Freshwater Pearl culturing is recognized as having the longest lineage in pearling. Evidence of culturing freshwater pearls in China goes back almost four thousand years to the times of the pyramids in Egypt.
Freshwater pearls offer a variety of colors that saltwater pearls cannot match. Due to the low cost of freshwater pearl farming in China, price points are often the lowest found in cultured pearls.
These two factors combine to make freshwater pearls an affordable yet preferred choice for many pearl lovers. Freshwater cultured pearls are generally produced without the insertion of a shell-bead nucleus. They are produced by grafting small pieces of mantle tissue from a donor mussel, into the mantle of a host shell. The host is returned to the water for up to six years. Upon harvest, the shell is opened to reveal the treasure contained within. This can be up to as many as 40 pearls, but most only produce about half. Nearly all freshwater pearls are baroque or off-round in shape, with true gem quality accounting for a small fraction of one percent of total production.
In recent years, shell-bead nucleation has been introduced to freshwater pearl culturing. The latest harvests reveal some very positive results, including round and fire-ball shaped freshwater pearls that rival some south sea pearls in size, but often display intense colorations and overtones found in no other genre of pearl.
Pearl culturing in China is changing and improving with new innovations and procedures that are creating even more choices for consumers.
You can be confident that here at ThePearler.com we are keeping a close watch on these new techniques, and we will always offer the newest in quality pearls available.
