Pearls: Freshwater or Saltwater?
Most people when they imagine a pearl are picturing perfectly round, smooth spheres, with an iridescent creamy white appearance. In fact pearls come in many different shapes, sizes and colours and to find one that is completely round is almost unheard of, let alone a whole string that are all identical. Natural pearls are the rarest and most highly valued variety, but nowadays most pearl jewellery is made from cultured or farmed pearls, which are grown on pearl farms across the world by inserting a bead nucleus inside an oyster or mussel shell to encourage the formation of a pearl. Apart from whether a pearl is cultured or natural the other major varieties are the saltwater or freshwater pearl, each of which have their own qualities.
Saltwater pearls are found in pearl oysters which live in the ocean, and produce the classic round white or cream pearls that have remained so desirable and sought after throughout history. Comparing farmed pearls, saltwater pearls are often rounder than those from freshwater molluscs because they are usually formed by artificially placing a rounded nucleus inside the oyster’s shell to enhance the shape. The popular Japanese Akoya pearl is a cultured saltwater pearl and is much sought after for its large size and relatively regular shape, making them more expensive than the freshwater variety. Although there are still some natural saltwater pearls, they are much less common nowadays due to pollution in the seas.
The most common type of pearl available today are freshwater pearls, which are mostly produced in China using freshwater mussels and come in a huge variety of shapes, sizes and colours. The natural colours of freshwater pearls are various shades of white, pink, cream and lilac but they can be easily dyed any other colour to be used for jewellery. Freshwater pearls are easier to farm succesfully than saltwater pearls, and for this reason they are slightly cheaper to buy, though it is rare for them to be perfectly round and a necklace of cultured freshwater pearls will hardly ever be all the same size and shape.