What is white round and reminds us of the sea? Pearls of course, and how amazing are pearls now a days with the amazing colors, shapes and even faceted ones that are being produced today. Here is some insight into how freshwater pearls are created vs. saltwater pearls.

Natural freshwater pearls pccur from mussels for the same reason saltwater pearls occur from oysters. Both create nacre around foreign objects, this is the same material it uses to build shell. Freshwater pearls were originally cultured in Japan in a lake named Biwa. The pearls from lake Biwa were being commercialized starting in the 1930’s. Biwa pearls were known and even rivaled the saltwater pearl for being all nacre made and having deep colors that were unseen in saltwater pearls.

Cultured freshwater pearls did not stop there Even though World War II interrupted the flow of Lake Biwa pearls, by the 1950s strands sold in Japan as less expensive, colorful alternatives to the mainstay material, cultured saltwater pearls. Biwas’ success and publicity were so effective that until a few years ago, all freshwater pearls were routinely referred to as “Biwas.”  As Biwa production diminished, China filled the vacuum. China has all the resources that Japan lacks: a huge land mass; countless available lakes, rivers, and irrigation ditches; a limitless and pliable work force that earns less than a dollar a day; and an almost desperate need for hard currency. In 1968, with no recent history in pearling, China startled the gem world with prodigious amounts of ridiculously inexpensive pearls.  Starting in the 1990s, China surprised the market with products that are revolutionizing pearling. The shapes, luster, and colors of the new Chinese production often match original Biwa quality and sometime even surpass it; certainly the new orange and peach-colored pearls are unique. As testimony to China’s achievement, their freshwater pearls are round enough and good enough to pass as Japanese akoya. China already sells round white pearls up to 7mm for perhaps a tenth the price of Japanese cultured saltwater pearls.

The Chinese have also begun to nucleate some of their freshwater mussels with shell nuclei implants. This is where we get the fabulous rectangle, coin, and square shapes, as well as many others. Once again the Chinese have radically altered freshwater culturing, making saltwater and freshwater techniques indistinguishable. They have also introduced a new type of culturing, nucleating with small tissue-nucleated pearls.