The Pearl Girl’s Pearl Collection: An Intro to Tahitian, South Sea, Akoya, Freshwater, and Natural Pearls
You know the little guy in The Lord of the Rings who says “Myy precioussss!” all the time? Every time I look at my collection of pearls–or just the box, even–I hear his voice. Scary, isn’t it?
ABOVE: These are beauties I’ve harvested myself from the Akoya pearl oysters that my Dad sends me from time to time. It’s messy work (and I’ve sliced my thumbs a time or two!), but I can’t tell you how much I love harvesting my own pearls and being the first person to see them. It’s like delivering pearl babies!
I’m not sure why I’ve always been such a pearl fan. I’m a girly girl, maybe it’s as simple as that. My grandmother wore pearl jewelry but not until I was older, and my mother is almost as crazy about them now as I am, but I didn’t grow up coveting pearls like some little girls do. It was a couple of years after college that the bug bit, so to speak, and I’ve been reveling in my pearl addiction ever since. When friends call me “pearl girl,” they might as well be calling me “Your Majesty.” Ha! I love it.
Wild Pearls or Natural Pearls?
I made an effort during recent Tucson trips to round out some missing pieces in my pearl collection, natural pearls mostly, and I’m always shopping for fun shapes of baroques. Now the only openings left on my list are a melo pearl (which honestly will probably never happen–I’m not crazy enough about them to part with that much moola) and a conch pearl, which I’d probably give up chocolate for, if there was an offer.
(Update: I finally found the right conch pearl for me–and my friend and gemstone mentor Shawn helped me get a great deal, so I can still have chocolate!) Some of the other natural pearl types–scallop pearls, quahog pearls, etc.–just aren’t “pearly” enough for me to want them, though they’re unique and beautiful in their own ways.
They’re certainly rarer and generally more valuable, but natural pearls also seem to have a sense of magic about them that cultured ones don’t always have. A couple of years ago in Tucson I attended a lecture called “Sex and the Wild Pearl” (who could pass that up??). During her speech, Yolanda Ortega Stern spoke about her book and growing up with incredibly large, natural pearls that weren’t prized then, though their shells were. Can you imagine?
Natural pearls are ones that were not nucleated by man but that developed on their own, thanks to the oyster or mollusk that grew them. However, the term “natural” is often used to describe pearls (and many other things) incorrectly, meaning anything from “genuine” to “naturally colored.” So Stern adopted the term “wild” to distinguish truly natural pearls that are in no way cultured (nucleated by man). I think it’s the perfect choice.
She told wonderful tales about her grandmother keeping a trunk full of the discarded wild pearls that her shell-fisherman grandfather found. When she said they had such a glow about them that the children used them to see by during the night, I was amazed. So beautiful.
I was swooning the whole time, but one part of Stern’s lecture really touched me, pearl lover that I am. She spoke about how many people say that a pearl forms when the creature (the oyster or mollusk) coats an irritant with nacre. That’s the common story that everyone hears, right?
But Stern didn’t quite believe that was the whole story. Because if that’s all there is to it, she asked, why doesn’t the creature stop coating the intruder once its smooth, sufficiently coated and, presumably, no longer irritating?Her belief is that the creature continues releasing the nacre and forming the pearl because somehow, it knows it should. She believes it knows that it is its destiny to do so. That just about made me cry and I’m going to believe it forever.
My Pearl Collection
I like any opportunity to write about gemstones, and since I’ve referenced my pearl collection so often, a few of you have asked to see the precioussses. I’m happy to oblige! I never like to play favorites with my pearls, but if I did, it would be these–and these are just loose ones, mind you. Don’t get me started on my pearl jewelry!
First are some of the natural pearls, which were formed with no help from man, no nucleus.
The tiny pearl, above, is a natural Baja pearl. It’s teeny, 2mm or less (smaller than a peppercorn!), but oh-so-rare. (Could you find something so tiny?) It has a gorgeous natural green color that I don’t see often in pearls.
Here’s a natural abalone pearl with the beautiful color variations abalone is known for. Most of them are shaped like claws or teeth, in my opinion, so I chose this one for its more pearl-like shape.
The double-heart pink pearl on the left, above, is a natural pearl from the Mississippi River freshwater mollusk Cyclonaias tuberculata. The lumpylittle pink thing on the right is also natural pearl from the Mississippi River, from a Tennessee Heelsplitter mollusk (Lasmigona holstonia). These are so uncommon that they don’t even have common names like South Sea or abalone pearls. They’re rare and lovely parts of my collection.
