Colors of Freshwaters

[xeresana]

How does a pearl color get determined? Different mollusks make different colors? Or are they affected by their environment...like hydrangeas.

What makes lavender, pink, and white the most common? Are there any other colors of freshwaters we might start to see more often?

[jshepherd]

A single shell can produce every color. You can actually see the colors in the shell's interior. Shells are capable of producing exotic colors as well, although the true exotics are much more rare. The colors produced have likely always been produced, but were bleached white for a long time. Similar to the natural color akoya, processors cater to Western taste, and the perfect white pearl was long the goal of every producer.

New colors very well may become more prevalent in the future. New hybrids are being introduced in China. I cannot go into more detail on this now, but I will soon. What is happening there is really exciting and interesting.

[Caitlin]

Hi Jeremy
Wow! That is like a little present!!! I love the dark colored pearls the best, so I eagerly await a hybrid mussel that will produce peacock colors in the shell!

Hi Xere
Presently, there are some mussels like the anodanta woodiana that produce at least some black pearls.

We have a couple of articles about a man in Viet Nam who is raising some, though he is rather elderly...I hope others will take up his cause.

Strack has many, many mentions of anodonta in a variety of species, but the woodies get the most citations. I will glance through them later and come back if I find some good stuff.

[xeresana]

That does sound exciting! I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I'd love to be able to purchse some other colors of freshwater pearls. Hopefully that will be a possibility in the future.

[youngster]

Very cool Jeremy. New colors? One reason I love this forum is that you never know what little nuggets of information are going to pop up. How exciting. (Tell those little mussels to think "green" and "aqua" and "peacock".)

[jshepherd]

We will see what happens with them. I will go into more detail soon. But they are already being used, to a large extent...

[xeresana]

Eeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!! Jeremy, you're killing me! I can't wait to see what's going on with the new colors!

[perlas]

I'm seeing more of the exotic colors coming out in bigger sizes (8-9.5mm).

Last one I saw was a natural gray strand, 8-8.5mm. Pretty nice with good luster. They look good in multi colored strands but it takes a trained eye to notice they're of natural color if the strand is single-colored as a lot of dyed grays are available.

[Ingykiz]

This may be a dumb question but when the shell is opened are all of the
pearls inside the same tone or can you get a rainbow of colors?

[jshepherd]

You get a rainbow!

[pernula]

What makes the different color like lavender, peach, and pink?

Thanks,
pernula

[Casey.R]

Pernula, I think it depends on the part of the shell the pearl was formed. If I'm wrong I'm sure someone will correct me.

[jshepherd]

That is a part of it, yes. Another part is the grafting tissue. The epithelium cells from the rear portion of the grafting tissue create darker colors. The water also plays an important role. Exotic colors are said to come from farms with the best nutritional and chemical mixes.

[Valeria101]

A sign of the times ahead?



(hoping the implicit claim of the images holds, etc.)

[xeresana]

Those look amazing!