How to make pearls in three easy steps…

How to make pearls in three easy steps…

So I had a quick lesson in pearl cultivating.

Seems quite straight forward really. Take an live oyster, prise it open insert a bit from another oyster and a plastic ball…leave for five years back in the sea and hey presto a pearl. How hard can that be?

Quite hard as it turns out only about 30% produce a fully rounded pearl the rejects are ground up and used in face cream amongst other things.

 

The different shapes and colours are determined by the type of oyster and the length of time left to grow. I’m not sure I’ll be taking up pearl cultivation anytime soon but interesting to see the process. And very pretty to look at, I prefer the grey ones just for the record.