How are pearls formed? Natural pearls are formed when foreign particles (sand, pieces of other shells or rocks) or parasites enter the shell of some oysters, which makes the animal secrete layers of nacre (mother of pearl) as a defense mechanism that crystallizes the attacker to defend the mantle (tissue that protects the organs of the oyster); it takes about three years for this material to become a pearl. Cultured pearls by man suffer the same process, but the beginning of the formation is intentionally caused by man: synthetic nucleus is introduced in the shell to stimulate the defense system of the oyster. The only way to differentiate a natural pearl from a cultured one is to analyze the inside of pearl, apart from that, both have equal beauty.
Posted on: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 20:47:13 +0000
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