In natural pearls the irritant generally comes from the water its surrounded by while in cultured pearls a piece of tissue is inserted by people.
Types of pearls pictures.
Size large pearls are extremely rare and with sizes up to 20mm south sea pearls stand out from all the other types of pearls.
Pearl types can generally be divided into two major categories.
Those produced in fresh water and those grown in salt water.
From the front these look exactly like normal spherical pearls but the side view shows that it is actually flat at the back making it a half pearl.
One of the types of blue pearls comes from the silver lip oyster when there is a contaminant either in the nacre or between the nacre and the shell bead.
Mabe pearls are categorized according to how they are grown and are not a type in itself like the keshi pearl.
They are also known as blister pearls or half pearls.
Up until 1989 pearls were only found.
Pearl colors the main types of natural south sea pearls are golden and white but due to their unique structure the color of the pearl can vary according to lighting.
In reaction the mollusc begins to produce layers of nacre around the irritant.
Akoya cultured pearls are the most familiar type of saltwater cultured pearl to most people in the u s and other western markets.
Many customers think of white or cream colored akoyas as the classic pearl used for jewelry especially single strand necklaces.
Other types of pearls called blue comes from the abalone which is technically a large snail of the genus haliotis.
There are four major types of cultured whole pearls.