A clam in the shell of which pearls are formed. How shells form pearls

Pearls in a shell are unique because they are the only gemstones that are of animal (organic) origin.

The process of pearl formation in the shell of a mollusk is associated with the self-defense function of the latter. This is a kind of analogue immune system person.

For the appearance of a pearl in the shell of a mollusc, it is necessary for any foreign body to penetrate there. Further, the self-defense mechanism turns on.

Unlike the human immune system, the mollusk does not destroy a foreign object, but begins to envelop it layer by layer with a specially secreted substance, which is mother-of-pearl in the body of the mollusk. This process lasts for several decades, resulting in the sink and.

However, the pearls in the shell will not always have the shape of a ball. An important criterion for the quality of the grown pearl will be the very location of the foreign body inside the shell of the mollusc. If a foreign object is at the edge of the shell inside, then the grown pearl will have an irregular shape. Such a pearl is called a blister. The part of it that came into contact with the shell of the mollusk during growth will lack a layer of mother-of-pearl. In order for the pearls to have a regular spherical shape, evenly covered with a layer of mother-of-pearl, it is necessary that the center of growth initially be in the mantle of the mollusk.

However, not all mollusks are capable of producing pearls, the same ones that have this ability are assigned to a separate group called pearl mussels.

Types of pearl fishing in the world

Naturally formed pearls are of two types: freshwater and saltwater. The first, it is also called river pearl, is significantly inferior in price to sea pearls. This is due to three factors:

more widespread;
much easier to get;
much inferior in gloss and shape.

River pearls have their own advantages over sea pearls. It is more durable and wear-resistant, less wear and tear over time. For the extraction of freshwater pearls, an underwater mask or a special adapted pipe is enough. The latter was used in ancient times and now, rather, will look like an outlandish device. Basically, a shell with pearls is located at the bottom of freshwater rivers and lakes, and there is not one, but whole colonies there. All this greatly simplifies the collection of river pearls, which is often not difficult to carry out even for an amateur.

In contrast, professionals are engaged in the extraction of sea pearls. Firstly, a sea shell with pearls lies deep, you have to dive to a depth of 15-20 meters. Secondly, you have to dive several dozen times a day, each time staying at a depth of more than a minute.

All this requires special skills and training. Moreover, pearl divers in the sea are exposed to another danger, namely a possible meeting with a shark.

At the present time, special farms are used to collect both sea and freshwater pearls. China is famous for its "pearl farms". In this country, not only fresh waters of rivers and lakes are used for growing pearls. The former rice fields, which are flooded with water and have a comfortable microclimate for mollusks, are very popular. In such conditions, pearl oysters multiply quickly and produce quality pearls. A person can only control the living conditions of mollusks, such as the composition of the water, its temperature and the acidity factor. The pearl growth process requires the clams to be turned over at times. This will give the pearl shape more symmetry.

Cultured pearls

Despite all the difficulties and dangers, the mining of sea pearls has become so large that some deposits began to be depleted until they were completely closed. An unexpected solution to this problem appeared in the 90s. XIX century. There are several legends about how the Japanese owner of the Mikimoto oyster farm came up with the idea of growing (cultivating) pearls on special plantations. His idea proved to be successful, and now more than 90% of the pearls on the world market are cultured.

Wrong to count cultured pearls in an artificial shell. It is as natural as naturally grown pearls. Since the growth process itself also occurs in the shell of a mollusk. The only difference is this: a person places the seed inside the shell. The very process of growing a cultured pearl is quite complicated and painstaking. Its duration takes from 3 to 8 years and is constantly being improved. It is not known what the final pearl in the shell will be and how successfully the growth will end.

Currently, there are two ways to culture pearls in a shell: nuclear and non-nuclear methods.

The nuclear method of cultivation implies that a seed, a nucleus, is artificially placed in the pearl oyster. This is usually a ball measuring 6 to 9 mm in diameter. And although everything looks quite simple in the description, the procedure itself is complicated.

