Posts Tagged ‘ south sea pearls ’

South Sea pearls are best known for their warm gold color. Although these pearls can also be found in champagne, silvery blue, or even pink, the golden pearl is the most popular. I’ve heard that these pearls are more rare than other types; I’m not sure this is true, but I do know that South Sea pearls are the largest pearls in the world. Their beautiful color, thick nacre, and satiny luster make these pearls a good investment for any pearl aficionado.

Golden pearls come from pearl farms in Indonesia, Australia, Myanmar, and the Philippines. The clean, warm waters of the South Seas are home to the Pinctada Maxima oyster – the largest in the world. The oyster’s size allows pearls to grow as large as 9-20mm, with an average nacre thickness of 2-6mm. The thick nacre makes these pearls more lustrous; it also makes them slightly more durable than other saltwater pearls, particularly Akoyas.

So how much should you expect to pay for a golden pearl necklace? The answer will depend on the retailer and the quality of the pearls. A necklace made out of AAA (the highest quality) South Sea pearls may cost as much as $7,000; however, you might be able to find less expensive necklaces if you are willing to settle for lower quality pearls. Alternatively, try looking for a single pearl necklace, bracelet, or floating pearl necklace.

Before you start shopping, you should know some of the common pitfalls to avoid when buying pearls online. First of all, pearls are graded from A to AAA+. You should not buy pearls from any company that claims to sell AAAA pearls, as they will often inflate the price due to their perceived higher quality pearls. Some retailers might also claim to sell “baby South Sea” pearls. More often than not, these are freshwater pearls that have been dyed or treated to obtain their lovely gold color. I wouldn’t assume that all companies that sell these pearls are trying to scam their customers, but it is a red flag. Finally, be aware that “Tahitian South Sea pearls” is a bit of a misnomer as well. Pearls are either Tahitian or South Sea – not both.

A golden pearl necklace made out of genuine South Sea pearls can be well worth the high price tag. Make sure to shop around and consider other styles before you make a final decision, however!

South Sea pearls are a great addition to anyone’s collection. Their warm colors, large size, and thick nacre make them both unique and durable. If you want a gold pearl, South Sea is the way to go! Here’s a little more information about these spectacular pearls.

South Sea pearls are harvested from the pinctada maxima oyster, found throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and are known for their warm overtones and colors that rarely occur in other pearl types. These pearls are mainly produced in Australia, the Phillippines, Indonesia, and Myanmar.

These pearls are among the largest cultured pearls in the world, for reasons that I’ll explain in a minute. You may recall that an average pearl is about 7-8mm with some types, such as Akoya, running a little smaller. South Sea pearls, on the other hand, are somewhere between 9mm-20mm! The smallest South Sea pearl is larger than the average Akoya and the average (at 13mm) is nearly twice as large.

One reason for their incredible size is the size of the oyster itself. Pinctada maxima oysters can grow up to 12 inches in diameter so they can handle a larger nucleus. These pearls are also left to grow for a relatively long time – a minimum of 2 years before being harvested. Finally, the warm and clean waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans are conducive to quick nacre growth so they are able to grow larger, more quickly. This is also a reason for their unusually average nacre thickness of 2-6mm. (For reference, the nacre in Akoyas is usually .35-.7mm thick.)

There are two varieties of the pinctada maxima, gold-lipped and silver-lipped. As the names imply, each type tends to produce either gold or white pearls. As I mentioned earlier, the colors that occur naturally in South Sea pearls tend to be very rare or impossible in other pearl types. These colors include gold, champagne (pale gold), blue with silver overtones, pink, or even pale green, and of course white. South Sea pearls are also known for their soft, satiny luster. The most valuable and sought after color is a deep, warm, gold.

As a consumer, there are several things you should watch out for when you buy these pearls. First of all, many retailers use terminology that is misleading or inaccurate. For example, “Baby South Sea” pearls are not South Sea. They are often freshwaters. Nor are “Tahitian South Sea” pearls South Sea. They are two completely different types of pearls from two different types of oysters! The same goes for “Black South Sea” pearls – those are Taitians because they come from the pinctada margaritifera, or black-lipped, oyster. Please avoid any retailer, on- or offline, that uses those terms. Most likely they either don’t know what they are talking about or are trying to mislead their customers.

South Sea pearls on the whole are the most expensive because they are so large, have so much nacre, and are relatively rare. Their warm and unusual colors and satiny luster make them standout choices for anyone’s pearl necklace.

Keshi (or keishi) pearls are a unique by-product of the pearl cultivation process in which the oyster, for some reason, rejects the implanted nucleus and a pearl develops anyway. Far from being unsellable, low quality rejects, keshis are very beautiful and a worthy addition to any pearl aficionado’s collection. Let me explain.

Keshi means “poppy seed” in Japanese, and that is a reasonable description of their shape. These pearls are generally very small (though large ones do exist) and because they have no nucleus, their shapes are highly irregular. Their lack of a nucleus is important for a couple reasons.

First, keshi pearls are all nacre (one caveat here: they are all nacre, but their lack of a nucleus means they can very rarely be hollow). This makes them similar to natural pearls but it’s important to know that they are not a natural product. Keshis occur as an accidental byproduct of cultivation, therefore they are man-made and must be described as such.

Second, because keshis have such a thick layer of nacre, they often display an absolutely incredible amount of orient. Orient could also be described as iridescence, but keshis often go beyond that, with colors that play both across the surface and within the depth of the pearl. You really have to see the way they shimmer to believe it!

Generally speaking, the term keshi is only used to describe saltwater pearls. This may be because cultured Akoya pearls produced the first keshis so for a long time they dominated the market. Supposedly there is a movement to legislate this but at this time it is unregulated. Freshwater keshi pearls also exist – they are produced by the same process – and in fact, as far as the Japanese are concerned keshi can refer to either saltwater or freshwater pearls.

