As classic as your little black dress, every girl should have a string of pearls and pearl stud earrings.

The Akoya pearl is the most familiar type of cultured pearl. Grown in pearl oysters off the coast of Japan, Akoya pearls are created by inserting a nucleus (small shell bead) into the oyster. The oyster becomes irritated by the foreign substance and begins to secrete nacre to cover the material. On the average the pearl spends one to four years in the oyster and grows to between 6 mm to 9mm in size. Even though pearls are harvested en masse on pearl farms, producing a quality pearl is an extremely rare event. It is estimated that half of all nucleated oysters do not survive — and of those that do, only 20% bear marketable pearls.

Akoya pearls are usually larger, smoother, rounder, and more lustrous than Freshwater pearls, which can grow in similar size and shape.

Tags: 6 mm, 9mm, Akoya pearls, classic, cultured pearl, Freshwater pearls, little black dress, nacre, oysters, Pearl, pearl farms, pearl oysters, pearl stud earrings, shell bead, string of pearls

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Types of Pearls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.