Extracts pearls from the seabed. How pearls are formed. The formation of pearls artificially

16.06.2019

Pearls are the only gems that are not mined from the bowels of the earth. If you thought until today that round pearl beads are "distant relatives" of diamonds, then it's time to find out the truth. They have nothing in common either in composition or in the method of formation.

What is a pearl

Pearls are a unique creation of nature, or rather mollusks that live in shells. By secreting a special substance, they create pearls inside their shelter, which are then mined by divers.

But not every shell contains pearls. The fact is that this stone is formed when foreign particles get into it: grains of sand, small mollusks, even air bubbles. All this can damage the delicate body of the oyster. Therefore, nature has awarded the inhabitants of shells with a unique ability to create a protective shell around foreign bodies - pearls.

Layer by layer, the secreted liquid covers the trapped particles, smoothing out their sharp corners and roughness so that they cannot damage the mollusk. The larger the pearl, the longer it "ripens" inside. The substance that forms it is called mother of pearl, which means “mother of pearls”. It is 86 percent calcium carbonate (aragonite), 12 percent protein (conchiolin) and 2 percent water.

How pearls appear

The formation of a pearl begins with the appearance of the first layer of aragonite around the foreign particle. Then hundreds more layers grow on it. Proteins gradually fill the hollow space between the calcium carbonate crystals, making the shell very strong. The top layer consists only of aragonite, which gives the pearl its mother-of-pearl luster.

Pearls can be formed in both sea and river shells. And it will differ significantly in composition and appearance. If large pearls are formed in the depths of the sea and no more than one in the shell, then in river reservoirs, they are smaller and grow in several pieces in one place.

These differences dictate the price difference. Sea pearls are less commonly used to create jewelry and are much more valued. Also today they have learned how to create artificial pearls and grow them in greenhouse conditions.

Many factors influence the size, color and shape of pearls. As mentioned above, smaller stones are formed in rivers and other shallow water bodies, and large ones at the bottom of the seas. If the pearl grows on the body of the mollusk without touching the walls, then its shape will be as close as possible to the ball. Also, the formation may appear on the shell itself, then the pearl will look like a growth.

The smallest pearls reach a diameter of 0.2-0.25 cm, those that exceed 0.7-0.8 cm are considered large. There are pearls 1 cm wide. And the largest find is kept in the Museum of London, it weighs as much as 85 grams. and has a girth of 4.5 cm.

In jewelry stores, pearls are found in a wide variety of colors: white, pink, black, blue, red, burgundy, silver or gold. The most expensive is considered blue pearls, it is mined in the Indonesian depths. Dark is found in the Caribbean, pink in India and Japan, in Australia it will be white, and in Panama it will be golden.

wild pearl

Only a small part of the pearl market is occupied by a natural product. It is not easy to get, and fishing harms the ecology of the sea and river depths. But still connoisseurs of treasures cannot be lured to the side, albeit skillfully, but still artificially grown pearls.

To find a standing specimen, one has to open many shells, and only one out of ten contains an even stone of the appropriate size, which can be used in jewelry production.

But many lovers of original jewelry deliberately choose irregularly shaped pearls. Its diversity is amazing. It can be not only oval, but also the most bizarre shapes. At the same time, mother-of-pearl shine plays with amazing tints on the bends. Rarely, but still, you can find teardrop-shaped, oblong, flat and completely irregular pearls. The stone looks very unusual, which seems to be surrounded by rings.

Natural pearls of irregular shape have several varieties:

Keshi. Has the shape of a petal.
Biwa. Looks like a mother-of-pearl.
Baroque pearl. This is rather not a variety, but a general definition for fancy-shaped pearls.

Matte pearls look original, such an anomaly is formed in the absence of mother-of-pearl particles. These copies cost fabulous sums, but not a single person on Earth will definitely have such an ornament.

The desire of fashionistas to wear jewelry with pearls prompted jewelers to artificially grow the gemstone. For these purposes, foreign particles are planted in the shells, most often polished pieces of the same pearl, and they are allowed into a reservoir with ideal conditions for incubation.

The cultivation of pearls began several centuries ago in China. Until now, this country is considered the market leader along with Japan. Over this long period, entrepreneurs have learned to breed a large number of different varieties of this stone.

What are the varieties of cultured pearls?