The first thing to do is pick up a clam for seed. It should be a young pearl mussel with a well-developed gonad, a reproductive gland that produces mother-of-pearl. Additionally, she must have a good robe. After the introduction of the nucleus, the mollusk goes to a special lagoon, where it spends the time remaining before the appearance of the pearl, in favorable conditions, and is under the supervision of a person.

Despite all this, the effectiveness of this method is not one hundred percent. The pearl oyster can discard the seed or die. If everything goes well, a centimeter pearl may grow in a year. The advantages of this method include a high growth rate and an ideal pearl shape. But there are also significant disadvantages: the actual layer of mother-of-pearl on such a pearl is usually no more than 1 mm. Hence such an ideal spherical shape. And it is difficult to call such pearls natural. You don't need to be a professional, just take a pearl in your hand and it heats up quickly. In contrast, natural pearls remain cool in the hand and feel weighty.

More complex is the non-nucleated way of pearl growth. It has become widespread in China. In this case, the seed has a tiny size. Usually it is a grain of nacre taken from the shell itself. This leads to a long-term growth process from 3 to 8 years. However, the long wait is compensated by the excellent quality that the cultured pearls in the shell have. It is not inferior to its natural counterpart, often having advantages in color and size.

Natural and cultured pearls

As you can read above, natural pearls are very rare in the world jewelry market today. This is not only due to the fact that natural pearl plantations have significantly decreased by the beginning of the 20th century. Constant improvement of pearl cultivation technology is also important. Currently, it is possible to obtain cultured pearls of the desired size and color. It should not be assumed that virtually all pearls offered to consumers today are artificial. Since if we discard artificial imitations of pearls, then in most cases the jewelry offered on the jewelry market is made of pearls grown in special conditions. And this is also a natural product, the quality of which is not worse than natural.

The only difference is the price. Real natural pearls are much more expensive. But it should be borne in mind that the extraction of natural pearls has its consequences. Currently natural in Japan as well as the Gulf of California. To get a dozen high quality pearls, you need to catch about a hundred shellfish. People should not forget about the harm they cause to nature by fishing. He is practically on the verge of extinction. This, in turn, deals a strong blow to the ecological system of the sea as a whole. Therefore, hunting for wild pearls has practically ceased all over the world.

"Each pearl is a small Moon. How does it get into the shells of mollusks? It's very simple - when on clear moonlit nights the Moon is reflected in the reservoirs, its rays acquire fluid properties, and the lunar substance," flowing down "to the bottom of the reservoirs, penetrates into the open shells and It is in these shells that divers later find pearls shimmering with matte light. " - this is how one of the most poetic legends, which the peoples of the world have enveloped in the origin of pearls, tells about the origin of pearls. But how does it actually form? And what types of pearls are there?

What is a pearl?

Pearls - round or not correct shape biogenic formation extracted from the shells of molluscs. Pearls contain in their composition the mineral aragonite (chemically it is calcium carbonate, one of its polymorphs), is valued as precious stone.

Pearl formation occurs inside shells of freshwater and marine molluscs... Almost all types of molluscs can produce pearls, however, in some representatives this phenomenon has not been revealed (shovellegs, shell-footed, monoplacophores).

The main industrial source of pearls is considered to be the shells of bivalve molluscs, both marine and freshwater, including the giant tridacna; despite the fact that its shell is devoid of a layer of mother-of-pearl, pearls of milky white or pink color are found in them.

Form pearls and mollusks belonging to the order of gastropods, in particular, blue-green, with a strongly pronounced glass luster, irregularly shaped pearls are given by representatives of the galliotis family.

How are pearls formed?

By enhancing the production of mother-of-pearl, the shellfish surrounds foreign body, smoothing out all the irregularities on its surface, turning any speck into a jewel.

When a foreign body appears in the area of the mantle, the nacre produced by these special cells envelops it in concentric layers and, thus, isolates the mollusk from the body, simultaneously creating the beginning of the future pearl. If a foreign body gets between the mantle and one of the shell valves, the pearl, as a rule, merges with its nacreous layer. When a grain of sand enters the mantle, a so-called free pearl is formed, which, as a rule, has a rounded shape.

