The Jewels from the Deep!

Pearls are the gifts of nature to us. It’s amazing the way these jewels from the deep are formed. Whereas normal gems need to be polished once they are extracted from the earth pearls need no such treatment. These emerge from the oyster with an iridescence that shimmers, and is lustrous and with a soft glow that emanates naturally from its inside. A pearl forms due to the irritant that gets lodged inside a live oyster in a natural process. This irritant could be a piece of shell or a parasite. In its anxiety to get rid of the outsider the oyster secretes layers of nacre that ultimately becomes the smooth and lustrous pearl over a period of time. When you buy pearl jewelry it could be made of natural pearls or cultured ones that are formed by artificially introducing the irritant inside the oyster.

A lot of research goes into making cultured pearls that finally adorn the pretty necks, fingers or ears of ladies as pearl jewelry. This includes identifying oysters that produce superior pearls, placing of mantle tissue and then the nucleus from a freshwater mussel into the oyster and returning the nucleated oyster in nutrient rich bays for further growth of the pearls. Periodically the oysters are raised or lowered depending on the temperature and other conditions. They are also lifted, washed, treated with anti-parasite medicines and cleaned of weeds and barnacles that might be clinging to them. After several long months, the cultured pearls are finally ready for harvesting.