Akoya. This type of pearl is grown by oysters of the same name. Akoya is a sea pearl and is cultivated in Japan and China. Today it is the most popular variety, which is an example of a classic shape and color. Its dimensions do not exceed 0.7-0.8 cm and it has an amazing refraction of light, which creates a feeling of glow from within.
Golden pearl. It is grown in the seas of Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Myanmar. It differs significantly from oriental pearls: its diameter reaches 1 cm and has a dense top layer of mother-of-pearl, which makes the brilliance muffled.
Black Pearl. The center of trade for this variety is Tahiti, but there are production in many places. Black pearls are considered royal, they come in different sizes (from 0.8 to 1.8 cm) and are more expensive than others. The color scheme is striking in variety: from silver to black, with tints of blue, purple or green.
White pearls. It is grown in sea silver-lipped oysters on the coasts of Australia, Indonesia and the Philippine Islands. Such pearls can reach 2 cm in diameter. Oysters of this species are very capricious and it is quite difficult to tame them, therefore this pearl is exclusive, despite the fact that it is cultivated.

Of course, we have not listed all varieties of this gem, but the most basic of them. Now you have an idea not only about how pearls are grown, but also what types they are.

Today, the jewelry market offers products for every taste and color, so the appearance of artificially created stones no longer surprises anyone. A variety of technologies allows us to produce products of the highest quality.

Popular varieties of cultured pearls:

Majorca. The base is made of glass or plastic and covered with artificial mother-of-pearl. Thanks to a unique surface treatment method, pearls become incredibly similar to cultured ones.
Taraka. Unlike the previous method, the base of this pearl is made from real mother-of-pearl, which is removed from the inner lining of shells. From above, the stone is treated with polyamide and varnish, which includes mica, plastic, titanium oxide and lead carbonate. This gives the pearl extra shine and protection.
French pearl. This technology was one of the very first and has survived to this day. A glass ball is filled with wax from the inside and a product resembling a pearl is obtained.
Venetian pearl. The manufacturing principle is similar to the previous one, with the only difference being that pearl dust is added to the glass from which the sphere is blown.

Modern technologies make it possible to produce artificial pearls in a short time, which gives them an advantage over natural ones, which are grown on average for about 7 years.

Having become acquainted with the varieties of real and artificial pearls, the question arises of how not to get confused in such a variety and buy a quality product. Jewelers' advice will help you in this difficult choice.

What are the criteria for selecting pearls?

color - indicates a geographical origin;
shine - the brighter it is, the more mother-of-pearl;
shape - its choice depends on your personal preferences, but ideally round is considered classic;
smoothness - the less roughness, the more valuable the stone;
size - the larger, the more expensive.

If you have already purchased a product with pearls, then it will be useful to learn how to properly store it, because a natural stone consists of organic compounds and is influenced by many factors.

Storage rules:

avoid contact with water, chemicals and acids;
clean with a soft dry cloth;
protect the surface of pearls from cosmetics, as they contain fats and acids that corrode mother-of-pearl;
store the product in a box or box wrapped in cloth.

With poor care, pearls can last only 50 years, and with good care, all 500.

Whatever product you choose - with artificial or natural stone, such beauty will please you for a long time. Pearls are an elegant and unusual stone that is unlike other precious minerals. It gives the owner a royal and sophisticated look and makes her feminine and attractive. Having decided to opt for pearls, you will not go wrong with the purchase.

Video: cultivation of artificial pearls

However, it is very pleasant to find the pearl yourself. This pearl can be a souvenir for a long memory...

If someone thinks that pearls are mined only in the equatorial seas, then this person is seriously mistaken. Until the middle of the 19th century, Russia was the main supplier of pearls on the world market.

Surprised? Maybe I'll start in order.
Pearls are of two types, sea and river. In fact, pearls are a rather ordinary and very common phenomenon. Only rare forms, rare colors and rare sizes are of value. Everything else is not worth a penny. However, it is very pleasant to find the pearl yourself. This pearl can be a souvenir for a long memory or a good gift for a loved one.

