A pearl is a hard, rounded object produced by certain animals, primarily molluscs such as oysters. Pearls can be used in jewelry and also crushed in cosmetics or paint formulations. Pearl is valued as a gemstone and is cultivated or harvested for jewelry. A natural gemstone is formed when an oyster is irritated by a substance that gets into its shell. If the irritation is a naturally occurring grain of sand, it is an Oriental pearl. If it is produced by purposefully inserting a mother-of-pearl bead, a cultured pearl is formed. A pearl that forms attached to the shell is a blister pearl, while a pearl that forms a half dome is a mabe (pronounced mah-bay) pearl. Pearls that are irregularly shaped rather than round are referred to as baroque.
Pearls that are most sought after are the ones produced by molluscan bivales or
clams and are nacreous and are from freshwater lakes or sea.
Pearls are valued highly for their rarity because they are produced in the wild.
Nowadays pearls are “cultured”, created with human intervention.
Today, most pearls used for jewelry are cultured by planting a core or nucleus into pear oyster.
A pearl is formed by calcium carbonate deposit which had been collected and been formed within the soft tissue of a shelled mollusk, such as an oyster, clam or mussel.
China is now the largest producer of akoya pearls, once dominated by Japan. Japan does not produce akoya pearls, which is smaller than 8 mm and it remains a large processor of China\'s akoya pearls. South Sea pearls mainly come from Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Black pearls are found in Tahiti and are very rare.
