All about Pearls

What’s the difference between freshwater and saltwater cultured pearls?

Freshwater pearls are grown inside freshwater mollusks and saltwater cultured pearls are grown inside saltwater mollusks. Both saltwater pearls and freshwater pearls are real pearls–they are just grown in different mediums. They are both termed ‘cultured’ pearls because they have a human hand in their development. A so-called ‘natural’ pearl is the result of a random irritant getting caught inside a mussel (in the case of freshwater pearls) or oyster shell (in the case of saltwater pearls) and the irritant getting coated with its nacre (the material that pearls are made from) in order to deal with the source of the irritation. Jewelry-grade natural pearls are extremely rare and exceedingly expensive–most people are unlikely to encounter them. Fortunately, the process of culturing pearls–both saltwater and freshwater–has brought real pearls to a much wider market.

Culturing pearls, both saltwater and freshwater, involves an irritant being deliberately introduced into mollusks so that pearls will (hopefully) form. Because the freshwater mussel can produce many more pearls in its lifetime than its saltwater cousin, the oyster, freshwater pearls are typically less expensive than saltwater ones. However, unlike saltwater pearls, freshwater pearls are composed of nacre (the ‘pearl’ material) all the way through, while saltwater pearls are composed of many layers of nacre covering the small round bead that was the original irritant that the saltwater pearl was formed around. For freshwater pearls, the irritant that is introduced into the mussel is a piece of mussel tissue and it gets absorbed back into the mussel during the pearl-growing process, leaving a pearl made of solid nacre in its wake.

Which are better–freshwater or saltwater pearls? Saltwater pearls are certainly more expensive, due to their greater scarcity, and because they are created by seeding oysters with small, round beads onto which to secrete nacre, they tend to be rounder than freshwater pearls. However, as they are not solid nacre throughout, as freshwater pearls are, their nacre may eventually wear off after a great many years. In my opinion, there are a lot of beautiful freshwater pearls on the market that are very reasonably priced and that provide an excellent alternative to their more expensive saltwater cousins.

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Hello from the Pearl Lady!

Why do I call myself the pearl lady? Well, up until recently I was living in Beijing, China–home to the famous Hongqiao Pearl Market–and I became quite fascinated with the ins and outs of the pearl business as a result. China is the largest producer of freshwater pearls in the world and although the quality of their pearls was rather poor when they started pearl farming 20 years ago, they learned quickly from their mistakes and are now producing large numbers of excellent freshwater pearls every year. As a result, pearl prices have come down considerably, and beautiful pearls are now within reach of many more consumers.

A visit to the Hongqiao Pearl Market in Beijing is quite an experience. The pearl section of the market occupies three floors and consists of a multitude of small stall owners eagerly trying to sell you their wares. The sheer number of pearls there was amazing to me. A stall typically has fifty or a hundred strands of pearls on display (usually of fairly poor quality) but when you ask to see the better quality stuff, they start pulling out hundreds more to show you. Usually, after the fifth or sixth bunch they bring out, you are looking at some pretty nice merchandise. The prices are very low by western standards, particularly if you know some Chinese and bargain hard. That is certainly what I did and I even ended up taking a class on pearls when I was in Beijing so that I would know how to judge the quality of the wares I was considering buying. All in all, it proved to be a fascinating experience and after my year and a half in Beijing, I was hooked on pearls.

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