Pearls are usually formed in the mantle of bivalves. How it turns out, probably everyone remembers. A grain of sand that has fallen into the mantle (in the folds of the body) of a mollusk irritates its flesh and therefore becomes covered with a layer of mother-of-pearl, smoothing out sharp corners. Every year the mother-of-pearl layer becomes thicker and as a result, a tiny grain of sand turns into a pearl. The larger this pearl is in size and the closer it is to a perfectly round shape, the more expensive it is. Usually the color of the pearl is white-pearl, but there are exceptions and the color of the pearl can be black, pink, blue, greenish, etc. Pearls with an unusual color are much more expensive than ordinary ones of the same size and shape.

Bivalve mollusks are quite widely found in marine and fresh water bodies around the globe. So finding a pearl is not a problem. There is one problem, in order for a pearl to be of a good size, it needs to mature in the shell for decades, and many river mollusks do not live that long, although they themselves are of impressive size and, therefore, there are no large pearls in these mollusks. Bivalve mollusks are long-lived, in which large pearls can ripen, regardless of their habitat (river, sea), they are called pearl oysters.

For reference, pearls can form in any molluscs that have at least some kind of shell, and even very rarely, but appear on the scales of fish. These animals can also be long-lived and such pearls can be of enormous size. As an example, pearls from shells, Tridactna, living up to 500 years or more can be up to several kilograms of weight. Such pearls are more valuable as a curiosity and are not usually used for jewelry. Pearls in pearl hulls are usually irregular in shape, often adhering to the shell itself, despite their size and color, they are also not suitable for jewelry. There are also artificial pearls, as valuable as artificial black caviar or soy (artificial) meat. We will not talk about these fakes.

So, where to look? Shells of pearl oysters are quite often found in clean northern and Siberian rivers and lakes, where such fish as grayling, taimen, trout and other salmon are found. These are rather large shells, often found about the size of an adult male's hand. These shells stand vertically on the bottom in whole colonies. A mask is enough to collect as many of these shells as you like in warm water (in summer). In the 19th century, in the Arkhangelsk province, it was a custom to give a beloved bride a handful of pearls on a necklace. There were no masks for diving then, and pearl oysters were taken from rafts with a stick with a split at the end. And they looked into the water through a special pipe rolled from birch bark. Similarly, pearls were mined for sale around the world.

Clothing, decorated or sewn with pearls, was quite popular at one time, especially in Russia among the fashionistas of the boyar and princely family-tribe. Although kokoshniks with pearls and beads were also carried by simple courtyard peasant women. Predatory trapping of pearl mussels eventually undermined the population of these mollusks, and pearl fishing in those days first stopped, and then was forgotten. Almost two hundred years have passed and so far no one, except for the Chinese, has resumed pearling. By the way, Chinese pearls are purely freshwater. I personally found up to 17 such irregularly shaped and relatively large-sized pearls in one shell. This doesn't happen often, but it's not very rare either. Usually the pearl oyster itself containing pearls has an ugly shell, and a smooth and beautiful shell, respectively, turns out to be without pearls.

For those who are especially interested and do not want to travel to the northern, and especially the Siberian rivers, I can offer an alternative. Mussel and oyster lovers can find small pearls in shells from the store. Such pearls for beads are not suitable for their size, but they are useful for decorating bracelets or as an insert into a ring. In scallops, pearls also come across, but they do not occur in canned scallops.

It is better, of course, to look for pearls in the seas, where there are ebbs and flows. At low tide, you can wander along the bare bottom and collect mussel and oyster shells in the remaining puddles. Along the way with king crabs and other yummy. So to speak, combining pleasant with tasty and useful. For example, in the Far Eastern seas at low tide in the same puddles and crevices of stones, you can find hermit crabs, sea cones and king crabs. Not very large in size, with a shell usually no larger than a tea saucer. And armed with a net or a stick with a dining fork tied to it, you can get shrimp, flounder, small halibut and, if you're lucky, an octopus in these puddles.

Right there on the shore, on the fire, all this yummy can be cooked.

Incredibly delicate, magically beautiful pearls are so popular in the world that the shortage of its natural reserves began to be felt at the beginning of the 20th century. To satisfy the growing aesthetic needs of the beautiful half of humanity, men have learned to grow cultured and synthetic pearls. Today, pearl pearls of divine beauty are grown under industrial conditions.

What is the difference between cultured pearls and natural pearls?
What is an artificial pearl?

natural pearl

Natural pearls are formed in the shells of molluscs. It is also called wild pearl.

