Diamonds • Precious Gemstones • Jewelry • Gemology

In his book "Pearls", Fred Ward states, " A great irony of pearl history is that the least expensive cultured pearl product in the market today rivals the quality of the most expensive natural pearls ever found."

The Chinese first cultured shell mabes but true freshwater pearls were first cultured by the Japanese at lake Biwa.

These freshwater pearls were uniquely colored and showed extremely fine luster.

But huge land mass with large lakes and rivers coupled with cheap labor are on the side of the Chinese. The newest pearls coming out of China rival Japanese saltwater pearls at a fraction of the price

Add to that the new colors and the production of all-nacre pearls, the Chinese may soon control the pearl industry.

Cultured freshwater pearls are produced by a slightly different system than saltwater pearls.

Technicians open the shells slightly then cut tiny slits into the mantle tissue inside both shells, then insert a small piece of live mantle tissue from another mussel inside the slits.

That alone is enough to initiate nacre production. So most cultured freshwater pearls are all nacre, just as natural pearls are.