I’m fascinated by the shape of these lumpy stick and feather pearls. The one on the far right looks like a mermaid with long hair and her hands behind her back. Can you see it? I see shapes in pearls, just like with clouds.
These are natural freshwater “angel wing” pearls from the Kentucky Lake portion of the Tennessee River west of Nashville. I purchased the two smaller ones on top. The larger one on the bottom was given to me by Diver John, who harvested it, when I visited a pearl farm there. What a gift, made even more special by the recipient being the one who found it. Such incredible odds!
Keshi Pearls and Cultured South Sea, Tahitian, and Freshwater Pearls
Some of the following pearls are either keshi, which were not cultured and nucleated by humans, but happened to form in the same mollusk with cultured, nucleated pearls–so we can’t consider them completely natural. The others are human-initiated by the insertion of a bead, piece of shell, a piece of tissue, or other nucleus inside the mollusk; grown for months or years in pearl farms, and then harvested.
At first I didn’t like the idea of carving pearls. It seemed a shame to carve into that beautiful nacre, but then I realized it’s most often blemished ones that are carved, and it gives them a value they probably wouldn’t have otherwise. This is a South Sea pearl; Tahitians are carved as well.
This is just a big beautiful round white pearl from Burma. I love her.
The nubby ones above are Chinese freshwater rosebud pearls. I’m not sure how they got that name, because they look nothing like rosebuds to me. I probably would’ve named them peony or popcorn pearls.
These lovelies above are a pair of circled or circlé Paspaley South Sea pearls given to me by a dear friend. They were given to me as a gift for caring for her two beautiful fluffy white pups. Now every time I see the smaller ends of these pearls, I think of the pups’ noses. Paspaley pearls, farmed in Australia by the Paspaley family, have quite a pedigree and are considered the finest South Sea pearls in the world. I’m thrilled to own these and grateful for the very special gift.
These pearls remind most people of cats, but they’re pigs in my mind. The one on the left is a South Sea pearl; it’s a Chinese freshwater on the right.
The pearl above is a Chinese freshwater keshi pearl that looks so much like a butterfly to me. Keshi pearls are an interesting combo of natural and nucleated. They’re sort of byproduct pearls, found with nucleated pearls and presumed to be accidentally nucleated by an errant piece of tissue. So it’s hard to make the call whether they’re nucleated or not; that could be why this term is so misused.
These are Chinese freshwater keshi “cornflake” pearls on the left and Chinese freshwater feather pearls on the right, above. Their names fit them well, don’t you think? The colors, iridescence, and texture in these feather pearls makes them so unique and interesting to me.
It’s hard to tell in the photo, but this is the bluest (naturally blue) pearl I’ve ever seen. It’s a Tahitian that I thought I lost–not only lost, but I thought I threw it away, which broke my heart. But then I found it!
Doesn’t this South Sea pearl look like an acorn?
These shaped pearls are so fun. One looks like a four-legged animal with his head down–a horse, maybe? That’s a Chinese freshwater. The one at the top is also a Chinese freshwater; it’s my exclamation point pearl, since I can be a little dramatic sometimes, and below that is a South Sea pearl that looks like a snowman from a different angle. That big heart one is a Chinese freshwater keshi pearl with gorgeous color and iridescence.
These are pinkish-cream South Sea pearls on the left and peacock-colored Tahitian pearls on the right, both of which have become more common in the market during recent years.
This big fireball pearl is most likely Chinese freshwater. It’s full of color and iridescence with a creamy white pearl end–best of both worlds. Plus it’s huge! I had to make it a pendant.
This is a Chinese freshwater pearl (front and back), but it’s packed with so much vivid color that I couldn’t pass it up. It has pinks and purples on one side, greens and purples on the other, and gold overtones all around. What it lacks in shape it made up for in color! It’s hard to imagine that there was no market for pearls like this just a few years ago. I wonder what became of all those unusual pearls, before designers created a demand for them?
I could go on and on! My pearl collection is definitely one of my favorite subjects to geek out on. But don’t just take my word about them; you can learn more about the lovely pearl and all kinds of gemstones in our gem resources. Check out timeless issues of Colored Stone magazine in the 2005-2006 Colored Stone Collection CD and the 2009-2010 Colored Stone Collection CD. You can learn about setting all kinds of gems in jewelry in Gemstone Settings: The Jewelry Maker’s Guide to Styles & Techniques by Anastasia Young.
Resources: Most of my pearls come from Kojima Pearl and American Pearl Company.
Updated April 2019.
Join the Conversation!