CHOOSING YOUR FAVORITE FRESHWATER CULTURED PEARLS
Freshwater Cultured Pearls are colorful, interesting and always evolving.
These lovely pearls are also the most affordable pearls available in jewelry markets today.
This helpful article covers all aspects of these amazing pearls.
Here you will find insights on their long, storied history, their gorgeous array of colors, to their size ranges, shapes and more, so you'll always know exactly what to expect when shopping for Freshwater Cultured Pearls.
WHAT ARE FRESHWATER PEARLS?
Freshwater Cultured Pearls are authentic, cultivated gems that grow inside freshwater mussels, and are prized for their unique characteristics.
These pearls are formed when a small piece of tissue from another mussel is inserted into the host mussel, stimulating the production of nacre, which coats the irritant and eventually forms a pearl.
CHARACTERISTICS OF FRESHWATER CULTURED PEARLS
Variety of Shapes and Sizes: Freshwater Cultured Pearls come in a range of shapes, from round to oval, teardrop, and irregular shapes like baroque or rice-shaped pearls, with sizes typically ranging from 2mm to 15mm.
Colors: They display a wide range of colors, including white, cream, pink, lavender, peach, and gray, with some pearls having natural overtones like pink, green, or blue.
Nacre Composition: Freshwater Cultured Pearls are composed almost entirely of nacre, making them durable and giving them a soft, satiny luster.
Affordability: They're generally more affordable than saltwater pearls due to their easier cultivation and abundance.
Durability: Freshwater Cultured Pearls are durable and long-lasting when cared for properly, thanks to their nacre-rich structure.
Uniqueness: Each pearl is unique and one-of-a-kind, with perfectly round freshwater pearls being particularly rare.
WHERE DO FRESHWATER CULTURED PEARLS COME FROM?
Global Presence: While Natural Freshwater Pearls have been found worldwide, today China is the only commercial producer of Freshwater Cultured Pearls.
Freshwater Pearl farms produce around 1000 tons annually of pearls vs 25 tons for their Akoya pearl counterparts.
This simple harvest estimate makes fine Akoya Pearls thousands of times rarer than any Freshwater Pearl on the market today, and thus more expensive.
Other Regions: Other areas, such as Japan and parts of the USA, also have Freshwater Pearl cultivation, albeit on a smaller scale.
IN CONCLUSION:
- Freshwater Cultured Pearls are famous for their rainbow of natural colors which include white, pink, peach, and lavender. All the colors are natural, with no enhancements or dyes unless otherwise noted.
- Freshwater Cultured Pearls have a touchable, satiny luster that appears to glow from within. This comes from the fact that almost all cultured freshwater pearls are composed of 100% solid crystalline nacre. Light rays will penetrate the various crystalline layers and return to the viewer. As the rays break up on their return trip, they create a softer, more diffuse glowing effect for the pearl. This is what gives freshwater pearls their trademark soft, satin luster.
- Freshwater Cultured Pearls are farmed in freshwater ponds, lakes, and even rivers. 99% of all freshwater pearls originate in China. The largest farming and pearl processing centers are located in Zhuji, Nanjing, and Guangzhou. Other freshwater Pearl sources include Tennessee, USA, and Lake Biwa in Japan.
- Freshwater Cultured Pearls are cultured in the freshwater pearl mussel. These are hybridized varieties of the triangle pearl mussel, which have been bred to maximize their pearl harvest output. These varieties are hyriopsis cumingii and hyriopsis schlegeli. Each mussel is capable of producing between 15-20 pearls on each side of its shell.
- Freshwater Cultured Pearls have one of the largest size ranges of all modern cultured pearl types. Freshwater pearls range from tiny 2.0mm pearls, running through the more versatile 6.5mm–11.0mm ranges. Larger pearls up to 16.0-17.0mm in size have recently become available. These large pearls are the result of over a decade of experimentation in pearliculture and are meant to one day challenge the supremacy of the saltwater South Sea pearls from Australia.
