Pearl Guide

Abalone Pearls Defined
Abalone Pearls are natural pearls found in the gastropod mollusk Haliotis. The shells and pearls are most often an iridescent blue color, and the most common shape for pearls are baroque and "horn".

Abalone Shells from Mexico and the United States

Abalone Pearls: Some of the Most Beautiful Pearls in the World
Abalone pearls are considered by many to be some of the most beautiful pearls in the world, and they are also some of the rarest. Abalone pearls come from the...

South Sea Pearls Defined

A South Sea pearl is pearl produced by the Pinctada maxima mollusk. They are currently cultured in areas throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans, primarily in Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Myanmar.

South Sea Pearls - Among The Largest In The World

South Sea pearls are among the largest commercially harvested cultured pearls in the world. The average size of a South Sea pearl is 13 mm, with most harvests producing a range of sizes from 9 mm to 20 mm...

Mabe Pearls Defined
A Mabe pearl is a worked and assembled blister pearl (attached to the shell). It is typically of hemispherical shape and is grown against the inside of the oyster's shell, rather than within its soft tissues. Natural blister pearls are commonly found in nature.

Cultured Mabe Blisters on their shells. Photo courtesy of Dr. César Lodeiros and his research team in Ecuador.

Are Mabe Pearls Rare?
Mabe pearls are not considered rare or highly valuable, except those grown in...

Keshi Pearls Defined
A keshi pearl is a non-beaded pearl formed by accident, as a by-product of the pearl culturing operation.

Akoya Keshi Pearls

How Keshi Pearls Are Formed
Keshi pearls are formed when the oyster rejects and spits out the implanted nucleus before the culturing process is complete, or the implanted mantle tissue dislodges and forms a separate pearl sac without the nuclei. These pearl sacs eventually produce pearls without a nucleus.

Keshi Pearls Can have Salt or...

Tahitian Pearls, The Early Years

Tahitian pearls retained popularity throughout the South Pacific as a gem of beauty and rarity, but the pearls were, for much of their early years, unheard of in Western markets.

Jean-Claude Brouillet Starts a Tahitian Pearl Farm

It was not until businessman Jean-Claude Brouillet purchased a South Marutea atoll and started a Tahitian pearl farm in 1975 that Tahitian pearls began to infiltrate the world market.

Brouillet began working with a well-known...

Culturing Tahitian Pearls
By Josh Humbert of Kamoka Pearls (KamokaPearls.com).

Tahitian pearls are cultured in lagoons surrounded by atolls in French Polynesia using the Pinctada margaritifera mollusk (pearl oyster).


Collecting the Baby Oysters

Oysters start their lives as free-swimming plankton in the lagoon. After three weeks of swimming, they begin to grow shells and search for a surface onto which they can attach. Farmers set out collectors during strategic times of year (usually...