Most people when they imagine a pearl are picturing perfect large round spherical gems, creamy white in colour with a shimmery iridescent surface. The reality is that pearls are usually irregular in shape, each one is different and to find one that is completely round is almost unheard of, let alone a whole string that are all identical. Natural pearls are the rarest and most highly valued variety, but nowadays most pearl jewellery is made from cultured or farmed pearls, which are grown on pearl farms across the world by inserting a bead nucleus inside an oyster or mussel shell to encourage the formation of a pearl. Apart from whether a pearl is cultured or natural the main difference is between saltwater and freshwater pearls, which both have their own different properties.
Saltwater pearls are found in pearl oysters which live in the ocean, and produce the classic round white or cream pearls that have remained so desirable and sought after throughout history. Cultured saltwater pearls are more likely to be round than those grown in freshwater farms as they are made by inserting a bead into the oyster to encourage the shape. The popular Japanese Akoya pearl is a cultured saltwater pearl and is much sought after for its large size and relatively regular shape, making them more expensive than the freshwater variety. It is still possible to find natural saltwater pearls in the ocean, but they are becoming more and more rare due to pollution in the seas.
The most common type of pearl available today are freshwater pearls, which are mostly produced in China using freshwater mussels and come in a huge variety of shapes, sizes and colours. Freshwater pearls come in the natural colours of whites, pinks, creams and lilacs but they are often dyed to produce a whole rainbow of other colours for jewellery. Freshwater pearls are easier to farm succesfully than saltwater pearls, and for this reason they are slightly cheaper to buy, though it is rare for them to be perfectly round and a necklace of cultured freshwater pearls will hardly ever be all the same size and shape.
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