Another prerequisite for the formation of pearls is the ingress of epithelial cells into the connective tissue of the mantle, which, by division, form a cyst ("pearl sac") and subsequently, by releasing mother-of-pearl, ensure the formation of a spherical pearl.

Pearl formation occurs in the following areas of the mollusk organism:

thickened edge of the mollusk mantle;
the muscle that closes the shell valves;
directly under the apical depression, in the upper part of the mantle.

Why are pearls different?

The shape of the pearl is influenced by its location in the shell.: if it grows on the body of a mollusk without contacting the shell valve, then its shape will be spherical, or almost spherical; if it touches the sash, it will look like a build-up as a result.

The color and luster of a pearl depends on the thickness of the mother-of-pearl layer., the thickness and transparency of the underlying layer, impurities in the aragonite, of which it consists, on the type of water, on the geographical location, on the state of the molluscs themselves, and sometimes from impurities in the water. The rarest, and, as a consequence, expensive, is considered to be blue pearls found off the coast of Indonesia.

Having a fairly complete idea of how pearls are formed, presenting in detail the mechanisms and patterns of this process, modern specialists quite successfully grow this mineral on the territories of special "plantations" by breeding pearl oysters - this method is much more effective than traditional fishing. Plantations are shallow coastal backwaters with warm water, where mollusks feel comfortable and safe - a kind of incubator.

Not relying on the grace of nature, "farmers" carefully open the shell and place the base for the future pearl in it - for this, small fragments of shells, beads and other similar items can be used.

Thus, in the body of the mollusk, the process of isolating a foreign body by covering it with mother-of-pearl is started.

Varieties of pearls distinguished according to their origin:

Natural sea pearls- the rarest and, therefore, the most expensive variety, found in the southern seas off the coast of Japan, Sri Lanka, in the Persian Gulf. The search for bivalve shells on seabed and then in them - pearls are carried by professional pearl divers. Finding a shell with a pearl is considered good luck, and beautiful, regular-shaped, smooth surfaces are quite rare prey;
Natural river pearls- a cheaper variety, since it is more common, it is easier to get, and pearls in shells are found more often, sometimes - several pieces at once. Freshwater "pearl" mollusks live in the rivers of Europe, China, America. River pearls are smaller than sea pearls, often irregular in shape, less shiny.

These two varieties are also called "natural" or even "wild" pearls.

Cultured pearls("Tamed") - in fact, the same sea, but getting it is not planned and is done purposefully, as opposed to accidental production;
Artificial pearl- these are beads imitating a mother-of-pearl mineral, covered with paint of the corresponding color; material and size can be very different.

The fastest growing pearl in the first year of its existence - up to 2-3 millimeters per year. In the future, the growth rate slows down significantly and is about less than half a millimeter per year.

The larger size of sea pearls in comparison with river pearls is explained by the more saturated biochemical composition of sea water. But river mollusks are much more "fertile".

The formation of pearls in the shell is, in essence, a protective reaction of the mollusk organism, which develops in the event of a foreign body entering the mantle or in the space between the mantle and the shell; an attempt to neutralize a foreign particle, as if to isolate oneself from it. It is this method of coping with minor annoyances that has made the shell-dwelling molluscs a subject of hunting by humans.

In ancient times, there were many versions of how pearls are formed. For example, he was sometimes considered the frozen tears of mermaids or children. Long debunked beautiful legends, but the process of the formation of the mineral continues to amaze.

Pearls are considered a stone conditionally, in order to "equalize" with other minerals. V jewelry only it is a material of organic origin. Everything else is found in the bowels of the earth.

Pearls form in the shells of many molluscs that live in salt or fresh water. However, not all are suitable for sale.

Divers used to look for precious beads. It was hard and dangerous work. It was necessary to find suitable mollusks under water and open the shells. Out of hundreds or even thousands, only a few were with pearls. The old and wealthy mining areas are found off the coast of Sri Lanka, Japan, in the Persian Gulf.

Over time, people figured out how the mineral appears, and learned how to grow it "in captivity" on special pearl farms. It is not only easier and safer, but also much more profitable.