So those are the basics.
Keep reading for a detailed breakdown of each attribute to learn all you could want to know about these gorgeous treasures.
FRESHWATER PEARL HISTORY
Freshwater Cultured Pearl history stretches back to the Han dynasty, 100 BC.
The earliest examples date back to enterprising pearl fishers, who figured out how to drill through the mussel's hard outer shell.
They attached metal beads or forms to the inside of the mussel shell, and allowed the mollusk to coat the shapes with pearly nacre.
The resulting pearls were cutout of the shell at harvest and made into jewelry and religious talismans for children and pilgrims.
These were the very first intentionally formed blister pearls in the world.
Shown above are the commonly used figure of Buddha, but many other shapes were used.
Freshwater pearls have a long and storied history, stretching all the way back to 2000 BCE and earlier.
Natural Freshwater Cultured Pearls were highly prized in Chinese culture and were frequently worn by royals and the elite of society.
Pearls were used in traditional jewelry items like necklaces and pearl earrings.
Pearls were also used to adorn clothing, hair pieces, hats, crowns, shoes, fingernail guards, and much more.
The first Cultured Blister Pearls were created by the ancient Chinese around 100 BC.
Blister Pearls are half-pearls grown on the inside of a mollusk’s shell and then cut out once the form is covered in iridescent nacre.
The resulting Blister Pearls are then set into jewelry and religious charms.
These early Cultured Pearls were often created in the shape of Buddha, but many other shapes like dragons, koi fish, and coins were also used.
Modern Freshwater Cultured Pearl operations didn’t begin in China until the 1960s with the birth of the infamous "Rice" Pearls.
From the 60s through the 1980s, the vast majority of all Chinese Freshwater Cultured Pearl harvests were purchased by Japan.
These pearls were sold under the "Product of Japan" blue tag label, which created a lot of confusion.
Many buyers were under the impression they had bought Japanese Freshwater Pearls from Lake Biwa.
Finally, in the early 80s, China began marketing their own pearls.
They branded their pearls "Shanghai Lake Freshwater Pearls" to set them apart from the famous Japanese Biwa Pearls.
The pastel, feminine colors and low price points of Freshwater Cultured Pearls made them a jewelry designer favorite.
The Freshwater Cultured Pearl industry was off to a good start on the world's markets.
As pearl culture in China modernized, the shapes of the pearls have continually improved.
It is almost as though we can document the improvements of the Freshwater Cultured Pearl by the decade.
1970's: Heavily Baroque and small-in-size "Rice" pearls.
1980's: Flat-bottomed Button-Shape pearls and "Rice Crispy" pearls.
1990's: Egg and Ovalish-shaped, with and without circling “Potato” pearls.
2000's: Near Round and Very Near True Round pearl shapes.
2010's: Fireballs, Ripples, Soufflé pearls and other bead-nucleated pearl shapes emerge.
2020's: Very Large, perfectly round Edison pearls (bead-nucleated Freshwater).
The journey is far from over.
China provides some of the most cutting-edge and interesting experiments in pearling technology.
We look forward to keeping up with the newest pearl innovations to come out of China in the years to come.
The land of China has countless freshwater rivers, ponds and lakes where the Freshwater pearl mussel calls home.
The main pearling areas started near Shanghai, and later spread to Zhuji and Guangzhou.
Freshwater pearl mussels are generally raised from spat (i.e. not collected in the wild). These mussels are bred specifically for pearling purposes.
Each mussel is nucleated up to 25 times on each side of the shell, leaving us with a potential harvest of 50 pearls per mussel!
The two mussels primarily used in Freshwater Pearl culture today are:
- Hyriopsis Cumingii
- Hyriopsis Schlegeli
Growth times average around 2-3 years before the pearls are harvested.
The two mussel varieties used to cultivate Freshwater pearls are Hyriopsis Cumingii and Hyriopsis Schlegeli.
Both varieties can grow to up to 1-foot in diameter at maturity.
