The Truth About Wild Pearls

We all have this idea in our head of how Akoya Pearls, or any pearl for that matter comes into being. We all know the old story that a particle of sand enters the oyster, and the oyster turns it into something beautiful, a pearl. Well this isn’t entirely true. While a grain of sand can cause this more often than not it’s actually an irritant such as a parasite or bacteria. The oyster then acts in self defence covering the intruder with the same material the inner shell is made of. After doing this for quite some time a pearl is formed. Also when pearls are cultured sand is never used. Instead it’s likely they’re using a piece of oyster tissue or shell. These guarantee a much more consistently round pearl.