The pearl of Tahiti!
The Tahitian cultured pearl was born in the water of the splendid lagoons of French Polynesia. The grafting technique is used on pearl oysters to obtain a cultured pearl.
This graft which consists in introducing into the animal, after an incision, a mother-of-pearl nucleus and a small piece of epithelium from the mantle of another oyster.
The pearl obtained is then delicately cleaned in a rotating or vibrating drum. We add walnut corals which will give a shining action to remove dust and mucus. After a few hours, it thus regains a perfect luster.
They are then sorted according to five important criteria which are: size, shape, surface, luster and color.
The Polynesian classification of pearls at the level of the quality criterion is defined as follows:
- Top Gem : Surface totalement lisse, sans aucun défaut. Lustre et orient excellents
- A : Il peut y avoir jusqu’à 10 % de défauts concentrés dans une même zone. Une
fois montée, aucun défaut ne sera visible. Le lustre est bon ou excellent. - B : Il peut y avoir jusqu’à 30 % de la surface avec des défauts concentrés. Une
fois montée, la face visible de la perle devra être parfaite. Le lustre est bon ou excellent. - C : Il peut y avoir jusqu’à 70 % de la surface avec des défauts. Le lustre sera bon.
Ce peut être aussi une perle sans trop de défauts de surface mais avec un lustre
moyen. - D : Toute la perle peut avoir des défauts mais ceux-ci ne devront pas être trop
grossiers.
The luster is good or average or even poor on a pearl with fewer blemishes. Its size can vary from 8mm to 16mm in diameter. Below 8 mm, the oyster will expel the graft, so it is not possible to find small real Polynesian pearls on the market. We will inevitably be on an imitation pearl.
The vast majority of the production still remains in the gray variants but some pearl farms emphasize the cutting of the graft and thus harvest pearls with exceptional colors.
On the international market, 80% of Tahitian cultured pearls are purchased by Asian countries that are very fond of pearls. They love the colors of the ‘Tahitienne’ and mix them with their own white pearls. This is why the rest of the world has more common access to gray pearls and black pearls.
In my shop, I offer you a collection of modern and elegant jewelry to highlight this Polynesian wonder.
All you have to do is discover them online!