The interior of the shells is usually a white to blue-ish white, violet and feature flashes of rainbow iridescence.
Both varieties produce naturally colored White, Pink, Peach and Lavender pearl colors that we all love so much.
After harvest, the pearls are washed and scrubbed to remove organic debris.
They are then gently polished in tumblers filled with waxed bamboo chips.
The pearls are then sent to large pearl processing factories for further sorting, grading and possible treatments before being sold.
Freshwater Pearl harvests can be a staggering sight to behold.
Freshly harvested pearls fill baskets waiting to be sorted, matched and drilled at the pearl processing factory.
Each year, Freshwater Pearl harvests weigh a thousand tons combined!
Many Freshwater Cultured Pearls are left in their naturally beautiful colors of White, Pink, Peach and Lavender.
Some of the harvest is sent for additional treatments such as dyeing in a rainbow of tantalizing colors.
FRESHWATER CULTURED PEARL FARMING FACTS
Many farmers anchor their mussels with floating plastic bottles to mark their locations on the bottoms of the ponds.
They are grown in man-made ponds and lakes throughout China.
Most of the pearl farms today are run as small, family and community owned collectives. These aquaculture ponds also host fish, freshwater prawns and other agricultural products.
Corporate Pearl Farms are on the rise however, with man-made reservoirs and ponds spanning hundreds of acres.
These large, shallow reservoirs are host to thousands of pearl mussels
Larger organizations with access to more resources are key to some of the most cutting edge innovations in modern pearl culture
Freshwater Cultured Pearls are traditionally “tissue nucleated”.
This means that tiny, 1.0mm square pieces of mantle tissue are inserted into small incisions made throughout the soft body of the host mussel.
These pieces of donor tissue serve as organic nuclei that stimulate pearl sac formation, and eventually, form our beloved, colorful Freshwater Cultured Pearls.
As the Freshwater mussel begins to create the pearl, it envelops the mantle tissue nucleus in a pearl sac and the donor tissue square inside slowly begins to degrade.
This will continue throughout the 2-3 year formation period, until nothing remains in the core of the pearl.
Basically, it creates a pearl made up of 100% solid crystalline nacre (so they're very, very durable little gems).
Freshwater Pearl mussels can be nucleated up to 25 times on each side of the shell, so a potential pearl harvest from even a single mussel absolutely dwarfs that of any other pearl type.
This larger harvest volume accounts in large part for their less expensive prices.
THE LAYERS OF A FRESHWATER CULTURED PEARL
Freshwater Cultured Pearls are the closest in pearl composition that you can get to a natural pearl formed on its own in the wild.
Freshwater Pearls are EXTREMELY durable, and if cared for properly, will retain the original color, luster and orient for decades to come.
Freshwater Pearl luster will feature a softer, more subtle glow than that of their saltwater cousins due to the way in which light reflects and refracts off the various layers of crystal.
With no round inner “template” bead nucleus to work with, the Freshwater Pearl mussel still does a pretty great job of producing smooth shapes that are often round to the eye.
Freshwater pearls get harvested after a 2-3 year growth period, on average.
Most Freshwater pearl mussels are not reused after the first harvest; instead the meat and shells are sold for industrial uses
Traditionally tissue-nucleated Freshwater pearls are 100% solid crystalline nacre.
There is no interior bead nuclei like with saltwater pearls: just solid nacre layers.
This makes Freshwater pearls incredibly durable, and very like natural, wild pearls in terms of crystalline structure.
CULTURED FRESHWATER PEARL QUALITIES AND SHAPES
Freshwater Cultured Pearls have a stunning variety of shapes to please all pearl lovers.
AA+ Quality Freshwater Pearls are most often Off-Round to Ovalish in shape.
AAA Quality Freshwater Pearls are very slightly Off-Round to Near True Round shapes.
AAAA Quality Freshwater Pearls are as close to True Round as possible, with less than 3% deviance from a true spherical shape.
The “standard” in the pearl industry is to create a perfectly round pearl shape.