A grain of sand, larvae of small insects or another foreign body of the smallest size gets into the shell of a mollusk. Inside the walls of the shell are covered with a mollusk mantle, which has many small nerve endings. They instantly react to an extraneous “object” and, as a reaction of a living organism, a substance is released, which is nothing more than the well-known mother of pearl. This is how a tiny pearl seed is first born, which after a few years turns into a full-fledged pearl.

How long does it take for natural pearls to grow and mature?

The growth rate of a pearl is influenced by many different factors - it depends directly on the type of pearl mussel, its age, place of growth (sea, fresh water), and the state of the environment.

The pearl is the shell of a clam. The largest pearls ripen in young pearl hulls. With age, the mantle of the pearl oyster is depleted, and small pearls ripen in the shell.

The fastest growing pearls in the first year - 2.3 mm. In subsequent years, pearls grow more slowly - no more than 0.38 mm per year.

Sea pearls are 2 times larger than river ones. This is due to the richness of the biochemical composition of sea water. But river mollusks are prolific - several pearls ripen in them at the same time.

Cultured pearls

Cultured pearls are not imitation pearls. These are natural pearls, grown in the shell of a mollusk in natural conditions with the help of a person. The so-called "cultural" pearls.

Currently, there are incomparably fewer natural pearls on the jewelry market than cultured ones. For example, the US pearl market is 80% cultured pearls.

This is because natural pearls grow very slowly, and there are more and more people who want to admire them and adorn themselves. Humanity is growing in number, and so are the needs of people. Therefore, cultured natural pearls are most often used in jewelry.

The process of growing cultured pearls is multi-stage, extremely complex and delicate. Cultured pearls are grown from 3 to 12 years. In rare cases, faster - depending on the type of mollusk.

An implant is inserted into the mantle of the pearl oyster Pinctada martensi - an artificially carved, tiny ball of mother-of-pearl. Then the shells are lowered into the sea, fixing them on special hanging nets. On the appearance of a new irritant, the living mantle reacts with the release of a pearlescent composition, which gradually and very slowly covers the foreign body inside the shell. On average, cultured pearls take 7 years to grow. Some of the largest plantations are today on the coast of the Sea of Japan.

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The cultured pearl has a perfectly round shape. Almost its entire thickness is formed directly by the ball - 75–90%. The layer of mother-of-pearl that a pearl oyster produces is usually 1 mm.

What determines the quality of cultured pearls?

Mainly, from the time of maturation of the pearl. The longer it matures inside the shell, the thicker the mother-of-pearl layer grows, which keeps the pearl in all its glory for many decades. Semi-annual pearls have a rather thin mother-of-pearl layer, which is quickly erased. High-quality cultured pearls are those that have grown for at least 2 years.

After cultured pearls are taken from the depths of the sea, they are first drilled and then dyed in different colors. But not always. It depends on the properties of certain mollusks. The most popular pearl color after the classic white is pink.

Cultured pearls in China and Japan

It's hard to imagine, but the art of cultivating natural pearls is at least 800 years old! The Chinese were the first to cultivate pearls in the 13th century. They discovered that pearls were formed from foreign bodies that got into the shell, and began to try to grow them on their own.

Craftsmen carefully opened the shells with bamboo sticks and placed tiny balls of clay or copper, or pieces of wood, inside. Then the shells were tightly closed and immersed back into the sea. The pearl harvest was collected in a few years.

One of the most amazing inventions of Chinese masters is the "pearl Buddha". Copper or lead images of the Buddha of the smallest sizes were placed in the clam shell, which was then displayed on a ripened pearl.

At the beginning of the 20th century, enterprising Japanese patented Chinese technology and began mass production of this most valuable natural mineral. Today, Japan occupies a leading position in the world in cultivation of cultured pearls. The country has a powerful industrial sector.

Japanese craftsmen cut a small piece of living tissue from the mantle of the pearl oyster, wrap a ball of various materials in it, then place it in the mantle of the shell of another mollusk, making a neat cut. The pearl matures naturally over several years. Moreover, this process is quite difficult to influence. Recently, they have learned to grow pearls of a certain shape, a certain size and color.

