De Zuidzee Parel Blog

  • juni 07, 2022

    Understanding colour in cultured pearls is fascinating.

    Understanding colour in cultured pearls is fascinating.
    Understanding colour in cultured pearls is fascinating. The causes are varied, namely organic pigments and the chemistry related to the water reservoir where the pearl shell is grown (for example, sea water and freshwater have different manganese concentrations with impact on the color of the nacre). The pearl mollusc species is, of course, one of the most important factors in this process, specially the donor specimen that provides the mantle tissue graft (known as saibo) that is inserted in the gonads or mantle (depending on the culturing method) of a productive pearl mollusc for the formation of the cultured pearl sac. Experiments in xenotransplantation (meaning graft from one species in host mollusc of another species) have demonstrated that colour is controlled mostly by the genetic characteristics of the graft in cultured pearls. Still there with me after some pearl jargon?
    Lees verder
  • februari 18, 2022

    What do you know about Mabe Pearls?

    What do you know about Mabe Pearls?
     For a pearl product to be called a pearl it needs to be formed inside a pearl sac in the interior of pearl producing mollusc. A cultured pearl is basically the same, but resulting from human intervention. When a pearl sac, that is a closed cell membrane, is not involved, the gem material is not a pearl, but something else.
    The so-called mabe pearls (or hankei pearls) are great examples for this as, technically, these are not pearls in the sense that they do not grow inside a pearl sac. In fact, these are protuberances in the shell’s nacreous interior that form as a consequence of a human-instigated process, being defined as cultured blisters. To be used in jewellery, these cultured shell blisters are worked, cut from the shell (soft nuclei removed), the interior filled with a hardened substance and finished with a mother-of-pearl cap glued to the base, making it an assembled product. Hence, a more correct designation would be assembled cultured blister.
    The name “mabe” comes from the Japanese vernacular for Pteria penguin (mabe-gai), a pearl producing mollusc that was originally used to grown these cultured blisters, and it has been used as a more romantic trade name for similar products from other molluscs.

    Lees verder
  • januari 08, 2022

    🧐 Hoe maakt Oyster gekleurde parels?

    🧐 How do Oyster makes colored pearls? | The South Sea Pearl

    Hoe maakt Oyster gekleurde parels?

    Dit is een vraag die bij velen opkomt wanneer ze de wereld van parels beginnen te ontdekken, aangezien traditioneel werd gedacht dat de natuurlijke kleur van parels wit is.
    Al vele jaren is het zo, met Akoya parels uit Japan, zoetwaterparels in China en de felbegeerde Australische parels.
    Maar er zijn andere parelkleuren, zoals de gouden parels van de Zuidzee in de Filippijnen of Indonesië, of de zwarte parels van Frans-Polynesië, waarvan de natuurlijke kleur niet wit is.

    Waarom hebben parels deze kleur?

    Er is een soort oester genaamd Pinctada Maxima, die in sommige delen van de wereld, zoals de Filippijnen of Indonesië, gouden lippen heeft. De parel, wanneer gevormd, absorbeert het gouden parelmoer en neemt die kleur aan.
    Hetzelfde proces vindt plaats met de zwarte parels van Tahiti, maar in dit geval met de Pinctada Margaritifera-oester, in Frans-Polynesië.

    Een andere factor die de kleur van parels kan beïnvloeden, zij het in mindere mate, is de temperatuur van het water en hoe schoon het is. Om parels een mooie kleur te geven, moet het water extreem schoon zijn.



    Lees verder