Natural marine species are especially prized. The river is smaller, more inconspicuous, but much stronger and more practical.

Finding such pearls in a shell is easier. It grows faster and is found in rivers in Europe, China, America.

How pearls form in a shell

Only stones coated with mother-of-pearl are of commercial interest. They appear in the following types of molluscs:

Bivalve. This is the main "producer" of pearls. From freshwater, unionids are distinguished - European and Kamchatka pearl mussels. In the depths of the sea, these are mussels, scallops and many others.
Gastropods. Galiotis, giant strombus are especially active.
Cephalopods. The shell with pearls can only be found in one species - the common nautilus.

There is no mother-of-pearl in the mineral of the giant tridacna. However, it is still prized for its beautiful pink or milky color.

Education process

Not all molluscs have the right type of pearls in a shell. For a mineral to appear, a foreign particle must be in the body, for example, an insect, a grain of sand, a piece of stone. There will be a "tear" here later. Back in the middle of the 20th century, zoologist Vladimir Zhadin found out that inside the mollusk there are several zones where pearls appear most often:

the upper part of the body fold (mantle) or its thick part;
muscle covering the valves.

In its normal state, mother-of-pearl covers only the inside of the shell. If there is a foreign small object, the body reacts to this:

Nerve fibers become irritated.
Epithelial tissue begins to divide intensively. As a result, a special sac is formed - a cyst.
The mantle is forced to exude more mother-of-pearl. It is the building block for a new gem.

For the appearance of a natural mineral, foreign objects are not always needed in the body of the mollusk. Sometimes illness or injury is enough. The epithelium gets inside, and then the processes follow the same pattern.

The shape of the "tear" depends on where the formation takes place. If the mother-of-pearl concentrates on the shell or muscles, the stone will turn out to be wrong. Often these pearls take on original shapes. When formed, there will be a pea-like mineral in the mantle.

How long does a pearl grow

Pearl formation depends on several conditions:

species, age of the mollusk;
composition of water;
state of ecology.

The most active growth occurs in the first year: about 2-3 mm. Then the speed slows down - no more than 0.5 mm. The size of the pearls in the shell also depends on the age. The younger the mollusk, the larger its decoration. Over the years, the mantle of the pearl mussel weakens, so the stone becomes smaller.

A natural jewel grows in nature for an average of about seven years. On farms, this time is seriously reduced to 2-3 years.

River molluscs produce more stones. But sea pearls are about twice as large. This is due to the conditions for growth: the chemical composition and temperature of the water. The longer the bead is created, the thicker the mother-of-pearl layer on the surface and the more valuable the specimen.

Artificial education

The process by which pearls are obtained takes several years. Some specimens grow in nature for twelve years. Many people do not understand where pearls come from on the shelves in such quantities and why they are very affordable if it takes so long to grow.

Now 90% of these minerals are grown artificially. They select real live mollusks and create good conditions for them. Special pearl farms are organized.

Safe backwaters with warm water and promising types of oysters are chosen for plantations. Foreign objects such as shell pieces or beads are introduced into the shells. Sometimes the stimulus is immediately made of mother-of-pearl, which speeds up the cultivation process. Producers are immersed in nets and sent into water.

Seashells respond to anxiety in the same way they do in the wild. An additional mother-of-pearl is formed in the molluscs, which forms pearls.

The patent for the invention was received in 1896 by the Japanese entrepreneur Kokichi Mikimoto. Technologies on farms are constantly being improved, terms are being reduced. Implants are changing, their location (for the shape), growing standards.

China is the leader in the production of captive-grown pearls. They have been doing this here for about 45 years. The Chinese often use mussels, from which they collect 15-35 pearls. Each such mollusk is capable of producing up to four "harvests" during its life.

Each region has its own cultivation characteristics. Cultured pearls are divided according to where they are obtained:

Akoya. These are marine minerals grown in China and Japan. The most popular type.
Black pearls (royal). It is traded in Tahiti, but produced elsewhere as well. Most expensive variety.
Golden pearls. Received in the seas of Indonesia, Myanmar, Australia.
White pearls. Silver-lipped oysters are produced in the Philippines and some other regions. Molluscs are very moody, so getting stones is difficult. Jewelry made from such minerals are considered rare.

