After the read of this How Pearls Are Made article, you will know where pearls come from and how are they made.
Pearls are famous marine gemstones, one of the most important treasures of human culture. Ancient and modern civilizations of the East and the West have attached great importance to this fashion, and aristocrats have competed to place them on their feet, an ancient and mysterious art.
Do you know how pearls are made?
Today, let’s review the forming process of pearl production.
Before reviewing the process of how pearls are made, let’s first learn about the formation of pearls, pearl types, and the factors that influence them.
How pearl is formed in the shell?
The formation of pearls is a natural miracle. How are pearls formed in an oyster?
Pearls are produced by mollusks (e.g. oysters) that are able to secrete a substance called nacre in their shells, and when a foreign object enters the oyster, the oyster wraps the foreign object in nacre to form a pearl.
These foreign objects may be sand, parasites, marine plants, etc. Upon entering the oyster, the oyster will begin to secrete perlage and continue to drop perlage into the layers of tissue surrounding the foreign object, forming a pearl shell of multiple thicknesses.
It takes years or decades for a pearl to form and eventually, a complete pearl is formed.
According to the process of pearl formation and raw materials, pearls can be divided into two categories: natural pearls and artificially cultivated pearls.
How are natural pearls made?
Natural pearls are produced from oysters or shells in nature. In ancient times, pearls were very precious gemstones that only royalty could own. As people discovered how to cultivate pearls, the price of pearls gradually decreased and more people could own and appreciate them.
The reasons for the formation of natural pearls are the following two:
Like sand, small insects or worm dauber and other foreign objects, accidentally invade the mussel shell, with part of the outer coat membrane epidermal cells together into the connective tissue of the clam, epidermal cell tissue division and proliferation into the pearl capsule, surrounded by foreign objects, secretion of nacreous material, and ultimately the formation of pearls.
The pearl formed in this way is nucleated.
Another for the outer coat membrane epidermal cells part of the tissue due to lesions or injuries and other reasons, out of the original part, into the connective tissue, split and proliferate to form the pearl capsule and the formation of pearls. The pearls formed in this way are not nucleated.
How are cultured pearls made?
Artificial cultured pearls are made by putting a foreign substance into the oyster and then using certain technical means to control the generation and growth of nacre so that the oyster can produce good quality pearls in a short period of time.
When the mussel is in the seabed feeding, its shell is open, subject to foreign objects such as sand, parasites, and other foreign objects occasionally falling in. The outer coat membrane is stimulated, and it will secrete nacreous material, the foreign objects fall in layers wrapped, so that it is rounded and smooth, and gradually form a pearl capsule, a bright and moist outer layer.
Cultured pearls are formed by implanting round beads into the mussel using the nucleation technique according to this principle.
It is generally believed that the epidermal cells of the outer coat membrane of the mussel divide and proliferate dramatically when stimulated by a certain stimulus, and gradually encircle the source of the stimulus to form a complete nacreous capsule, which then secretes nacreous material layer after layer centered on the source of the stimulus to form a pearl.
Therefore, whether the pearls formed are spherical or non-spherical depends on whether the nacreous substance can be evenly accumulated around the source of stimulation.
The invention of artificially cultivated pearls has led to a significant increase in the supply of pearls and a corresponding decrease in their price.
How pearls are made affected by the factors?
The formation of pearls is mainly affected by the following factors:
1. Species of oyster and environmental conditions
2. Size and shape of foreign matter
3. Environmental factors such as water temperature, water quality, nutritional status, etc.
The mother-of-pearl
The mother of pearl is the nacreous shell, and all nacreous shells have a special type of cells that are distributed in the outer layer of the outer coat membrane and secrete a special substance called nacreous material.
As the nacreous shell ages, the cells grow, the nacre is secreted more and more, and the shell grows in size.
Types of mother-of-pearl shells
There are many kinds of pearl shells, such as abalone, mussels, mussels, mother-of-pearl, giant clams, etc., which are all capable of producing pearls, among which the sea-produced pearl shells are of large production and good quality.
Those used for cultured cultivation of pearls are mainly large mother-of-pearl shells, Pinctada martensi, nacreous shells, and mahi-mahi mother-of-pearl shells.
The process of pearl making:
Firstly. Harvesting of pearls
Pearls are made by marine crustaceans, which live in the depths of the ocean and use their calcareous shells as protection for their skin. The process of harvesting pearls may seem long on the surface, but in reality, it is thrilling and interesting at every step.
Firstly, pearl hunters wear deep-sea clothing to dive into the water, search for shells from deep-water fish, and then harvest them when they find them.
The pearl fishermen have different locations in the summer and winter, and the harvesting is carried out by specialized pearl hunters on the island, which can be very profitable if a special crustacean is found in one night.
Secondly. Care of Pearls
Pearls Caring Methods/Steps
General washing:
Soak the harvested pearls in light water promptly, then wash them with soap water and fresh water and dry them for preservation.
To thoroughly wash away the remaining mucus and dirt from the bead surface attachments, the harvested pearls, after washing with fresh water, can be soaked in salt water for 5-10 minutes, followed by rubbing with fine table salt mixed with pearl (its ratio of 2:1).
Then rinsed several times with light soapy water and fresh water, and then finally lightened with a towel or fleece, cooled dried, and preserved.
Pharmaceutical washing:
1. The poorer pearls can be content 0.15% ‘0.2% of dodecanol sulfate washing, then washed with water, dried, and saved.
2. Pearls with dull surface luster or stains can be washed with 3% hydrogen peroxide, then washed with water and dried and stored.
3. Medicinal pearls, after harvesting should not be treated with chemical agents, only with water and salt water to wash and dry.
4. All processed, cooled, and dried pearls should be put into a clean bag, sealed, and placed in a cupboard for preservation, do not place them in place of a damp temperature.
Thirdly. The beautification of pearls
1. Pre-processing of pearls
According to the size of the pearl, the regular grade for screening is pre-grading.
High-grade pearls through high-grade processing, medium-grade through the processing of medium-grade processing, and poor through simple processing. For each grade, there are corresponding measures, advanced pre-categorization, and regularity.
2. Lightening
After the pearl is mined out, it will bring some stains or dirt inside the mussel, through the brightening link to make it bright, and remove the stains and dirt.
3. Bleaching
By washing, soaking with special substances, baking, lighting, etc., the original color of the pearl itself – white – is revealed. Every pearl farmer or every processing plant treats pearls differently, and there are both good and bad ways of doing it.
4. Whitening
Use a whitening agent to whiten the bleached pearls.
5. Polishing
Through our common wax-plated walnut shells (take the walnut shells boiled in wax water) and pearls put together and rolled repeatedly, you can make the surface of the pearls a little brighter, but also stained with a thin layer of wax of the protective layer, you can avoid the transport and other processing in the process of damage, reduce each other’s wear and tear.
6. Coloring
How colored pearls are made?
Dyeing with fluorescent dyes to improve the whiteness and brightness of the pearls.
How pearls are made for accessories?
Finally, the pearl will be accessorized with diamonds, gold, and silver beads to give the pearl a lovely appearance and a soft shawl for the overall appearance of the pearl. However, the accessories are set in the style of the jewelry as a benchmark, determining the final phase of the pearl to be glittering and sexy, and to enhance the beauty of its spirituality.
The above is about how pearls are made. The process of explaining, radiant pearls, playing astringent poetic flavor, brings people into a trance on the beauty of the response, its production process is not only the market popular, but also become a kind of mysterious art.
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