the future value
of a pearl.
Farmers sell finished pearls to jewelers who make them into necklaces, earrings and rings.
Jewelers try to find the highest grade pearls they can find, but it can be difficult.
Therefore, they often face a shortage of materials for work.
Of course, low grades are more accessible, but they look more rough, asymmetrical and
lacking in shine.
Such pearls are the least desirable in the jewelry world.
But even the highest quality pearls are never perfectly round.
This is due to the fact that despite the fact that they are grown artificially on farms,
they are still natural pearls.
So finding an almost perfect pearl, not to mention making a necklace from such pearls,
is extremely problematic.
It took one of the jewelers nine years to find enough of the highest quality pearls
to make this necklace.
In the end, the jeweler managed to sell the necklace to one of the buyers for $36,000.
Therefore, jewelers benefit from the search for such expensive pearls, and in this they
mainly rely on farmers.
Today, the vast majority of pearls on the market are cultured pearls.
Employees of the American Gemological Institute, using
X-rays, can easily determine whether a natural pearl or a cultured one.
Every year, the leaders of some jewelry companies evaluate pearls obtained in the South Seas.
The quality of precious pearls is evaluated.
Employees select the perfect golden pearls.
They sort them by size
and color.
High-class specialists are able to distinguish 25 shades of gold by eye.
Only two completely identical shades can be used to produce pearl earrings.
As a result of the evaluation, transactions for the purchase of pearls are concluded.
Summing up, we can say that pearls, both found and created by man, are the art of nature.
The indisputable fact remains that they grew up inside a living organism.
Therefore, it is impossible to fully control how and when they form, especially in the
wild.
So if you ever bite into something hard while eating an oyster, take a look at it before
you throw it away.
It may be
more
than a lump of sand.
That's all.
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