The lustrous appearance of pearls emanate an almost magical quality. Being the only gemstone not formed on the earth’s surface, pearls are the embodiment of the mystery and life-sustaining nature of water. 

This natural treasure given to us from the earths ponds, lakes, seas and oceans is formed through a process where an irritant, such as a grain of sand, becomes stuck inside a mollusc. In order to protect itself, the mollusc builds up layers of nacre (a calcium carbonate formula) around the irritant which inevitably becomes the pearl. The mollusc continues to build more layers around the pearl causing it to grow in size as it ages. These factors, along with shape, colour and lustre all affect the rarity and value of a single pearl.

This natural process is also carefully imitated in controlled conditions to cultivate pearls both in freshwater mussel farms and saltwater oyster farms, creating cultured pearls. Cultured pearls come in many beautiful colours, from pale cream and white to rose, lilac, green, gold, grey, and black. There are four main types of cultured pearls: Akoya, South Sea, Tahitian, and Freshwater each having unique qualities that separates them for the other. The colour of naturally formed pearls ranges from white to pink, blue, brown, grey and black, depending on the type of mollusc and the water in which they are found.