What kind of pearl will turn out, you can find out only after the shell is completely opened. After this procedure, the process of growth and maturation stops. What will be the size of the ripened pearl, and what shape it will be, it is simply impossible to know in advance. Often, the mollusk rejects the foreign ball embedded in it immediately after laying, and the result of the work turns out to be zero. So the production of pearls has a very certain percentage of commercial risk. Not a single specialist, even the most experienced one, will undertake to predict what the percentage of marriage will be in each pledged batch of cultured pearls. In practice, on average, only one in ten pearls meets the required standards, which cannot be called a high "yield".

Today, cultured natural pearls cost 10 times less than natural ones. At the same time, the price very much depends on whether freshwater pearls or marine ones. Growing freshwater pearls is much easier. Up to 7 pearls ripen in one growth cycle! Whereas in marine molluscs, in most cases only 1 pearl is born per cycle. That is why freshwater pearls are cheaper.

In recent years, the Japanese pearl industry has been in the lead and supplied the world market with up to 100 tons of cultured sea and freshwater pearls.

But the catastrophic tsunami in 2011 in Japan destroyed most of the pearl farms, making the Chinese the world's leading pearl growers. It should be noted that Chinese pearl farmers have been working hard towards this success for a very long time. They began to study Japanese advanced cultivation technologies 50 years ago, diligently mastering the experience of colleagues. For a very long time, Chinese pearls were not listed on the jewelry market, as they were largely inferior in quality to Japanese ones. Today, Chinese pearl farmers have overtaken the Japanese and become the world's leading pearl farmers. But the Japanese tradition of pearl cultivation is too strong to disappear. The industry is gradually recovering. Japan maintains its leadership in such an indicator as the size of pearls. The fact is that in the Chinese water area, due to climatic conditions, it is impossible to grow pearls larger than 7 mm. And if the size of pearls exceeds 8 mm, then its value increases significantly. This fact allows Japanese pearl farmers to maintain a leading position in this category.

Akoya cultured pearls are one of the most popular cultured pearls in the world. It is grown in large volumes on Chinese and Japanese pearl farms, as well as in small volumes on Vietnamese ones. Akoya pearls have a distinctive feature - a rather intense metallic luster. In order for Akoya pearls to achieve the maximum brilliance possible, they are harvested in late autumn - early winter. This is the optimum harvest time for this oyster variety. It is noteworthy that these are the smallest pearl oysters in size. An even more amazing fact is that up to 5 pearls can ripen in this tiny shell at the same time! Not every large oyster can ripen such a crop. In addition, it grows the fastest of all - only 8 months. Here she is, little Akoya.

Akoya is a well-known and long-loved classic in the pearl market.
Popular shades are white, cream, pink. Very beautiful and popular silver pearl shade "metallic". But most often oysters give birth to yellow, brown, greenish and blue pearls. Perfectly round Akoya pearls are widely used in the jewelry industry - pearls from 5 to 9 millimeters in diameter are excellently matched to necklaces and bracelets.

Imitation pearl

Imitation pearls are factory-made imitations.

In the creation of synthetic pearls, the mollusk shell does not take any part at all. The whole process is carried out by a person. At the same time, there are separate technologies for creating artificial pearls, in which only natural ingredients are used - mollusk shells and its components.

It is curious that artificial pearls began to be made as early as the 15th century. In those days, Roman pearls, which were glass balls filled with paraffin, were very popular.
A little later, glass pearls were covered with a special "pearl essence", which for a long time was made from sparkling fish scales. Today, mother-of-pearl is mined directly from mollusk shells.

In the 15th-16th centuries, the skill of creating artificial pearls was mastered by the ancient Indians. They used clay balls as the core. As a mother-of-pearl coating, a special composition of mica and natural mother-of-pearl was used, which was mined from the inside of the valves of mollusk shells.

Today, the core of artificial pearls is made from a variety of materials - plastic, alabaster, glass, etc. Pearls are cut from pink coral and some varieties of hematite. Depending on the technology and places of production, there are many varieties of artificial pearls.

