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What is a Keshi Pearl?
“Keshis” are the dominant type of baroque pearls in the market
today. The term is derived from the Japanese word for “poppyseed”; it was
originally used to describe small seed-size pearls found as byproducts of
Japanese cultured pearls.
The three ways Keshi pearls develop
are as follows:
1. During
nucleation, loose epithelial cells accidentally find their way inside the
mollusk and a small ‘keshi” pearl forms.
2. During
nucleation, the mother of pearl bead nucleus is implanted along with a graft of
mantle tissue. The bead nucleus is rejected but the graft tissue
remains; resulting in the formation of a larger Keshi Pearl.
3. The
bold new Keshi a result of a second harvest. In some cases, the pearls
are harvested delicately, while care is taken not to sacrifice the living
mollusk.Then, the live mollusk is returned to the pearl farm and allowed to
grow a second harvest of pearls. The original pearl sac is filled with a nacre
secretion and second harvest is born.
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