Natural pearls are formed when a shell fragment, parasite, or grain of sand enters the pearl oyster’s shell. The oyster, in order to protect itself from this irritant, begins to coat the fragment with a substance called nacre. After many, many layers of this nacre coating build up over time, a beautiful lustrous pearl emerges. Different types of oysters around the world create different types and colors of pearls.
Cultured pearls are formed in the same manner as natural pearls, with one basic difference. Instead of a shell fragment of grain of sand starting the nacre coating process in the wild, man intervenes by placing a bead nucleus and mantle tissue in the pearl forming area of the oyster. This allows the resulting cultured pearls to be supplied in consistent sizes and nacre qualities.
Pearls can be found in many different shapes from the wild and wonderful freeform pearl to the perfectly round pearl. There are very few pearl lines that specialize in selecting only the most perfectly round pearls for their designs. Mikimoto is one of those lines and we have the pleasure of carrying a wide variety of them.
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