These pearls used to be very inexpensive. However, producers of South Sea and Tahitian pearls have begun x-raying their oysters. Through these x-rays, they are able to see whether or not an oyster is rejecting the nucleation process and if so, re-nucleating it. This means that keshis from those regions are becoming more and more scarce, and ever more expensive.

If you would like your own pearl necklace made of keshis, Akoya and freshwater are probably the way to go – they are the least expensive and still generally have a very high orient. Freshwater pearls also occur in so many colors that you are guaranteed a wide selection. However, if you can find Tahitian or South Sea keshi pearls for a reasonable price you will be absolutely amazed at how beautiful they really are. Good luck in your search!

Pearl origins

A pearl is one of the only gems to come from a living organism, making them very valuable. There’s a reason the phrase “like pearls before swine” exists – pearls were at one time so incredibly rare that only the nobility or the extremely wealthy could afford to have them. Pearls are most often made by mollusks such as oysters but they may also be found in snails, conchs and other organisms. The process is generally the same – however, some organisms produce pearls that aren’t made of nacre. (I’ll explain nacre in a minute)

Basically, a small irritant gets into the mollusk’s mantle. It could be as small or smaller than a single grain of sand, but the mollusk will attempt to “quarantine” the irritant by covering it with nacre. Nacre, also called mother of pearl, is the substance that lines the inside of its shell. Over time, layers upon layers of nacre form around the foreign object, forming a pearl. This doesn’t happen very often – in fact, only one in ten thousand oysters ever produces a pearl naturally – and marketable pearls (round, with good luster and surface quality) are even more rare and valuable. You may be wondering why, if that is the case, are there so many pearls on the market? The reason all comes down to cultivation methods that make mass production possible. Most of the pearls you will find these days are cultured and without that process your pearl necklace would most likely not exist.

Cultured pearls and cultivation methods

Freshwater and saltwater pearls have different methods but they both result in a process that artificially stimulates the same process that would occur naturally. This means that they are all natural pearls(versus fake, faux, simulated, etc.) but they are less valuable because there are so many on the market.  Let’s take a quick look at the different methods for each.

Saltwater pearls use what is called ‘bead nucleation.’ A bead, piece of shell, or other small round object is inserted into the oyster’s mantle. The oyster then, as in nature, forms layers of nacre around the nucleated object. Because round beads are often used, saltwater pearls are more likely to be spherical than freshwater. However, each oyster only produces one pearl and depending on the species, survival rates can be low.

Freshwater pearls, on the other hand, use a small piece of mantle tissue to begin pearl formation process. As above, the mantle is inserted in the oyster, then harvested at a later date. Freshwater oysters tend to produce as many as twenty pearls from one oyster! Furthermore, the water can be irradiated to change the color very easily. Their quality is more or less equivalent to saltwater with a slight tendency to irregularity in shape.

Types of Pearls

There are a few main types of pearls on the market. These are mostly named according to region, though in general you may see references to freshwater or saltwater, which I have covered above.

Akoya: These are high quality Japanese (or Chinese) saltwater pearls. They tend to be smaller than some of the other varieties but make up for it with their extremely high quality. Colors tend to be white with rose, ivory, cream, or silver overtones, making them one of the best choices for a classic pearl necklace.

Tahitian:  The name is misleading as there are no pearl farms actually located in Tahiti. Instead pearls are harvested from all over French Polynesia. These are known for their intense, dark, often metallic colors. The black-lipped oyster which produces these pearls is the only one in the world to produce a true black. Other colors include peacock, pistachio, blue, brown, grey, and aubergine.

South Sea: South Sea Pearls are produced in the area between Australia and China. Known for their rich, warm, colors (most often gold), South Sea pearls are also among the largest on the market. Their average size is 13mm though they may also produce pearls as large as 20mm. (For reference, the average pearl size in a necklace is 7-8mm.) These pearls also have a very thick nacre, making them extremely beautiful as well as very durable.

Cortez: In the 1500s, the Gulf of California was known as the sea of pearls, and the pearls harvested from the region were in high demand. However, due to over-fishing the Panama black-lipped and rainbow-lipped oysters were hunted nearly to extinction. Nowadays the only marine cultured pearl farm is located there. They are known for their intense colors and are the only pearls qualified for the “Fair Trade Gems” protocols.

Conch Pearls: These pearls are not actually made of nacre, but are highly valued. They are produced by the Queen Conch mollusk which lives in the Caribbean. Since they cannot be cultured (yet) conch pearls are found very rarely. They are known for their pink colors and unique “flame” pattern.

Melo Melo Pearls: Like the conch above, these are also non-nacreous. They come from a marine snail called the melo melo, which lives in the South China Sea. Again, these are very rare because there is no known cultivation method. Melo melo pearls are best known for their size (very large) and shape (very round). The most valuable color is orange.

Abalone Pearls: These natural pearls are found in the Hailiotis abalone (also called the paua by New Zealanders.) Though they can be cultured, it is a very difficult process – abalone are hemophiliacs! One single nick while nucleating could kill them. For that reason, only mabe pearls can be produced successfully. A beautiful iridescent blue is the most common color and they are popular in New Zealand and Australia, though not yet in the Western Hemisphere.

Scallop Pearls: Like the conch and melo melo, these are not made of nacre but are produced by a similar process. They are found in the “Pacific Lion’s Paw” mollusk which lives in the waters around North and Central America. Scallop pearls are often maroon, plum, orange, and pink, and are very rare.

Though I have listed many different types, the most common are freshwater (usually from China), Akoya, Tahitian, and South Sea.