What Is Inside of a Cultured Pearl? Is The Dye All the Way Through? Smashing Pearls to See Inside

Have you ever wondered what is inside of a cultured pearl? Why do freshwater pearls come in different shapes? What is the most expensive shape or colour of pearl? Or are dyed pearls coloured all the way through?
I have always been curious and decided to smash a bunch of pearls to show you what is inside of the pearls.
The art of culturing pearls originated in Japan, and after disease virtually wiped out most of the pearl culturing oysters in Japan in the 1950's, China has perfected the art of culturing pearls in freshwater lakes.
Pearls are naturally produced because a grain of sand gets lodged inside of the oyster that it cannot expel. It then coats nacre (the same shiny hard substance it produces for its shell) around the irritant sand.
Culturing replicates this by artificially introducing the irritant into the oyster by wedging open an oyster and implanting a grain of sand, or sometimes searing a bit of the oyster's flesh. The oyster then coats nacre around the sand or irritant, and, over time, the thickness of the nacre grows into a larger pearl.
The technology of culturing has advanced to using larger oysters to produce multiple pearls simultaneously and also by implanting larger and pre-shaped beads that have been cut from old oyster shells.
In this video, I will be smashing different pearls:
In this video, I will be smashing different pearls: surface dyed pearl, chemical dye peacock pearl, Keshi pearl, Baroque pearl, Edison pearl, and Tahitian pearl.
To answer the questions - what is the most expensive shape or colour of pearl? The rarer the pearl, the more expensive it is. In general, perfectly round, high lustre (more mirror-like focus of reflection) and no imperfections is the most rare. Highly prized are true white pearls, but some unusual pearls are prized because of their rarity - chocolate pearls, black (Tahitian) pearls and some champagne colours can fetch higher prices than white pearls of the same size.
different types of pearl, most expensive pearl, which pearl is the best, pearl jewelry, where to find pearls, freshwater pearl jewelry, where do pearls come from, real pearl jewellery, types of pearls, pearl making process, smashing pearls
_____________________________
Time Stamps:
00:00 Start
00:37 About dyed pearls
01:25 Smashing open to see what is inside of a Surface dye gray pearl
02:28 Smashing open to see what is inside of a Dyed peacock pearl
03:23 Smashing open to see what is inside of a Dyed keishi pearl
04:23 Smashing open to see what is inside of a Baroque pearl
05:41 Smashing open to see what is inside of a Edison pearl
07:01 Smashing open to see what is inside of a Large white rice pearl
08:48 Smashing open to see what is inside of a Large natural peach rice pearl
11:07 Smashing open to see what is inside of a Dyed green nugget pearl
12:38 Smashing open to see what is inside of a Tahitian pearl
14:44 Which one was your favorite?
_____________________________
Full disclosure
About us: Stones And Findings is a wholesaler of premium jewellery components.
You can shop our extensive collection online at wholesale prices by first creating an account (you do not need a business license). You will get instant access to prices and shopping cart at the bottom of this page:stonesandfindings.com/my-acco...
Note on Micro Welder I have used in my videos:
You can purchase it here 👉 bit.ly/orion-micro-welder-sf

[@sunflowerbaby1853]

Fascinating ❗️So brave of you to do this.

[@stonesandfindings]

LOL - not really brave, I'm just a curious person :). thanks for the comment

[@kassikassikassi]

This was so helpful! I’ve always been curious but haven’t wanted to actually smash any pearls!

[@stonesandfindings]

LOL - it actually pained me to smash the nicer pearls, but I'm super curious and have wanted to do this for a while.

[@artistcg]

I have some fresh water pearls, off-white, peachy/pink, and peacock. I made some charms and connectors with them. How do you think they will hold up when used with permanent jewelry?

[@stonesandfindings]

They will hold up very well. THis is because I have experimented with larger pearls on my kids and I have been wearing my tiny pearl connector for many months now and there has been zero change to its nacre.