For thousands of years, humans have found beauty in Pearls. Over five-thousand years ago, some of the highest class Egyptians would wear Pearls and seashells. Some Chinese texts refer to Pearls about four-thousand years ago. With such a history of value and appeal to us, Pearls have solidified their position as being one of the classiest and high-end forms of Jewelry. 

At The Natural Jewel, we're happy to provide quite a variety of pearls. We have Cultured Saltwater, Freshwater, and Tahitian pearls. We also have various Natural pearls. 

Natural vs. Cultured: Pearls exist naturally in most types of shelled mollusks. The natural pearl is usually misshapen and rarely perfectly spherical. Natural pearls are created by mollusks without human intervention. Cultured pearls are pearls made with the helping hand of a human. We implant various irritants into the mollusks to cause them to create pearls. Culturing pearls allows for us to have better control over their shape and quality. Almost all pearls that are perfectly uniform are cultured. 

Saltwater: Saltwater Pearls form in oysters naturally or cultured, when an irritant becomes lodged in the flesh of the oysters. As the oyster is irritated, it secrets nacre (also known as mother of pearl). The nacre forms around the irritant making it smooth and less painful to the oyster.  Saltwater pearls are much rarer and more difficult to culture than freshwater pearls. 

Freshwater: Produced en masse inside of freshwater muscles, these pearls are very easy to culture. The U.S.A. and Japan both produce limited quantities of freshwater pearls. The vast majority of these pearls are, however, produced in China. At the Natural Jewel, we recognize the effort and care put into Japanese freshwater pearls and carry them exclusively. With freshwater pearls, you can expect a similar beauty to saltwater without the rarity or higher cost. 

Tahitian (Black) Pearls: In Tahiti and French Polynesia, it takes two years or more for the rarer Pinctada margaritifera mollusks to produce black pearls, even with human intervention.  These rare and metallic looking pearls are some of the finest cultured pearls in existence. The P. margaritifera (or black-lip oyster) is much larger than other oysters, which allows for the formation of larger pearls.  

We travel the world to find finest quality pearls of every style. We are sure that our pearls are heirloom quality and will stand the test of time.