Pearl Education

B. Mother-of-Pearl Oysters (genus Pinctada)

Black Lip Pearl oysters (Pinctada margaritifera)

Black lip pearl oysters are known mainly for their beautiful, dark, cultured pearls but they have also been used to produce Mabe pearls, although in not great numbers.

Part of the production strategy for Mabe pearls in French Polynesia and Fiji is at the very last part of the pearl producing cycle:

Cultured (loose) pearls are produced for up to three cycles (first, second and third grafts), and...

There are several varieties of commercially grown Mabe Pearls that can be found at jeweler’s displays or on online vendors, but many have become rare over the years. The three main sources for Mabe pearls today are:

Winged Pearl oysters from genus Pteria, including the “original” Mabe-gai (Pteria penguin) and the “Rainbow-lip” pearl oyster (Pteria sterna).
Mother-of-Pearl oysters from genus Pinctada, mainly from the larger Silver (Pinctada maxima) and Black (Pinctada margaritifera) lipped...

Since these pearls are not very useable in jewelry with the entire shell, they are processed: first they are cut from the shell, with the help of a handsaw, Dremel tool, core-drill or tile cutting saw. The type of tool will depend on availability and production volume, the first used mainly by occasional processing and the latter for commercial production.

A lineup of the Mabe pearl process.
Once the blister is separated from the shell, these are rinsed to remove grime, dead animals, and...

I. Introduction

Blister pearls -and Mabe pearls, their modern equivalent- have been coveted, enjoyed, and worn for Centuries. But these products are not equivalent to actual pearls. Most pearl farmers consider Mabe pearls (also known as “Half-Pearls”) as a side-product, used to supplement their yearly income.
These pearls can be considered as “Pearls-on-a-Shell”, since they will be attached to the mollusk’s inner shell, either as an accident (as in the case of natural blister pearls) or...

Ever since those Chinese monks started their first cultured blister pearl, the technique has basically remained the same: an “implant” is glued to the inner shell of the mollusk, under the animal’s mantle. The mantle will cover the said implant and then slowly secrete nacre on top of it until -some months later- the Mabe blister has a good enough coating of nacre to be harvested and processed.

One of the important aspects of this pearl producing technique is the use of a wide variety of...

From 1908 to 1943, many Japanese entrepreneurs attempted -with mixed results- to utilize the “Penguin Shaped Pearl Oyster” (Pteria penguin) to produce both cultured blisters and whole cultured pearls. It all began with Sokichi Igaya on Amami Island in 1908, but his experiments soon closed. Jusaku Nakamura and Anami Oshima were more successful, but they always had problems securing enough wild adult pearl oysters for their farms. The main problem in this initial stage was the use of...