Pearls- It's a Cultural Thing

by Judy Ellis

Today I want to share a few interesting facts about pearls. You see, I'm very interested in Victorian and Edwardian times, and I was reading the other day that it was during this time period that the pearl was "cultured."

Imagine pearls we take for granted today.

Once unaffordable for bridal headpieces, corsages, or elegant nights out.

Kokichi Mikimoto, father of the cultured pearl, changed that. He started production in 1916 near World War I's start.

This innovation transformed late Edwardian jewelry design.

By the 1950s, pearls were so accessible every classic housewife needed a necklace.

Just 50 years prior, each strand cost thousands after painstaking assembly.

Japanese researchers Tokichi Nishikawa and Tatsuhei Mise developed pearl culturing before Mikimoto.

They inserted mollusk tissue into another mollusk to trigger pearl formation.

Their method produced only mabe pearls, hemispherical with a flat back for earrings.

Mikimoto modified it slightly for fully round pearls and secured his patent.

His success led him to buy their rights and earn pioneer status.

(Note: Some claim they learned from William Saville-Kent in Australia, questioning independent discovery.)

Before cultivation, Chinese pearls came from freshwater rivers and ponds.

Japanese pearls were saltwater from the coast.

Asia wasn't the only source.

The New World had pearls too.

English and French explorers found Native Americans wearing them.

They discovered freshwater pearls in the Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee River basins.

Spain focused on the Caribbean, Central, and South America. They forced locals to dive for pearls.

The U.S. excelled in freshwater pearls, prized in European collections.

Iowa led a thriving mother-of-pearl button industry until World War II plastics took over.

Today, the U.S. stays key in pearls, beyond native ones.

Pearl pioneers like Mikimoto tested nuclei: gold, silver, glass, lead, clay.

Best results used round beads from U.S. mussel shells.

For over a century, American mussels form the nucleus for nearly all cultured saltwater pearls worldwide.

Pearls have been treasured for thousands of years.

Records date back to at least 2200 BC in China's Shu King text. It describes small kingdoms sending pearls as tributes to the great king.

Ancient civilizations in Egypt, Rome, Greece, Byzantium, the Middle East, and India valued pearls as symbols of wealth and beauty.

Even Scotland has native pearl-producing mollusks, now protected by law.

Imitation pearls can be made from materials like mother-of-pearl, coral, or conch shell.

Some are simply glass beads coated with a fish-scale solution to mimic a pearly sheen.

Faux pearls lack the same bright luster, weight, and smoothness of genuine pearls.

You may also come across Swarovski pearls these are imitation pearls with a crystal core, coated in a special finish unique to Swarovski (the exact formula remains a company secret).

Here's what I've learned about pearl formation.

Nearly any shelled mollusk can produce a pearl. Only a few create gemstone-quality ones for jewelry.

Today, two main types make iridescent nacreous pearls: freshwater mussels and saltwater pearl oysters.

Pearls form when an irritant enters a mussel or oyster.

It can't escape, so the mollusk coats it with nacre, the same material used for its shell.

(Imagine turning every eyelash in your eye into a pearl. You'd be rich!)

Cultured pearls start when farmers cut a small slit in the mollusk and insert tiny tissue pieces.

I hope you enjoyed this look at pearl "culture!" Happy birthday to any June-born readers, and I hope you discovered something you didn't know about your June birthstone, pearl!

Pearls- It's a Cultural Thing

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