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Welcome curious readers! Today we'll talk about how pearls are formed in nature and what humans have learned to do in order to speed up the process, bring it to a large-scale level and not exterminate the shellfish population at the same time. Intrigued? Read all the fun below.

A bit of history

Let's start with a small excursion into ancient history. Many thousands of years ago, ancestors drew attention to an amazing treasure, mined from the bottom of the sea, with a moon shine and a regular spherical shape.

Then, not knowing where this miracle comes from, the find was compared to a tear, believing that mythical mermaids were involved in its appearance. A little later, the opinion of the ancestors changed. They firmly believed that the petrified tears of offended orphans were kept in the shells and the process was led by compassionate angels.

How does the birth of a pearl actually take place?

Naturally, the stories described are nothing more than beautiful legends. Truth has nothing to do with them. In nature, everything goes on as usual and the tears of mythical heroes have nothing to do with it. However, the process of forming a pea inside the shell is really unusual.

Scientists attribute pearls to the group of organic minerals and even consider it possible to classify them as precious stones of animal origin.

Pearls are formed inside living organisms - in the shell of bivalve molluscs. Finished peas do not need cutting or any processing. They are ready for use, harmoniously combined with both conventional medical alloy and precious metals.

How is a bead formed inside a clam and why does this happen? It's all about the "non-tightness" of the sink. Grains of sand, stones, air bubbles and drops can easily penetrate into the cracks. What does the oyster do in this case? She makes every effort to get rid of foreign object... To better understand how the process proceeds, you need to know the structure and characteristics of the mollusk.

So, the body of an oyster is in a shell. This is her home and main refuge. In a bivalve shell, it lives, matures, feeds, hides from danger and moves a little.

Inside the doors of the "house" are covered with a layer of mother-of-pearl. It is secreted by the body's mantle. Most of the time, the flaps are tightly closed, but at some moments they open slightly. At this time, small particles from the sea, ocean or freshwater river (lake) get into them.

A foreign body in the body of a mollusk is a serious threat. It is quite natural that he is trying to neutralize it with the only available method - with the help of mother-of-pearl secretion. The more the interference, the more actively the mother-of-pearl is produced. During the life of the oyster, the third particle will be covered with more and more nacreous layers and eventually become part of the mollusk - harmless to it and almost invaluable to humans.

Once, absolutely by accident, having discovered a treasure in a shell, a person for many centuries continued to use the organism of the mollusk for his own good, launching a hunt for pearls. And everything would be fine, natural selection, laws of nature and so on, if not for one "BUT". It is impossible to determine which shells contain pearls by visual signs. To get beautiful pearls, more than one hundred shells had to be opened. All this led to a decrease in the number of pearl-bearing mollusks in rivers, seas and oceans, rightly advised mankind to come up with another way of obtaining beautiful beads.

So in the 19th century, the technology of pearl cultivation was invented and patented. Today, pearls of all colors and sizes are successfully grown all over the world, without affecting the population of rare mollusks in nature.

Sea pearls and freshwater pearls: how are they different?

There is a stereotype that natural pearls are obtained by desperate divers in the depths of the tropical seas. But the truth is somewhat different. Pearls in rings, bracelets and earrings are not always a waste product of marine living organisms. Often the pearl appears in the shell of a freshwater oyster. The principle of origin of the bead in both versions is completely identical, but there is a difference between the final product, and it is significant.

Freshwater pearls, in contrast to sea pearls, are sold at a more affordable price. That is why jewelers prefer it, creating original masterpieces for a wide range of consumers.

Marine petrified mother-of-pearl "tear" is more expensive. It is grown mainly inside organisms under the names: pteria and pinctada. The shell beads of these molluscs are larger, almost perfectly spherical in shape with a magnetic satin shine.

Freshwater mother-of-pearl peas are not as perfect, smaller in size, less shiny, but easier to get and keep longer due to the durability of the mother-of-pearl layers.

