CortezPearls

Blister pearls are probably the first variety of pearl product ever encountered by Humans. In Nature about one out of every 10 thousand mollusks will yield a natural, non-attached pearl (an actual pearl) but in the case of Blisters this number increases dramatically. Unfortunately, most of these blisters are not that shapely nor comely so they are never used, but those that were attractive were used for beautiful and unique settings.

There are three different kinds of Blister pearls, that...

On a controversial note, the SSEF lab in Basel, Switzerland, has introduced the world to a new pearl oyster species, aptly dubbed as Pinctada persica: a unique mollusk species that is only found in the Persian Gulf. This would be the first time -to my knowledge- that a pearl oyster species has been identified by its genetic markings or DNA. Previously, pearl producing species have been described and identified mainly by its shell and anatomical traits, but this is a new era of technological...

Jennifer Heebner and Kathy Grenier of the Cultured Pearl Association (CPAA) have been very active on Instagram and have done many interviews to friends and some of the movers-&-shakers in the Pearl Industry. If you have not discovered these interviews you are missing on something special!
This is the list of all interviewees to date whose segments are live on @pearlscpaa Instagram TV. Click the name to watch the episode!

Barbara Heinrich of Barbara Heinrich Jewelry
Justin Hunter of J...

The family Pteriidae is composed of three or four genera, and pearl oysters belonging to the Pinctada and Pteria genera are -of course- the most important from our point of view.

Taxonomy

An old name for this species is Magnavicula, which means “Large Wing”, with the “new” -Pteria- name originating after the Greek word “Ptero” which translates into “wing”, hence the name of “Winged oysters”.
These species are identified by a more elongate shape than that of Pinctada species, thus their...

Sustaining Life with Pearl Farming

One of the most important aspects of pearl farming is its inherent ability to protect and create more life than the one that was available previously. And what do I mean by this? When you start a pearl farm in a location, you begin with a resource that has already been “pillaged & plundered”, probably for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. As an example, we have the pearl fisheries of the Persian Gulf -whose pearls were adorning the ancient rulers of...

ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACT OF THE CCCP

There was a positive ecological aspect of this venture: the pearl farm itself acted as a gigantic breeding station for the pearl oysters. When you consider that this farm contained between 8 to 10 million pearl oysters and let us say that at least one-third of these had reached sexual maturity (2.6 to 6.6 million individuals), it is very evident to see the astounding positive impact that this commercial operation would have in restocking the Gulf...