In the 20th century in the United States of America, the method of multiple coating of beads with varnish was invented - Shell pearl. This technology is used to this day to produce synthetic pearls popular all over the world. The high quality of this variety is evidenced by the fact that it is used in the production of the Chanel jewelry house. It is much more pleasant to the touch than glass pearls, and also much better and more durable. And in terms of the number of shades, it has no equal, in principle, among all types of pearls. These are hundreds of truly luxurious shades: from classic glossy to modern "acid". At the heart of Shell pearl is a core carved from a natural clam shell. The average diameter of such a ball is 10 millimeters. The coating is made from natural mother-of-pearl, which is initially ground to a powder, and then mixed with a special binder. It turns out a pearl emulsion from natural mother-of-pearl. Multi-layer indelible Shell pearl coating is a guarantee of many years of mother-of-pearl luster. Such cultured pearls are in no way inferior to the beauty of wild natural and cultured pearls. In addition, its composition is almost completely identical to the composition of real pearls. The only visual difference between Shell pearl is the incredible smoothness of the surface. The structure of wild pearls is noticeably porous.

Another of the most common and famous varieties of cultured pearls is Majorica (majorica). Many layers of natural mother-of-pearl are applied to the alabaster ball. The Spanish technology is so perfect that it is almost impossible to distinguish this type of synthetic pearl from the natural one with the naked eye. The technique was developed and perfected on the Spanish island of Mallorca for 120 years. The founder and developer of this coating technology, German emigrant Eduard Hugo Hosch, dreamed of achieving a complete external resemblance of artificial pearls to natural ones - and he succeeded! Currently, Majorica synthetic pearls are sold in large quantities all over the world and are distinguished by their excellent mother-of-pearl luster, perfect round shape and affordable price. Interestingly, under electric lighting, artificial pearls are distinguished by an unusually beautiful light refraction effect.

Which pearl is better?

Natural wild pearls are a rarity in the jewelry market today. This does not mean at all that absolutely all pearls offered to customers are artificial. In the vast majority of cases, jewelry is made from cultured pearls - this is also natural pearls, the quality characteristics of which are just as good as natural real (wild) ones. Only its cost is much lower. Real natural pearls are quite expensive - depending on the size and color, the cost can be ten times higher. Currently, a small extraction of natural pearls is carried out in Japan, in the Gulf of California. At the same time, out of 100 mollusks, you can find only 5-10 pearls of decent quality. Today, wild natural pearls are on the verge of extinction. Which, in turn, deals a powerful blow to the ecological system of the sea as a whole. To find 1 pearl, you have to kill up to 100 clams! That is why hunting for wild pearls has practically ceased all over the world. Cultured pearls are no worse, cheaper and do not destroy nature. It is so identical to the wild one that it is simply impossible for a non-specialist to distinguish it from the natural one. The natural "wild" origin of pearls is evidenced by a light, barely noticeable surface roughness and other factors.

It has long been highly appreciated by representatives of different cultures and nationalities. Regardless of gender and age, organic compounds formed in mollusk shells attract the attention of millions of collectors. The alluring shine of the matte surface, in which the power of the deep sea is “chained”, captivates the minds of people who are ready to pay unthinkable sums for exquisite jewelry with a precious stone insert.

The pearl of Lao Tzu, found in the shell of a large mollusk, is the largest organic formation of mother-of-pearl in nature. The weight of the matte white mineral is 6.5 kg, the size of the stone is 1280 carats, and the jewel is estimated at 40 million US dollars.

Extraction of natural pearls

In the 21st century, pearl deposits in nature are becoming smaller, because due to the premature collection of stones, mollusks do not survive, so their habitats become empty. Despite the demand for cultivated minerals, many synthetic imitations of an organic compound made of glass appear on the jewelry market. People who do not understand the quality of rounded “peas”, without thinking about the origin of matte balls.

However, gemologists can easily identify natural pearls, taking into account the shape, luster, color, mother-of-pearl thickness, clarity and size of gemstones. There are few natural minerals left, so the cost of genuine ones is determined by the uniqueness of the product. Since ancient times, people have mined organic mother-of-pearl formations from the bottom of the seas in the following way:

A boat with 3-4 pearl divers sets off for "open" water.
In the place of accumulation of mollusks, brave islanders dive to a depth of 15–20 meters.
Catchers are under water for about a minute, periodically rising to the surface to take air into their lungs.
From the inventory, the divers have a large basket on a rope that is attached to the boat (found shells are placed in this container), a swimming mask without a tube and a loincloth.
The use of diving equipment is prohibited by law, and 2/3 of the extracted stones are intended for the state.

