After many years of development the first fully round Cultured Pearls hit the market commercially in the early 1920’s-and boy did they make a splash!

The basic process, developed through a series of patents and eventual amalgamation of techniques by Mikimoto, originally used wild oysters being fished from Japanese waters. Today, baby oysters-known as Spat, are bred in glass tanks in laboratories, specifically for Pearl Culturing.

When the Spat are large enough to survive in the wild they are transferred into baskets suspended by rafts in the culturing waters until reaching maturity.

Once carefully opened, a bead nucleus wrapped in a small piece of tissue-or graft from the edge of another mature oyster is introduced into the soft mantle tissue by a highly skilled technician know as a “Grafter”, The shell is then closed and the oyster returned to the sea.

Through experimentation, the nucleus found to give the best result was a mother of pearl bead produced from the shell of the mussel native to the Mississippi River.

After nucleation, the oysters are initially kept in shallow waters. Several weeks later they are transferred to moored suspension rafts, which keep the molluscs contained in nets at the depth at which the temperature is conducive for best nacre production.

The netted oysters are tended and nurtured; checked for parasites and generally kept in good health.

The longer the oysters are kept suspended the better quality the resulting pearls, unfortunately this also means an increase in the possibility of oyster loss through natural hazards such as infection, which results in fewer and correspondingly higher priced pearls.

Actual culturing times can vary from a few months to several years. Harvesting is carried out during the coldest time of the year, when the lustre of the pearl is at its best.

When the farmer considers the time is right the Oyster is removed from the sea, opened and the pearl carefully extracted. It is only then the farmer can see if all his hard work has paid off.

For decades this technique of Culturing Seawater or Akoya Pearls was seen as a national treasure and kept a closely guarded secret by Mikimoto, who emerged as the kingpin of the industry and one of the worlds first branding and marketing wizards.

Eventually other Japanese discovered the culturing techniques and started their own production. It took many years before the secret finally leaked out to other nations-notably and inevitably China, who have been now been producing Akoya Pearls of ever increasing quality for almost 20 years.

Oyster: Pinctada Martensi
Shapes: Round and Baroque (irregular), occasionally drop shape.
Sizes: From approximately 2 mm to 10mm - rarely larger.
Colours: White, (overtones from pink through yellow and green) Yellow, Black and Grey tones in various shades. These dark tones are usually dyed but can be natural colours.
Locations: Japan, China Vietnam, and Venezuela