For cultivators, freshwater oysters are also a way to make money faster and return on investment. Unlike marine ones, they can contain up to 20 foreign bodies at the same time, while a seashell “accepts” no more than two or three.

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

Growing natural pearls on a farm or in the natural environment definitely takes time. The person himself regulates the duration of the ripening period of the bead, stopping the process by on their own... The earlier you open the shell of a mollusk, the thinner the layer of nacre will be on the pearl.

In general, the rate of growth and maturation depends on a number of important factors:

the age of the mollusk;
place of stay;
ecological situation.

The least time required is a pearl in a sea shell. For a year, under favorable conditions, it will increase to an average of 2-3 mm. Then it will add 0.38 mm annually. Compared to river beads, sea beads are larger. This is noticeable even from the photo. The special biochemical composition of water is responsible for the size. River molluscs, meanwhile, as already noted, are less demanding on the number of pearls in the shell.

How are pearls grown in natural conditions?

The Indians mined precious pearls with hard work. Every day, they swam far into the sea or ocean and dived to the cold bottom, taking out hundreds of shells. They did not have masks, scuba gear and special clothing... But their catches were striking in scope and magnificence. Nowadays, the pearl mining process has changed. The man figured out how to make sure that he did not have to risk his life and health, while receiving a stable income.

As noted, a revolution in the world of pearl mining took place in the 19th century. The idea of cultivation (natural cultivation) came to the mind of the Japanese scientist Kokichi Mikimoto. He figured out that you can grow pearls yourself and not wait for an irritating object to fall into the shell of a clam.

To start the process of formation, oysters introduce a foreign body into the body, and depending on the desired result, it can be either ready-made mother-of-pearl beads or mantle particles borrowed from mollusks. Pearls obtained by the first method have a core. It is easy to see on an X-ray. The beads grown in the second way are called nuclear-free. They are valued above all for their complete resemblance to wild pearls.

The material obtained in this way is called cultured. There is no doubt about its naturalness, just unlike the wild one, where only nature is involved, this pearl grows with a share of human participation.

On average, with this method of creation, one pearl bead ripens for about two years if it is a freshwater mollusk and three years if it is a sea oyster. During this time, the bead acquires a presentation and size sufficient for a successful sale. In the process of maturation, the owner of the farm monitors the observance of the conditions for the life and growth of organisms.

In the world, the main large "plantations" of molluscs are located in:

Polynesia;
Japan;
Australia;
China.

Cultured pearls are grown in other countries, including Russia, but not in such volumes and mostly freshwater.

External characteristics of cultured pearls

The petrified mother-of-pearl "tear" in the shell, even if created with the participation of a person in a natural process, will have a color, shape and size depending on a number of chemical and physical conditions created for its development. Every "little thing" plays a role, starting from the place chosen for maturation and ending with the core, the habitat of the mollusk, the purity and temperature of the water, etc.

The most inexpensive pearls-blisters, rather resembling beads than the usual spherical pearl peas, are the result of the maturation of a foreign body in the area near the surface of the oyster shell. Such objects have obvious defects "bald spots" in the attachment points with the sink.

A pearl will not be in perfect shape if ripened in the muscular section of an oyster. Flawless nacreous spheres are formed only in the mantle of mollusks, therefore it is in this part that they are most often grafted.

The color saturation and radiance intensity of a pebble of animal origin depend on the following factors:

the level of surface waviness;
the thickness and number of pearl layers (the longer the pearl ripens, the more layers there are);
uniformity of the coating.

A quality "aged" pearl usually has a high light reflectance, shimmers beautifully in daylight, and has an iris. The color of pearls is not limited to the classic white and silver. Depending on the type of clam, these can be pink, cream, gray, dark green, purple, brown and even black peas.

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Team LubiKemni.

In the first half of the 20th century, a huge pearl was found near the Philippines, in appearance and dimensions similar to the head of an adult. Its weight was about 6.3 kilograms. If you believe the legends, then this pearl is nothing more than the head of Allah himself. It got this name due to its shape, which resembles the head of a Muslim in a turban.

