Precious Pearls Jewellery

The Four Main Pearl Groups

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The South Sea Pearl

The largest saltwater pearl and arguably the most sought after pearl. You will find the majority of South Seas originate from the coasts of Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.  The South Sea pearl ranges between 8-18mm in size and are usually white, silver and golden in colour with a satiny lustre. They are cultured in the Pinctada Maxima oyster. Your perfectly round South Seas are the rarest. It can take many harvests to find matching pearls for a necklace, therefore making them extremely expensive.

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The Freshwater Pearl

This is the most affordable of the pearls and certainly the most versatile and fun. Freshwater pearls come in various shapes and sizes, and while they typically sit within the pastel colour palette, lately you do find exciting metallic pearls too! The freshwaters have a wide size range due to their various shapes. They are cultured in China, Vietnam and Japan. The important difference between freshwater and sea cultured pearls are that these pearls are cultured in mussels and not oysters.

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The Akoya Pearl

This is the classic pearl you know as the single white round pearl strand and will have seen most commonly in the media. Grown typically along the Japanese and Chinese coastlines in the Pinctada fucata oyster. The Akoya is celebrated for its perfectly spherical shape and its reflective luster. Its pearl size is within the 4-10mm range. Akoya colours include white, silver, golden and blue. The famous Kokichi Mikimoto used the Akoya oyster to successfully culture pearls in 1893.

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The Tahitian Pearl

Tahitian pearls are naturally dark and are from the Black-lip Pinctada margaritifera oyster. They are cultured in the Atolls in French Polynesia and Tahitian seas. They became popular and desireable due to their exotic colours. From Silver to black with hues of peacock, green, aubergine and blues playing across the black base pearl colour. The pearl size range is between 8-18mm. Tahitian pearls are as rare as their South Sea rivals, extremely rare and almost as expensive.