Pearls and Lab Reports

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Bogus,

The mantle tissue is the part of a mussel that forms the shell. If you transplant a piece of this mantle tissue someplace else within the same animal or into an open wound of another animal it will bond into the local blood circulation, the connective tissue disintegrates and the conchiolin producing and calcium carbonate secreting cell islands will multiply and grow together to form a three dimensional pearl sac. The shape of the original tissue implant determines the final shape of the pearl sac although available body cavity space may cause indentations that then lead to changes in the shape of the pearl being created.

In contrast to what one often hears, there is no residual tissue inside the pearl that forms. There may be an original conchiolin clump at the center of a pearl if the nucleation was done while the mussel was active and secreting more conchiolin. If the mussel was nucleated in the dormant months, there will be no measurable conchiolin clump at the core. The aragonite crystals grow along the folds of the conchiolin protein. As such, a tissue nucleated pearl is indeed a true pearl albeit a cultured one. The final size of the pearl is due to cultivation time and available ambient calcium.

And, of course, you cannot grow 50 at a time if you intend to grow big rounds. The ambient calcium limits the amount of nacre a mussel can precipitate. Also in 50 nucleations the pearls would all grow together into a clump if you did not harvest them at around 6mm. So for the big rounds, you need space in the mussel and patience. It happens by accident when a multi-nucleated mussel dissolves most of the other implants and only lets 1 or 2 grow at the same time. You can greatly increase your yield of big rounds by only implanting one or two tissue grafts. The size of the tissue graft also influences the speed of pearl growth. This technique of implanting just one or two large, round tissue grafts has already been making inroads in China for years. The multiple nucleation thing with 20 or even 50 grafts will only yield beading grade pearls with too much conchiolin that renders them murky, off-round shapes because their pearl sacs touch, and more often than not grown together pearls called peanuts.

I hope this helps,

Zeide

 

[Caitlin]

Hi Bogus
I felt exactly the same when I came here. I am so happy I found out about QUALITY cultured freshwater pearls.
Anyway, let me take a stab and see If I understand. The experts will correct me as needed.

The mantle tissue that is inserted in CFWP is roughly shaped as the desired pearl shape. Hoewever it seems that the inserted tissue stimulates the growth of a pearl sac and then it shrivels and is gone leaving the nacre-producing sac. In a bead nucleated pearl, the sac surrounds the bead and thus the bead is covered with nacre. In the CFWP the sac just fills up with nacre. That is why it is harder to get a really round tissue nucleated pearl.

 

[Caitlin]

Well, I got beat to it.

I think I just said the same thing as Zeide, but mine is a probably over-simplified version

 

[Caitlin]

There may be an original conchiolin clump at the center of a pearl if the nucleation was done while the mussel was active and secreting more conchiolin. If the mussel was nucleated in the dormant months, there will be no measurable conchiolin clump at the core.

Hi Zeide
what is the difference in the pearl with and w/o the conchiolin clump at the core?
Was my saying the sac "Fills up with Nacre" too far off?

 

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Caitlin,

Your term of filling it up with nacre would be inside out. Such original conchiolin clumps are about 2mm in cristaria plicata and rarely more than 0.3mm in hyriopsis cumingii. The calcium carbonate precipitates from the pearl sac fluid and the aragonite crystals grow onto the conchiolin protein folds.

Zeide

 

[Caitlin]

Hi Zeide
And in the ones that don't have the clump in the center? I have been consulting Strack, 2006 since I first tried to answer Bogus. There is a diagram on p.414.

It appears that a few injected epithelial cells will multiply and form a sac. Now does the pearl form on the outside of the sac or the inside? It looks like the inside.

 

[jshepherd]

Returning to the large bead-nucleated rounds, I would really like to know who is selling them in Hong Kong. I would also like to see a strand. I am having a really hard time believing it simply because I have not seen any, high quality, bead nucleated round freshwater pearls - in China or Hong Kong, and I know most of the large wholesalers in Hong Kong as well.
I also want to reitterate my early post about the 80% mantle and 20% bead nucleated larger rounds - this is not correct. I just do not want another run on the same rumor we dealt with a couple of years ago, when everyone was certain if they were large and round they were bead-nucleated, asking us if we used x-ray to be certain they weren't (this is why the GIA did their research). If there are larger, nucleated rounds out there, they do not even come close to making up .01% of the production. They would be a definite exception to the rule.

 

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Caitlin,

Both the initial conchiolin secretion and the aragonite accretion occur inside the pearl sac. That's why there is no tissue remnant inside the pearls.

Hi Jeremy,

Caitlin can probably answer that question better since she has the newer edition of the Strack book. In my edition it is right before the chapter on American freshwater cultured pearls.

