The South Sea Pearl Blog

  • February 18, 2022

    What do you know about Mabe Pearls?

    The South Sea Pearl Blog The South Sea Pearl
     For a pearl product to be called a pearl it needs to be formed inside a pearl sac in the interior of pearl producing mollusc. A cultured pearl is basically the same, but resulting from human intervention. When a pearl sac, that is a closed cell membrane, is not involved, the gem material is not a pearl, but something else.
    The so-called mabe pearls (or hankei pearls) are great examples for this as, technically, these are not pearls in the sense that they do not grow inside a pearl sac. In fact, these are protuberances in the shell’s nacreous interior that form as a consequence of a human-instigated process, being defined as cultured blisters. To be used in jewellery, these cultured shell blisters are worked, cut from the shell (soft nuclei removed), the interior filled with a hardened substance and finished with a mother-of-pearl cap glued to the base, making it an assembled product. Hence, a more correct designation would be assembled cultured blister.
    The name “mabe” comes from the Japanese vernacular for Pteria penguin (mabe-gai), a pearl producing mollusc that was originally used to grown these cultured blisters, and it has been used as a more romantic trade name for similar products from other molluscs.

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  • January 08, 2022

    🧐 How do Oyster makes colored pearls?

    🧐 How do Oyster makes colored pearls? | The South Sea Pearl

    How do Oyster makes Colored Pearls?

    This is a question that arises to many when they begin to discover the world of pearls, since traditionally it has been thought that the natural color of pearls is white.
    For many years it has been like that, with Akoya pearls from Japan, fresh water pearls in China and the coveted Australian pearls.
    But there are other pearl colors, like the golden of South Sea pearls in Philippines or Indonesia, or the black pearls of French Polynesia, whose natural color is not white.

    Why do pearls take this color?

    There is a type of oyster called Pinctada Maxima, which in some regions of the world such as the Philippines or Indonesia has golden lips. The pearl, when formed, absorbs the golden nacre and adopts that color.
    The same process occurs with the black pearls of Tahiti, but in this case with the Pinctada Margaritifera oyster, in French Polynesia.

    Another factor that can influence the color of pearls, although to a lesser extent, is the temperature of the water and how clean it is. For pearls to adopt a beautiful color the water must be extremely clean.



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  • January 04, 2022

    June Pearl Birthstone

    une Birthstone: Pearls Meaning


    The significance of birthstones goes back many years, when ancient civilizations believed that stones provided benefits such as health, strength or purity.

    Each month is accompanied by a birthstone.

    Why does June have 3 birthstones?

    Birthstones are separated by their origin. Some come from centuries ago while others are relatively modern. The international gem associations decided that, due to the impossibility of finding some of the gems from antiquity, some modern ones will be selected.

    That is why pearls are officially the June gemstone.


    What do pearls represent?


    Traditionally pearls have been associated with purity and integrity, that is why they are a common gift to little girls. Ancient civilizations have also associated pearls with the moon.

    Nowadays, we can associate pearls to elegance and to emit a feeling of confidence and firmness. That is why important figures in the corporate and political world such as the president of Banco Santander, Ana Botín, Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank or Kamala Harris, vice-president of the United States, wear pearls frequently.

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