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The catcher is a dangerous profession, which the inhabitants of the island states are trained from childhood. The diver has to eat little to stay underwater longer, his body is covered with wounds and devoid of subcutaneous fat due to regular exposure to salty liquid. Dangers lurk on the sea floor, sharks and other predators live in water bodies, and the thirst for profit is the main reason for the death of catchers who forget about the air reserves in their lungs. In the oceans where mollusks live, many seekers of organic treasure are buried who have not coped with one of the above factors.

Production of cultured pearls

Even in the era of technological progress, it is impossible to influence the process of mining natural pearls, so shellfish fishing is carefully monitored by the authorities of the eastern republics. If the lifting of shells from the bottom of the seas and oceans is fully automated, then the reserves of natural stones will run out within one year.

Cheap imitation pearls are made of glass - the beads are covered with a layer of essence from fish scales, visually similar to natural minerals

However, in 1896, Kokichi Mikimoto developed an innovative pearl mining technique. The Japanese artificially introduced an organic grain of sand into the shell, around which the mollusk formed a mother-of-pearl layer. This method was called cultured, because the creation of a pearl is identical to the natural process of forming an organic compound. At the same time, such stones are rated an order of magnitude lower than natural minerals. In the 21st century, on special plantations, it is widespread:

Gemstones are grown on aquatic farms designed to extract minerals.
A small area of a salty reservoir is fenced off and distributed over the area of a mother-of-pearl plantation with shells with mollusks, into which a foreign object of organic origin has been implanted in advance.
In separate "pools" young individuals grow up.
Large shells are placed on nets that balance on the surface of the water due to buoys.
The entire territory is divided into sections, each of which is subjected to a pearl collection procedure once every 7 years.
After catching the shells, the molluscs lie for 2-3 days in the sun - an imitation of heat treatment.

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Thanks to the industrial scale of cultured pearl mining, there is a variety of organic stones of various colors on the international market. Matte balls of gold, blue, black and white shades are used in the manufacture of jewelry, crushed and added to food, used in medicine. However, you can buy a natural pearl mined from the bottom of the sea only at closed auctions, where wealthy people and avid collectors are invited, who are ready to give fabulous money for.

By learning how pearls are mined, one can explain the pricing principle applied to jewelry with organic minerals. The uniqueness of the creation of a precious stone by nature in the natural habitat of mollusks is an amazing process that takes place in shells at the bottom of the oceans and seas for several years.

What are the varieties of pearls, how are they mined and how much does it cost? These questions are often of interest to people. Pearls are one of the oldest jewelry, and women wore necklaces from it several centuries before our era.

Today, the issue of pearl mining is also of practical importance due to the fact that various methods of imitation and forgery are developing, and the answer to the question makes it possible to find out some features of precious stones of different origins. Natural sea shells are becoming less and less a source of jewelry, but their artificial cultivation is quite capable of competing with nature.

Pearl features

Natural pearls are hard round-shaped formations that form inside the shells of some underwater molluscs. It belongs to the class of minerals of the group of organic compounds, and jewelers prefer to call it a precious stone. And this gem is the only one produced by a living organism from organic elements.

The formation of a pearl occurs when an extraneous solid particle (for example, a grain of sand) penetrates under the shell shells, around which the thinnest protective layers of mother-of-pearl gradually form. This substance consists of calcium carbonate in the organomineral state of aggregation (usually aragonite) and horny material - conchiolin. In general, the structure of pearls is composed of mineral and organic components, which are arranged so that the various mineral components are separated by organic ingredients and do not come into contact with each other. The process of mother-of-pearl growth takes quite a long time.

Gem properties

Pearls do not have the strength and hardness of crystalline gemstones, but have sufficient resistance to the chemical components of air and human waste, it has a unique color palette and the ability to provide a color overflow effect. Pearls differ in their shape. The most common is the round spherical variety, but there are drop-shaped, pear-shaped, oval, in the form of a bunch or irregular shape. The closer the copy is to the shape of a ball, the more popular and more expensive it is.

Important properties of natural stone are its color, brilliance and play of light (surface interference). More than 120 varieties of pearls are distinguished by color palette. The most common color is silvery white, cream, yellow and pink shades are quite common; sometimes it is possible to get green, black and blue pearls. The color depends on the composition of the water, temperature conditions, depth, i.e. from the location of the mollusk. So, for pearls mined in Indian waters, a soft pink hue is characteristic; in Ceylon waters - yellow; near Panama - golden and brown; in the Gulf of Mexico, black and reddish brown; near the Japanese coast - white and greenish mother-of-pearl, etc.

