South Sea Pearls .
Q: Can anyone explain if south sea pearls are cultured? (Pearls from
around Tahiti I guess.) Would black ones be more expensive than white
south sea pearls? or vice-versa? What size bead do they start with if
they do use them?
Do they come from other areas or seas around the world.
A:I was told that the term "South Sea Pearl" can be legally applied to
any pearl 11mm or larger...regardless of whether it is cultured, black,
white or from the south seas. This was from a Mikimoto rep when i worked at
a retail chain store...
The South Sea Pearls are indeed cultured pearls. The particular oyster that
can generate pearls of this size can only live in warm waters which is why they
mostly come from Tahiti or Australia, etc...
The starter bead is about .5mm smaller than the finished bead after about 3
years of nacre layering by the oyster as cultured pearls go. Meaning that a
12mm South Sea started out as a 11.5mm starter bead.
And black pearls are generally the result of silver nitrate treatment on off
coloured pearls. This silver generates that black colour. However, there are
natural black South Sea pearls which are quite rare and very expensive.
There may well be others here who have a better source of information for you
but I hope that this will fill in some of the information gaps until the
additional information is available to you.