Tahiti’s Pearl
Maintenance tips
of your Tahitian pearls
Pearls are the only gems of organic origin in the world, which means that special care is needed to ensure that the pearls’ beauty will last a lifetime.
You should keep in mind that it is important to wear your pearls as often as possible as the natural oils of the body is a natural moisturizer.
However, some precautions are to be taken if you want to preserve its luster.
- Avoid any contact between your pearls and perfume, sprays, household cleaners such as dishwashing liquids or hand soap as their chemical properties can damage your pearls.
- Do not hesitate to wipe them from time to time with a soft, chamois cloth in order to remove the substances which could have deposited on your pearls.
- Avoid wearing your jewelry while showering or bathing (swimming pool, jacuzzis, etc.). The hammam and sauna are also not suitable.
- If possible store them in their pouch to avoid rubbing.
The classification
of different Tahitian pearls
Tahitian black pearls are available according to several criteria :
- Diameter: from 8 mm to 16 mm and sometimes up to 20 mm
- Color: an infinite variety of colors (eggplant, pink, pistachio, lavender, pigeon gray, moon gray, silver, gold, champagne, lagoon blue, emerald green, peacock feathers …)
- The form :
- Round: these are perfectly spherical pearls. They are the most valuable.
- Semi-round: these pearls are slightly flattened or extended and are therefore not perfectly round.
- Baroque: these pearls are asymmetrical and irregular in their forms, abstract, fluted…
- Semi-baroque: these pearls take the forms of semi-round pearls, but are irregular, asymmetrical, in their forms.
- Circled: these are pearls which repeat the 4 categories above, but which, on all or part of their surface, develop rings.
In order to ensure a recognized quality for the black pearl of Tahiti, rules for the classification of pearls have been defined.
However, the shapes of these pearls and their colors are not taken into account in the classification. This only takes into account the degree of surface perfection and luster of the pearl.
Therefore, the most important to define the quality of a pearl is the following classification :
A
Matching the pearl of the highest quality. A very beautiful luster and an imperfection, or a group of slight imperfections, not exceeding 10% of the total surface.
B
A beautiful to medium luster, and an imperfection, or a group of slight imperfections, not exceeding 30% of the total surface.
C
Medium luster, slight imperfections not exceeding 60% of the total surface.
D
Weak luster, slight or deep imperfections not exceeding 60% of the total surface.
>> Beyond these tolerated imperfections and weak luster, the pearls are classified as scrap and destroyed.
History of the Tahitian pearl
A unique environment for an exceptional animal
The black-lipped pearl oysters, Pinctada margaritifera have adapted over the centuries in certain islands of the South Pacific, which today correspond to French Polynesia and to the north of the Cook Islands. However, it was mainly found in the lagoons of Tuamotu atolls, up to the Gambier archipelago and the famous pearl oyster deposits of Mangareva, that the adventure of the pearl of Tahiti was built. With a unique environment and an exceptional mollusc for its double setting.
The fascination for Polynesian pearls
The first Europeans entered the South Pacific and Polynesian waters in 1521, with Puka Puka, an atoll discovered by chance on January 24 by Fernao de Magalhaes, better known under the name of Magellan. From then on, the ships of the various European kingdoms will ply unceasingly, with more or less regularity, the great Pacific Ocean. In the logbooks and exploration accounts, the astonishment linked to the discovery of these islands, which we would like to be a prelude to the southern continent, is quickly accompanied by a certain fever for the pearl, this precious gem; so much so that the Tuamotu, islands of Desolation, Disappointment, a dangerous archipelago are gradually becoming … the pearl islands.
The cultured pearl in Polynesia, the successful bet
The man who did the first transplant in 1961 on a hundred pintadines is Jean Marie Domard. Before that, it was not cultured pearls but fine pearls (several thousand pearl oysters to hope to find a fine pearl).
This advance is great news on the economic and social aspect of the Territory but above all, essential from an ecological point of view. The time when thousands of pearl oysters had to be sacrificed to harvest a pearl is resolved.
« We sometimes wonder how the pearl oysters of Polynesia, once grafted, manage to give pearls of such a color chart …. It is then enough to look at the multiple beauty of our lagoons, at the edge of a reef barrier, of a beach of pink sands, where the lightest and most fragile blue are shared in the deepest dark, to make it obvious: the pearl oyster, the pearl and the islands are one. »
Birth of a pearl
A natural pearl or fine pearl is born when a grain of sand comes to penetrate the shell of the oyster. It will then cover it with successive layers of mother-of-pearl until the intruder is completely covered with it, which will take years. Today, all the “real” pearls sold in the world are cultured pearls. 3 essential steps are necessary in order to obtain a cultured pearl.
The graft
It involves inserting into the “pearl pocket” a nucleus (it will play the role of the grain of sand) and a graft (piece of organic tissue cut from the mantle of a donor oyster). The shell is ajar to let the grafting tools pass. Once inserted into the oyster, the graft merges with living tissue and a pearl sac develops around the nucleus: this is the starting point for the future pearl. The transplant operation is a traumatic process. The oysters that survive and retain the nucleus are raised on chapelets. It takes about 18 months to form a 0.8mm thick mother-of-pearl layer. Out of a hundred grafted individuals, only twenty-five to thirty oysters yield marketable pearls.
The harvest
Eighteen months after the transplant, it is harvest without sacrificing the oyster. If the pearl is of exceptional quality, a second graft is performed with a nucleus the size of the harvested pearl. Oysters can be grafted two to three times. The beauty of a pearl depends on the following criteria: its shape, the quality of its surface, its color, its luster…
Spat collection
Oyster spat is the raw material for farming. The collectors (strips of synthetic material) are suspended a few meters below the surface of the lagoon. They stay between 12 and 24 months underwater to produce 5 to 10 cm juveniles. To reach the graft size of between 9 and 11 cm, each shell is pierced at the level of an “ear” then attached to a 2 m cord which will constitute a chaplet suspended from a sub-surface die for 3 to 12 months .
