Natural vs Cultured Pearls

Everywhere you go in store or online for pearl jewelry you almost always see advertised "real pearls" or "real freshwater pearls" and chances are the jewelry designer may not know any better than you do when it comes to knowing what that means. This is not out of malice; people aren't talking about pearls as much. Pearls are far more complicated than diamonds and probably the largest mass-produced gemstone. Led to believe because they're real they must be of high quality. Let's break this down as easy as possible:

NATURAL & CULTURED PEARLS

Natural pearls form in the bodies, or mantle tissue, of certain mollusks, usually around a microscopic irritant, and always without human help of any kind. Simply put, they occur naturally and found in nature.

Cultured pearls require human intervention and care. Today, most of the mollusks used in the culturing process are raised specifically for that purpose, although some wild mollusks are still collected and used but always cared for by humans on pearl farms. 

Majority of pearls on the market are cultured pearls and majority of cultured pearls are freshwater.

HOW CULTURED PEARLS ARE FARMED

To begin the process, a skilled technician takes mantle tissue from a sacrificed mollusk of the same species and inserts a shell bead along with a small piece of mantle tissue into a host mollusk’s gonad, or several pieces of mantle tissue without beads into a host mollusk’s mantle. 

If a bead is used, the mantle tissue grows and forms a sac around it and secretes nacre inward and onto the bead to eventually form a cultured pearl. If no bead is used, nacre forms around the individual implanted mantle tissue pieces. Workers tend the mollusks until the cultured pearls are harvested.

PEARL TYPES

Freshwater Cultured Pearls are the most commonly produced pearls, and they are one of the most popular pearl types among shoppers and jewelry designers. This is due to their remarkable range of sizes, shapes and colors, plus their commercial availability at lower price points. They are usually cultured in freshwater lakes and ponds (pearl farms), often with many pearls grown in one oyster. China is the leading source for freshwater cultured pearls. 

Akoya Cultured Pearls are the most familiar type of saltwater cultured pearl to most people in the U.S and other western markets. Many customers think of white or cream colored akoyas as the classic pearl used for jewelry, especially single-strand necklaces. Japan and China both produce akoya cultured pearls.

South Sea Cultured Pearls - Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines are leading sources of these saltwater cultured pearls. South Sea cultured pearls can be white to silver or golden, depending on the type of oyster. Their large size and thick nacre, due to a long growth period, plus their limited critical growing conditions are all factors contributing to their value.

Tahitian Cultured Pearls - Cultivated primarily around the islands of French Polynesia (the most familiar of these is Tahiti). These saltwater cultured pearls, sometimes referred to as black pearls, have a wide color range. They might be gray, black or brown, and they can have blue, green, purple or pink overtones.

Natural Pearls are much rarer and, therefore, much more valuable.

NOTE: Cultured Saltwater pearls are more expensive than cultured freshwater pearls because the saltwater oyster typically only produces one pearl at a time. Freshwater mussels can produce up to 30 pearls at a time. This combined with the higher labor costs in Japan for cultured saltwater pearls creates a more expensive pearl. 

Source: GIA