Pearl; It’s French for Bead!
PEARLS ARE THE ONLY GEM created by a living creature, and of the approximately 8000 species of mollusc, only around 20 of them are able to naturally produce pearls. Pearls occur when a particle – sometimes sand, but more likely a parasite – enters the shell of the mollusc and irritates the soft tissue. The particle picks up epithelial cells which then form into a sac (known as the pearl) which secretes a substance called nacre, the substance that makes up the interior of the mollusc shell. The layers build up around each other around the irritant which in turn becomes a pearl. The whole process can take eight months, depending on the size of the pearl.
When pearls are formed naturally they often take on the shape of the irritant that began the pearl. Very rarely is a perfectly round pearl found to have grown naturally, and those that are found attract a far higher value, which is the
