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Tahitian Education |
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Tahitian Cultured Pearls
Peacockgreenish black
Aubergine or Cherrypurplish black Pistachiogreenish grey Lavenderbluish black Tahitian goldgolden black Pigeon greypurplish grey Silver grey Moon grey pale grey Orient grey surface iridescence Tahitian Cultured pearls are not all black.They come in shades of green, greenish red, blackish red, silver, blackish gray and peacock.Every once in a while there is even a white Tahitian pearl.The pearls draw their color from the mollusk shell.The scientific name of the shell used to grow Tahitian pearls is “Pinctada margaritifera”.It is referred to as a black lipped shell.This means that the outer edge of the shell is blackish in color and hence the pearls it produces are darker color pearls.
The Black
lipped oysters grow up to 12” in diameter and produce pearls that range in size
from 8MM to 15MM.Larger ones are
produced but they are the exception.This compares to the Japanese and Chinese Akoya oyster that grows to
about 5” in diameter and produces pearls from 3MM to 9MM.
The name Tahitian is misleading in a
way.The pearls are cultivated in
Tahiti is
the main commercial
Prior to
being used for cultivating pearls the black lipped oysters were used for
decorative purposes such as buttons and inlay.
As happens in the case of natural occurring
oysters, the oysters were being taken and no program was in place to replace
them.So, in the late 1960’s when
Tahitian pearl cultivation began there was a very limited supply of
oysters.Local natives were performing
the nucleation operation with limited success and the pearls that were grown
were few in number and very expensive.The Tahitian government saw the potential for the pearls and stepped in
to help the pearl farmers.It rented
land for pearl farming to the farmers in exchange for the export tax it
collects on the exportation of the Tahitian pearls.The government made it illegal to fish for
the black lipped oysters unless you were a pearl farmer.
The farmers were then able to
naturally collect oyster spats and grow them in protected areas to insure a
constant supply of new oysters.These
spats are protected and nourished until they are about 9 months old and then
they are suspended in the water from rafts.The pearl farmers then employed Japanese technicians to perform the
nucleation operation and the results were much better.
The
nucleating operation used on Tahitian pearls is very similar to the one
used on Akoya pearls. A bead nucleus and a piece of mantle from a donor
oyster are inserted into the gonad area of the mollusk. The piece of
mantle forms a sac over the nucleus and secretes nacre. In Tahitian
pearls the oyster remains in the water for 18 to 24 months. Unlike the
Akoya oysters, after the pearl is removed from the black lip9ped oyster
another nucleus can be inserted and another pearl can form. This can be
done 3 or 4 times.
 After
the pearls are removed from the oysters they are slightly polished in a
mixture of salt water and bamboo chips. This is usually the extent of
the treatment of Tahitian pearls. They are not subject to bleaching and
body color tinting like Japanese and Chinese. Akoya pearls are. A good
rule of thumb to remember is that if a pearl is black and it is less
than 8MM it is usually a dyed black, not a natural colored black
Tahitian. The harvested pearls are usually sent to Tahiti to be
auctioned under the auspices of Perles de Tahiti, a government
organization responsible for the sale and promotion of Tahitian pearls.
There are some farmers who have arrangements with importers to sell
their crop directly to the importer. In the last 15 years there has
been a tremendous increase in the demand for these black beauties which
are sold under the exotic names of aubergine, pistachio, and peacock.
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