From all I heard the sellers in Hong Kong are marketing them as saltwater cultured if they are round. So they would not impact the freshwater cultured pearl market at all.

Zeide

 

[Caitlin]

Hi Zeide and Jeremy
There is a section in Strack called, Freshwater Cultured Pearls With Nucleus .pp446-448. There is a picture of perfectly round pearls with a high gloss.

This is just a wild guess- these are not being marketed as CFWP, but as "BABY Suth Sea pearls! Voila! 2 mysteries solved in one swipe. (nacre thickness, "in range of .5mm-3mm"!)

 

[jshepherd]

No, it does not make sense. Hong Kong is not like that. Also, any buyer would be able to tell the difference between them - they do not look the same. Furthermore, it was discussed that the size of bead nucleated rounds was very large. There are only a couple of wholesalers in Hong Kong that deal in the larger rounds. The biggest would be Paspaley. If any of the large dealers used tricks like that it would destroy their reputations.
I am sorry, Zeide, but these are rumors, not facts. I challenge anyone to find even one instance where a single one of these rumors has been proven. And give the name of even one company that has sold large bead-nucleated FW as South Sea. If so, I promise to go to that company while in HK next month and examine their pearls myself.

Caitlin,
Baby South Sea pearls are a simply misnomer used to describe small South Sea pearls. The argument would not work for large, bead nucleated CFWP.

All,
If there were strands of large, round, bead nucleated FW out there, they would be sold as such, simply because they would command a huge premium. No one is yet able to produce them, so they would be completely unique. You do not have to worry about your large FW necklaces having and bead-nucleated pearls in them. You do not haved to worry that your South Sea strands have bead nucleated freshwater either. In fact, if you found one it would probably make you famous - putting you on the cover of every trade magazine, and the one who took down the South Sea pearl industry.

 

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Jeremy,

Why would Antoinette Matlins, Fred Ward, and Elisabeth Strack put out such rumours and in case of the latter even publish pictures? We know that Kasumigaura does it and we know that there is at least one joint venture in Chenghai that does it. And, all experts agree that these sell for more than tissue nucleated pearls at least for now mostly because of jewelers giving them lower valuations for unfathomable reasons.

Zeide

 

[jshepherd]

Both Fred Ward and Antoinette Matlins were wrong. I do not believe their findings were based on anything more than a few findings which they thought indicated the idustry as a whole was leaning toward bead-nucleated freshwater. I am on the ground there in China seeing it first hand. It is NOT happening. They got it wrong, and I will go on public record stating it.

We know Kasumi ga Ura does it, and sells them as such. I have seen the pictures from the Fred Ward book, and I really do think they are the exceptions, and none of them are round. These 'tests' and press releases by companies intending to create the 'giant, bead nucleated freshwater pearls by the ton' spurred rumors for several years. But they never came to fruition. The only real volume has been in the fire-ball style. What would be the point in selling the few rounds produced as South Sea, when they would be in a class of their own - just like Kasumi Ga Ura, commanding very high prices.

Especially if they are beading with 17mm beads? Paspaley is the only South Sea pearl company that can consistently produce 18mm pearls of good quality, and they do not sell them loose - only in strands. What would happen to their reputation if they sold a $100,000 necklace that went from 15-18mm with a bead nucleated freshwater in the center? And what buyer worth his salt, buying South Sea pearls in that size, would be taken? Your typical pearl buyer does not buy $100,000 + strands.

Do you remember the GIA study to finally dispell the rumors? They went through thousands of pearls that were thought to possibly be bead or pearl nucleated - not a single one was. This is not to say that it won't happen. Fuji Voll was just quoted in Modern Jeweler stating he expected to see rounds (bead nucleated) as large as 15mm by 2010, but it was not happening yet. That is also my experience. I just have not seen it. I really feel that if it were happening, to any real extent, it would be known.

 

[Caitlin]

A synopsis of Strack’s article on nucleated CFWP:

Xie Shao He, a marine biologist, began experimenting with MoP nuclei in freshwater mussles in 1981. He is currently the Technical Director of an extremely high tech modern farm which grows fish and ducks in the 100 hectares of water on the Chenghai Company farm. farm. The ponds are man made. He genetically engineered Hyriopsis cummingii, until he achieved a type that can withstand the nucleus implantation and waters up to 33 C. Strack comments that the farm is the cleanest, most modern, she has seen yet and says that most CFWP is done in run down and casual circumstances, but not this one.

She says it takes 2-3 years for the growth of the mussels and 2-3 years for the growth of the pearls. Mortality rates are very high, so nuclei larger than 11m are rarely used. They will use one bead per mussel and place another 10-20 tissue nucleation in the same mussel. Most production is in round and coin pearls and as of 1999, they pioneered square pearls to the market.

