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Once the pearl grows enough the oyster can spit it out comfortably. Of course, nowadays the vast majority of pearls sold commercially, whether from oysters or mussels, are actually cultivated and not gathered from wild oysters. So, does the process of formation of cultivated pearls differ from the natural process? The principle behind the creation of cultivated pearls is essentially the same as with wild pearls — oysters and mussels just secrete nacre over of foreign objects that irritate them, thus creating pearls.
The difference here is that the object of irritation is placed inside the oyster using invasive procedures to ensure the creation of pearls. Through it, the pearl farmers insert a single and perfectly round bead inside the oysters. The ideal round shape of the bead increases the probability that the pearl the oyster will create from it will also have a perfectly round shape. Because such pearls are created one at a time and because each pearl takes several years to form, such Akoya pearls are farmed in small quantities.
That, together with their perfectly round shapes makes them very highly valued and expensive. Farmed predominantly in China, freshwater cultured pearls usually form in mussels and not in oysters, although the core principle behind their formation is essentially the same. Unlike saltwater pearls, however, freshwater ones are usually produced at a rate of 24 to 32 at a time from a single mussel.
If that sounds impressive, just several years ago, before refining the process, Chinese farmers used to cultivate up to 50 pearls at a time from a single mussel. These incisions are often enough for the mussels to start secreting nacre into them even without the presence of a bead. The end result of that is not just a much larger quantity of pearls but also pearls with much thicker nacre content.
However, freshwater pearls are also typically irregular in shape. While the latter is normally viewed as a negative, the thicker nacre layers of freshwater pearls can be quite positive since it makes them much more durable and long-lasting than saltwater Akoya pearls.
Either way, the optimized process of production of freshwater pearls has made them the most affordable and abundant type of pearls on the market. While white pearls are the most traditional and popular type, they can also be black, grey, pink, cream, peach, green, blue, purple, and more.
How does that happen, however? Do pearl farmers also inject oysters with some coloring agents to facilitate the creating of colorful pearls? The color of each individual pearl is not coincidental, of course, and is instead dependent on the natural pigments that are usually present in different oysters and mussels.
When they try to guess what color pearl each oyster is going to produce, pearl farmers typically look at the lip of the oyster — if it has a certain distinct coloring, chances are that its pearls will also have it. After all, the nacre that creates the pearl is the same nacre the oyster uses to create its shell. When pearls are cultured commercially an irritant is manually inserted into a mollusc to promote the production of mother-of-pearl. Nacre can form naturally around almost any irritant that gets inside the shell, creating some very unique and precious pearls.
Smart cookie preferences. Change cookie preferences Accept all cookies. Skip to content. Quick question How do oysters make pearls? Other bivalve molluscs and gastropods can produce pearls, but these aren't made of nacre.
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