At one time not too long ago, Freshwater pearl necklaces would be made of keshi pearls, those little pearls that look like rice krispies. Even though the Chinese were making some cultured pearl Buddhas around 600AD, when they entered the pearl culture world in the last century, they began with nothing.
With perseverance of dedicated capitalists, they kept growing pearls and getting better results year after year. Finally the best freshwater pearl, in my mind, rival the higher priced akoya pearls.
The real beauty in a fresh water pearl necklace is the nacre. Because of differences in pearl culturing, from different mollusks to different techniques of starting the pearl, Freshwater pearls are solid nacre; whereas, in the saltwater pearl culturing, the technique is to take a “mother of pearl” bead and implant it very carefully into an akoya oyster’s gonad. They must do it carefully because this surgery often kills the mollusk, and the mollusk even at this point reflects a substantial investment.
The culturing of the freshwater mussel, requires taking small pieces of mussel mantle, this is the soft membrane of the mussel that is the layer in direct contact with the shell. The technique itself is much less invasive, and hardly ever kills the animal. Because of the relatively non-invasive nature of the culturing, these mussels are able to be grafted many times.
The akoya pearl oyster is only able to handle up to a maximum of 4 or 5 pearls before death. The freshwater process is able to get 40 to 50 pearls per mussel. And this in its own right is one reason for the inexpensive price. And that many freshwater pearl farms are also the family’s fish and duck pond, tripling its use. China’s pearl production is measured in metric tons.
Finally, the point to examine the reason why freshwater pearls are less expensive than salt water pearls. The big reason is the quantity of pearls produced versus the cost of production.
Salt water production is more expensive because of the reasons above, and also when storms hit or red tides, or desalination of the area because of heavy rain, small temperature changes can destroy a pearl farm.
The saltwater is a coating of nacre on the “mother of pearl” bead. This is important for a couple of reasons. The lower grades of akoya pearl nacre can chip and crack; whereas, a solid nacre pearl cannot crack and chip.
Another thing a solid pearl has is the beautiful pearl feature called orient. Orient is the subtle shimmering color that looks like the way that oil looks when poured on water, or the look of gasoline. It is the natural rainbow that shines through on Freshwater pearl.
The thinner nacre of a low quality akoya pearl can’t produce the orient; because, orient only happens when the nacre is very thick as in freshwater pearl necklace.
Freshwater pearl price price is only a fraction of saltwater pearls price. The improvements in culturing have brought major improvements in quality. Freshwater pearls of the higher quality are indistinguishable from higher prices akoyas. They are a really great bargain.
Freshwater pearls are becoming more and more popular look at the good looks and value our pearl jewelry.
By Patrick Cavanaugh