Pearl Farming
Learn all about the pearl farming, delving into how they are created and how they have become a beautiful jewellery box addition.
Pearls are the only gemstones grown inside of a living organism. They can be formed naturally or by human intention.
A creation of a pearl is the result of various Mollusks creating a pearl sac as a barrier to a potentially threatening irritant that might for example be a parasite trying to get inside and insure its mantle tissue
When a pearl is created by human intention A ‘nucleus’ is intentionally inserted by a pearl farmer into a shell, which stimulates the development of a pearl by the Mollusks creating a barrier of a pearl sac from the ‘nucleus’ that has been inserted.
The process of pearl farming is very speciaslist task and it is very tricky but there are also many variables that can ruin a pearl farm. Like any other form of farming, pearl farming can be as dependent on luck as it is on skill. An entire bed of oysters can be completely devastated by unpredictable and uncontrollable factors, such as water pollution, severe storms, excessive heat or cold, disease and many other natural and man-made phenomena. Although pearl farmers attempt to control as many of these variables as possible, pearl farming can indeed be a risky business!
It can take a number of years to create cultured pearls. They start from the birth of larvae to harvesting a quality cultured pearl, a multitude of meticulous processes and steps are required to achieve this. Ecological and socio-economic factors are central to producing high-quality cultured pearls.
Overall pearls can take around 2-5 years to create culture pearls. Here is a guide to all the stages that happens on a pearl farm to obtain pearls.
1. Feasibility study
2. Site selection and establishment of farm sturcture
3. Obtrain pearl oyster stock
– spat colelction
– hatchery production
– collection of adults
4. Drill and hang on chaplets or place in net containers
5. Pre-grafting culture peridot (6 months – 1 year)
6. Pre-gradting confistioning (including spawning)
7. Grafting (is when the pearl farmer introduces the nucleus to the oyster)
8. 40 day post-grafting inspection (checking that the nucleus has been inserted correctly
9. Post-grafting culture (when the pearl develops, 12 – 24 months)
10. Havest and re-implantation (re-implanted pearl oysters, removing pearls to then sell on the market)
11. Marketing of pearls
Pearls are beautiful and can be very unique and are unusal to have in a piece of jewellery. If you are ever interested in having pearls in jewellery Because of the natural form of pearls being an organic natural material pearls can be easily chipped, cracked or discoloured so this is something to be very aware of and they need good care.