Modern pearls are divided into natural and cultured. In turn, a natural gem can be of marine or river (freshwater) origin. The cultivated variety is obtained by artificially introducing a pearl embryo into the shell, but with further cultivation in natural conditions or conditions close to marine ones, on special farms. Imitation of pearls is also noted, but this is already a completely artificial gem.

Features of the formation of pearls

Many mollusks have the ability to form pearls, but the Pinctada sea mollusks are the main supplier of jewelry. Under natural conditions, the mother-of-pearl layer is formed in a period of up to 7 years, during which thousands of the thinnest films are slowly deposited. The shape and size of the pearl depends on where the initial irritant (nucleus) is fixed. When it is located inside the tissue of the clam's mantle, you can expect the appearance of a bubble pearl of a round shape. If the location of the nucleus shifts to the inner surface of the valve, then a blister-pearl grows, attaching to the wall of the shell.

As a result of the peculiarities of formation, bubble formations, being in soft tissues, fully mature and form an optimal spherical shape, and when cut, a blister-pearl has an attachment site to the leaf, on which the mother-of-pearl layer is not fully formed. This circumstance leads to the incompleteness of the shape of the gem - a hemispherical or partially spherical variety. A defect, of course, reduces the value of the stone and leads to the need to mask the defective area in the manufacture of jewelry.

Mining of sea pearls

The value and quality of jewelry depends on how pearls are mined. For a long time, the only way to get it was the hard and dangerous work of divers (ama), who manually collected mollusks on the seabed at a depth of up to 40 m (and sometimes more). Many lives have been laid down for this beautiful stone. Currently, due to the danger of work and low productivity, the extraction has a very small share in the overall market, but it is also popular and has a huge cost compared to cultivated varieties.

Modern pearl mining from the bottom of the sea is carried out mainly in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, divers continue to work near China, India, Sri Lanka and Japan. Valuable types of gems rise near the coast of Indonesia, in the marine areas of Central America (especially in the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and near the island of Tahiti).

At the place of extraction, the gemstone has distinctive features, so it is even assigned a characteristic classification:

akoya sea pearls;
pearls of the South Seas;
Tahitian pearls.

Experienced divers take into account that different types of mollusks grow minerals of different colors. So, the Black Sea mussel is able to give out only small pearls of gray-green or gray-violet colors; tridacnae produce white and pink material; veins give purple gems; strombuses can only form light pink pearls, and maleuses - a bronze hue. The most valuable pearls of blue color with a greenish tint are mined only in the maritime zones of Indonesia.

Mining in fresh waters

Some mollusks living in fresh water bodies - rivers - are also capable of forming pearls.

The most common source of freshwater pearls are pearl clams of the Margaritana type.

Inside their two valves, they are able to grow small in size, but quite beautiful precious balls, mostly pink or grayish in color with a matte sheen, but most often irregular in shape.

Despite the lower quality compared to sea counterparts, river pearls are mined in large quantities in the rivers of the USA, Germany, England, and China.

In Russia, such a gem is mined in some northern rivers, but its quantity is not so large.

Although in the 19th century Russia sent its own freshwater pearls even for export in large quantities.

Pearl cultivation

Cultured pearls are obtained by artificial origin of the pearl and the cultivation of shellfish on marine farms. This method was first mastered at the end of the 19th century in Japan and consisted of placing a ball made of mother-of-pearl shells of river mollusks inside the shell. Now cultivation methods have improved, the nucleus is created by transplanting various types of pathogens into the gonads or mantle of molluscs.

Artificial cultivation of stones includes the following main activities:

Selection of healthy and developed oysters.
Control over them for 2 years and only at this age the introduction of the core of the pearl (the operation should last no more than 1 minute).
Two-day rest in calm water in a special tank.
Placement in sea conditions with the possibility of monitoring the state of the oyster.

Within 2 years, an oyster is able to build up a layer of mother-of-pearl 5 mm thick. In order to grow a pearl of medium diameter, it takes about 4 years, for a large gem - at least 10 years.