A natural pearl is created by an injury to the mollusk itself, or by the invasion of a tiny foreign object, such as a fish scale, piece of shell, parasite, water mite, or piece of algae. This injury, or irritant which enters the shell of a mollusk and invades the tissue of the animal causes the mollusk to naturally secrete a protective coating of minerals and proteins which eventually form into a pearl. It is similar in structure to the inside of the shell.

Natural Pearls are very rare, and thus extremely expensive. Only a small fraction of mollusks produce pearls (estimates vary from .006% to .0001%), and of those natural pearls that are found, only a small fraction are of good quality. They are typically so flawed as to be undesirable for use in pearl jewelry.

Cultured Pearl Production

A cultured pearl is created in exactly the same way as natural pearls, except that a piece of mollusk mantle tissue or a tiny bead is surgically implanted into the mollusk. The mollusk then secretes minerals and proteins around this irritant, eventually producing a pearl.

It is thought that the first successful cultured pearls were mabe pearls produced by the Chinese more than 1,300 years ago. However, modern pearl culturing methods were refined only as recently as the early 1900s.

Cultured Pearls were developed into a successful industry during the early 1900s by Japanese businessman Kokichi Mikimoto, and were first made popular during the 1920s and 1930s by fashion designers and high society of that era.