What are south sea pearls?

Pearls are organic gemstones grown inside oysters and are formed when a foreign object like a stone, grain of sand or grit finds its way into the shell. The oyster then secretes nacre onto the object, coating it over and over to create the pearl. Cultured pearls are made when that object is inserted on purpose into the shell. South Sea cultured pearls develop this and are actually manually produced in salt water (as opposed to river water) in an especially large oyster called Pinctada Maxima. These pearls are usually over 1cm in size, i.e. large, with a thick covering of nacre, rare and expensive. Some are nautrally black or grey coloured and the best are from Tahiti and very precious. You can test these pearls to ensure they are natural and not dyed.

You can take a look at our pearl range here.