How long does it take to create pearls?

The first stage of pearl cultivation is collecting eggs from pearl oysters. The young mollusks that emerge from it are kept in metal cages with small cells to protect them from attacks by octopuses, starfish and other sea-dwelling enemies. The cages must be periodically cleaned and checked to see if their inhabitants are healthy, and after two years, slightly grown mollusks are transplanted from small cages to large ones. Another year later, when the oysters reach maturity, an operation is carried out to place a grain of mother-of-pearl inside. The operation is as follows: a small strip of tissue is separated from one oyster. A ball of mother-of-pearl is wrapped in this cloth and placed in the body of another oyster. The mollusk is returned to the sea, and the tissue that was implanted behaves in the same way as the animal’s own cells, secreting nacre that envelops the foreign grain. The balls that are placed in the oyster are carefully selected in size – they should not be larger than a certain size that the oyster can process. If the grain exceeds a certain maximum size, the oyster may die. Cages containing pearl oysters are attached to floating buoys connected to each other. The buoys simultaneously hold up to 80 thousand cells. Using motor boats, they are periodically moved to other places to provide food for the oysters. Some types of crustaceans and seaweed pose a threat to the health of oysters, so they are periodically removed from the surface of each shell, then treated with a special compound that prevents the spread of parasites. Despite all these concerns, some of the oysters die in the first month, and some reject the ball placed in them. The mollusks remaining in the work, and there are less than a third of them, form a couple of millimeters of mother-of-pearl in a few months. It takes at least three years to grow large Akoya pearls. In modern pearl farms, they are x-rayed and determined whether the pearl is developing inside and, if so, what its diameter is. The process of growing pearls lasts several years. During this time, oyster processing procedures are regularly carried out, after which beautiful and valuable pearls can finally be extracted. The percentage of pearl formation even when growing oysters and taking good care of them is very small. It is even more difficult to sort pearls that match each other by size, color, level of shine, and smoothness. In nature, no two pearls are exactly alike, so sorting pearls is a very complex process that takes a lot of time. Pearls are divided into groups according to size, shape, shade, and brightness of mother-of-pearl, so each pebble is moved many times. After sorting, a hole is carefully drilled into the pearl. It is very important that it is located exactly in the center of the pearl, since even minimal asymmetry can spoil the appearance of a necklace or other jewelry. After this, identical pearls are selected to make up the jewelry. This is even more painstaking work than sorting: jewelers have to look through the most identical pairs of stones from a group that has already been selected by size, color, shape, brightness, and therefore very similar. Only a specialist with extensive experience can select the perfect pearls for making jewelry. For example, to select 47 absolutely identical pearls for a necklace 42 centimeters long, you have to look through over 10 thousand stones. Where are irregularly shaped pearls that are not suitable for jewelry purposes used? They are usually used in the production of medicines, cosmetics and for other purposes – for example, for the production of artificial pearls.

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• 7 minutes from the metro
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Do you know what a shell with pearls looks like? Not an ennobled advertising picture – beautifully open doors, between which rests a perfectly shaped mother-of-pearl sphere – but a real shell found in the depths of the waters. It is not so aesthetically pleasing, because a mollusk lives inside, but it usually hides several precious beads.

Do you want to know what shells pearls grow in and how it happens?

Where do the pearls in the shell come from?

Pearls are born in the homes of marine and freshwater mollusks, but not all, but only bivalves, some species of gastropods and one species of cephalopod.

Under natural conditions, the process is random: a foreign body (most often a grain of sand) gets between the valve and the mantle or is introduced into the mantle itself, which produces nacre to cover the walls of the shell. The pearl oyster begins to envelop the foreign body with a valuable substance.

The process is extremely lengthy, and mining the mineral requires a lot of money. Therefore, they came up with cultivation technology.

1. Collect pearl oyster caviar.

Mollusks emerge from it and are placed in fine-mesh cells. This precaution is necessary to protect pearl mussels from natural enemies. Employees of oyster farms monitor the health of their wards, periodically cleaning the cages from algae and adhering sand.

1. After 2 years, the mollusks are transplanted into larger cages.
2. After a year, the mollusks reach sexual maturity, and grains of mother-of-pearl are introduced into the shells.

Since pearls are formed in a shell in response to irritation, a fragment of mantle tissue is taken from one oyster, a grain of nacre is wrapped in it, and the “blank” is placed inside the shell of another oyster. If the foreign body is larger than the permissible size, the mollusk will die.

1. Oysters that have completed the operation are returned to the water.

Metal cages are fixed to interconnected buoys. In one design – up to 80 cells. Motor boats periodically move the buoys to new places so that the mollusks have enough food. The cells are cleaned and treated with a drug that prevents the development of parasites that can harm the oysters.

Even with proper technology and care for mollusks, some of them die in the first month. Many oysters reject embedded grains. Less than 30% of pearl oysters survive and produce nacre. It takes several months to form a layer of 2 mm; the pearl grows for more than 3 years.

Large farms use X-ray machines to determine which shells contain pearls and whether it is time to harvest.

1. Grown pearls are removed from the shells.

There are no pearls identical in size, smoothness, shade, or degree of shine. Therefore, sorting requires patience: to select 47 pearls for a choker, you need to sort through about 10.

Jewelry ideas given by nature

Let’s return to the elegant advertising image – an open shell with a precious ball inside. She often becomes a source of inspiration for jewelers. Thus, inexpensive earrings with pearls took on the appearance of divided shells of the Pinctada margaritifera shell.

Another model resembles the home of a wavy horn (Buccinum vulgaris).

Sometimes a slight similarity is enough to remember the gifts of nature. This is an openwork pendant with gold pearls and a spectacular ring.

There are other jewels in the Maysaku collections that are similar in shape to shells. Choose – it’s beautiful.

• Necklace, choker, beads, chainsEarringsRings
• BraceletsPendantsCorals
• Silver jewelryAmber jewelryGifts

• Moscow, Tulskaya metro station, Gamsonovsky lane, 5
• 7 minutes from the metro
• Schedule:
• Mon-Fri 10:00 – 20:00
• Sat 11:00 – 20:00
• Sun 11:00 – 19:00
• Check the availability of the products you are interested in before visiting the showroom