The poor things have had a random freshwater pearl shoved into them. The operator buys pickled oyster shells from either a wholesaler in the UK or America or direct from china. You can have them in a box, with a silver tone finding for $1.30 (min order 100) The pearl was feeling-a-bit-chilly faint blue By the time around two years ago the akoya wholesalers were well wise to demand and those untreated pastel shades strands had shot up in priceĪmongst the other pastel shades were faint blues.

Within a couple of weeks they had all gone. But these pastel colours, well, that was me and I bought several strands just to see what they were like and if my pearl loving customers would love them. I had avoided the white and shineys…simply other sellers could hold stocks of all the variations of white, size, grade etc and do it better than me. They were also very cheap compared to their white relatives. They were sort of under the counter or right at the end, sort of an apology, next to the seas of white and round and shiny. The first natural colour untreated akoya pearls appeared at Hong Kong. Then around five years ago akoya growers and dealers started to notice that freshwater pearls were selling by the hank in natural colours, not dyed or treated. That is how akoya pearls had been for decades. Pesky pale pastel colours were bleached and then usually a delicate pink blush was added. Until quite recently akoya pearls were white and round and that was that. Blue pearls are possible in every pearl type – akoya, South Sea, Tahitian and freshwater. While the donor tissue secretes the pearl it is the host which keeps the donor tissue alive. And this process looks for the best and healthiest hosts – and thus to optimise the general stock on the farm. The obvious flaw to this is that, of course, the donor tissue inside the oyster which has produced the pearl is not related (except distantly) to this specific oyster, but it is reckoned – practically – that a pearl is 80% donor mantle and 20% host. The oysters which have produced such pearls are used to provide donor mantle tissue for the next generation. It will be scrutinised for quality and size – colour, lustre, clean surface and is it over 7mm. These shells will be more carefully opened and the pearl inside extracted carefully. Some of the oysters are selected out at this stage as possible donors. The farm I visited produces pearls from 7mm down to a minute 1.5mm in a range of colours from white to gold and shades of blue and violet to purple The ‘Cement mixer’ after the washing process – only random bits of shell and the tiny 1.5mm akoya pearls remain

Wow golden classic pearl farming