Perfectly Round Pearls will fetch the highest prices for everyone from farmer to retail vendors.
Unfortunately, Perfectly Round Pearls also represent the smallest percentage of each year's harvests.
That said, the yearly harvest yield for Freshwater Pearls of all shapes is 1,000 Tons.
This means that creating beautifully matched pearl necklaces isn’t nearly as difficult as it is building matched strands of Tahitian or South Sea pearls.
Here's a breakdown of yearly pearl harvests by shape:
- True Round Pearls are less than 0.05% of each yearly harvest on average.
- Near-Round Freshwater Pearls account for 3% of each yearly harvest (approximately).
- Symmetrical Drop-Shapes and Potato Pearls are about 10-20% of each pearl harvest.
- Baroques and Rice Pearls make up the rest of the yearly yield, around 80-90%
Edison Pearls are a rare "Collector's Item" that have been making large waves in the pearl world.
These are bead-nucleated Freshwater pearls that reach sizes of 15.0mm and 16.0mm!
Edison pearls are China's answer to Australia's large South Sea pearls.
The idea is to consistently create very large, perfectly round and affordable pearls that can compete with the South Sea Pearl.
We look forward to continuing to watch this stunning evolution of the Freshwater Pearl.
Rice Freshwater Cultured Pearls were one of the first pearl shapes available in Freshwater Cultured Pearls. They're known for their small - 2.0-3.0mm in size -and crinkly rice shapes, and today are worth just a few rand per strand, retail.
Often, Rice Pearls are dyed in every color of the rainbow.
Potato Freshwater Cultured Pearl swere the next step in the evolution of the Freshwater Pearl's shape characterized by their large, pillow-like shapes and multiple circles or rings visible around the circumference.
They're often used by beaders to create unique jewelry designs at a low cost, making them an affordable option for crafting.
Baroque Freshwater Cultured Pearlsare irregularly shaped pearls prized for their unique, non-spherical forms rather than traditional roundness.
The term "Baroque" describes any pearl with an uneven, asymmetrical, or unconventional shape.
Their distinctive bumps, ridges, and shapes create varied and high-quality luster, making them a fashionable and individualistic choice for jewelry.
The vast majority of freshwater pearls are actually baroque pearls. In fact, over 90% of them are!
This is why round pearls are more valuable – they are simply more rare.
The pearl formation process does not always occur in the soft tissue.
Some pearl cysts are stuck in muscular tissue, where they encounter resistance from the surrounding muscles.
This ultimately leads to the formation of irregular, imperfect pearl shapes.
Off-Round to Slightly Off-Round Freshwater Pearl shapes emerged in the 1990s.
These pearls are characterized by smooth overall shapes, symmetrical forms, and no circling, often featuring oval or egg-like shapes.
They're graded AA+ and known for their high quality.
Very Slightly Off-Round to Very Near True Round Freshwater Pearls have only been available for the past 20 years or so, making them recent newcomers to the jewelry market.
Very Slightly Off-Round to Very Near True Round Freshwater Pearls are a top-tier category of pearls that have a shape so close to a perfect sphere that they appear perfectly round to the casual eye.
Perfectly round pearls are exceptionally rare, especially in freshwater pearls, so this "near true round" classification represents the highest quality in terms of shape.
Since there is no universal grading system for pearls, retailers will use slightly different terms, but the meaning is consistent.
In a common AAAA grading system, "Very Near True Round" corresponds to the top-tier AAAA grade.
USES OF FRESHWATER PEARLS
Jewelry: Freshwater Cultured Pearls are popular for various types of jewelry, including necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and pendants.
Fashion and Decor: They're used in embellishing clothing, handbags, shoes, and home decor items.
Spiritual and Healing Practices: Freshwater Cultured Pearls are believed to have healing properties, promoting emotional balance, calmness, and self-acceptance.
Tip* Freshwater Cultured Pearls can often be distinguished from Natural Pearls through the use of X-rays, which reveals the inner nucleus of the pearl.