Information about pearls can be found in sources several thousand years old - in the Indian Vedas and on Persian clay tablets. In ancient mythology, it was considered the tears of mermaids or angels. In addition, pearls are considered to be the most ancient gemstones that began to be used in jewelry, as they could be used “as is” without any additional processing.

Physical and chemical properties of pearls

Pearl is an organomineral composed of an aggregate of calcium carbonate and a horny substance, conchiolin. In other words, a limestone organic compound resulting from the protective reaction of the mollusk organism to a foreign substance.

Pearls come in various colors: cream, silver, pink, white, dark gold, and even blue and black. There are more than a hundred shades. The palette depends not only on the types of pearl mussels, but also on the place of their birth, chemical composition water and maturity of the pearls themselves. Maturity is measured in microns of the thickness of the aragonite slabs. The most brilliant, and therefore high quality, are considered layers with a thickness of half a micron. Basically, these are not river pearls, but sea pearls.

Pearls are very fragile and delicate gemstones. Its hardness is only 3-4 on the Mohs scale, and it is easily scratched with any sharp object. The density ranges from 2.6 to 2.78 g / cm 3.

Under X-ray or neutron irradiation, freshwater pearls darken to black, sea pearls reacts to irradiation only with a nucleus, remaining light outside.

It is also worth noting that pearls have their own varieties, and their names mainly come from appearance: (pastel delicate shades and irregular shapes), blister (adhered to the shell of the pearl oyster), (bright and airy thanks to the hollowness), caches (Japanese pearls "grain"), kasumi (obtained only from the lake of the same name in Japan) and the rarest pale pink conch. You can read more about all types of pearls in.

Extraction and production of pearls

Natural "wild" pearls are rarely found today and are highly prized. You can meet him either in very expensive branded jewelry, or at auctions. The most common product in ordinary jewelry stores is cultured pearls, grown by the same pearl oysters, but already under human control.

The mass cultivation of pearls was started by Kokichi Mikimoto at the end of the 19th century, when he created the first plantation. In 1893, he managed to obtain the first cultured semicircular pearl, and after another 15 years he received a patent for the technology of growing perfect round pearls. Mikimoto made an invaluable contribution to the cultivation of pearls, not to mention the fact that the baskets he developed are used on plantations and farms to this day.

The essence of cultivation is easy enough to describe: a three-year-old oyster is carefully opened and a foreign body is inserted into it. Different manufacturers use different seeds. Further, the entire natural process takes place over the next 2-3 years. This process is completely controlled. However, cultured pearls are in no way inferior in their properties to natural ones.

If we talk specifically about natural pearls, then its extraction is mainly carried out in Japan, Sri Lanka, in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Freshwater pearls are mined in Russia, North America, China and Germany.

Healing and magical properties of pearls

Natural sea pearls are a storehouse of valuable microelements, and it is this property that is most often used for medicinal purposes. Sometimes water was kept on the stone, sometimes it was ground to the state of the smallest powder, but in the end it was taken orally so that the body was saturated with all the useful substances. Today, even in mass cosmetics, this organomineral is used to strengthen hair, nails and even skin rejuvenation.

Since ancient times, pearls have been associated with beauty, innocence and sincere feelings. So, in Ancient rome it was the stone of the goddess of love and beauty Venus (even in Sandro Botticelli's painting "The Birth of Venus" the goddess stands in the fold of a huge shell).

In addition, many consider pearls to bring great luck to their owner, including financial ones. An extraordinary gem will bring harmony and peace to the heart, save you from other people's bad thoughts.

Who is pearl suitable for?

Pearls are the stone of strong and stubborn people, and therefore they can bring real benefits to entrepreneurs, athletes, and politicians. He will support them, guide them and prevent them from falling into the net of insidious vanity.

Among the signs of the zodiac, pearls are best suited to Pisces, Cancer and Aquarius. The stone is neutral towards Libra, Taurus and Sagittarius, but Aries and Virgo should, if possible, avoid it and wear it only occasionally on "special occasions."