Here is a sentence that is not elaborated on. After saying the 4-5 tons were expected in 1997, she said, “The major breakthrough came in 1994.” (This sentence and paragraph do not seem up to date for this edition)

The picture shown has very good luster though she says it is not as mirrorlike as Akoya luster. The pearls in the picture are round to the naked eye. She says all pearls are left in natural colors and not bleached.

“The pearls are mainly sold in China and government agencies provide sales support” (Strack 2006, p 448) Cost are high at $100-500 US for a choker length 5-6mm can run from $100-1,000. Sizes 8mm and over, sell for equivalent prices to Akoyas and South Seas of the same size.

Jeremy
Why don't you interview Xie Shao He, of the Chengai Company and get the latest update on his operation? Strack says he is a nice person and not at all arrogant, like so many Chinese business men she has interviewed.

It does not look like they are trying to pass these off as tissue nucleated at all, so I, for one, am not worried- they cost too much to do that! And that is why all those coin and diamond shapes cost so much too. As a beader, I used one coin pearl as a necklace, but do not like the way the coins don't stay flat.

It must be all the imitators who are producing the rounds with tails- they don't have the correct hybrid mussel, or the highly sanitary growing conditions for the extremely stressed mussels?

 

[jshepherd]

Too bad he is not part of the CP & J conglomerate, it would make it a lot easier. But I will make it a point to speak with him if I find the opportunity.
So if they are creating rounds, they would be priced like the Kasumi, not sold off as saltwater, which to me would be the only way this makes sense. Why spend so much time, energy, money, etc., only to sell yourself and your company short - destroying your 'invention' and your own credibility.
But, I do not think we are speaking in present terms when referring to what is going on over there. If so, these pieces would be on the market - and they are not. I do not believe a sizable round bead-harvest has ever been developed.

Edit:
The man you speak of also had a joint venture with Man Sang just a couple of years ago which failed. Some of the reports in Strack's book are now outdated as Xie's first farm no longer exists.

 

[jshepherd]

And that is why all those coin and diamond shapes cost so much too. As a beader, I used one coin pearl as a necklace, but do not like the way the coins don't stay flat.

It must be all the imitators who are producing the rounds with tails- they don't have the correct hybrid mussel, or the highly sanitary growing conditions for the extremely stressed mussels?

I have never really thought of coin and diamond shapes costing much. But I cannot say I have ever really purchased them in large quantity. When you say they cost so much, to what are you comparing?

Regarding the bead-CFWP with tails, I have heard it is simply a matter of healing time in the mantle-tissue. The nacre is developing almost immediately. One would assume this would then be the case with coins and others, but that is what I have heard. In terms of sanitary conditions, it is not an APC operation in Western Australia, but they do use antibiotics etc. Regarding the skill of the nucleators, this would be a relatively new science (well, maybe a regurgitated century-old science) that nucleates beads into the mantle-tissue. I have not seen this done personally, but I imagine they are simply taking their Akoya method from the gonad to the mantle.

 

[Caitlin]

This is fantastic information-
My frame of reference is gem shows to retail stores for coins and squares. If they are awful- that is have tails and are very misshapen with pile-ups of nacre and dyed awful colors- pearlescent magenta and circus chartreuse, limescent green, metallic blue and suchlike- they are around 6-10 per strand at shows. <she turns away to choke>

Nicer shapes and colors are twice as much. There are not any really nice coins at the bead show pearl dealer?s booths. Retail for nice (A) white in Tucson is $39.00. Retail in Chinatown SF is $39.00 for B+ and they are not as nice as here.

 

[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Caitlin,

There are really nice coin pearls but, I agree, I have never seen them on the trade show circuit. The American Pearl Company used to have quite nice ones and I got some from China and Lake Biwa.

Zeide

 

[Caitlin]

Hi Zeide
Speaking of whom, I have a promotional postcard from them with a beautiful strand of coin pearls.

 

[perlas]

Caitlin,

That it a nice coin pearl strand in the post card.
Coin pearls are prevalent in Manila, nice and uneven ones.
Now they make it in all sorts of shapes.. crosses, rectangles, hearts.
The hearts are pretty. The crosses they make into pendants.

It's not so popular here though so the sellers are switching back their stocks to the round and potato pearls.

 

[preswine]

Getting back on topic, are there any labs that give you a copy of the actual lab results (x-rays, etc.) rather than just the diagnosis?

The x-ray doesn't lie, but with the rampant ignorance of natural pearls in this industry, I don't know if we can count on those x-rays being properly interpreted.