MYTHOLOGY
CULTIVATION
SCELTA DELLA PERLA
GEOGRAFIA
PERLE NATURALI
GLOSSARIO
The pearls of Tahiti have been admired and sought for thousands of years. In the Polynesian culture, the pearl has always been synonymous of purity and power. Many the legends passed on during the centuries telling the history of the connection between pearl and mankind in the mythical paradise known as Tahiti.
- The Vedas
- In China
- Pliny the Elder
- In Polinesia
Ancient chinese ( 2500 B.C.), believed that the pearls were conceived in the dragons' brain. In the Imperial China, the black pearl has been considered a symbol of wisdom. As such, it was kept between the dragon's teeth. They were accepted as payment for the taxes and used for pharmaceutical purposes.
-In China
-In Polinesia
-The Vedas -Plinio il Vecchio
-In China -In Polinesia
A selection of the most beautiful creations of nature are born in the turquoise lagoons in some of the many islands and atolls that form the French Polynesia... they are known as the Tahiti's black pearls, real jewels from the sea, and living symbols of purity and perfection.
- Definition
- The pearl's story
- The pearl farm
-Definition -The pearl's story -The pearl farm
The pearls of Tahiti are sorted according to an official classification which takes into account their shape and size as well as how many surface imperfections there are, and where they appear. There are also more subtle criteria like brilliance and shine.
-The choice -The shape -The quality
-The size and color -Taking care of pearl
- The choice - The shpae - The quality
- The size and color - Taking care of pearl
The French Polinesian seabeds are the spontaneus cradle of a natural wonder from millennia: the famous Tahiti's black pearl. It's a world unique mother-of-pearl variety, so delicate that to be able to grow it needs a pristine lagoon environment, the Pinctada Margaritifera Cumingi variety, take its name from the first biologist that classified it in 1820.
We go in Polinesia
TORNA
The pearl is natural only when it is produced without human intervention. The formation process starts when a parasite or a foreign body or even an air bubble manage to penetrate the mollusk or oyster, triggering the mechanism that will form the pearl. The structure of natural pearls is not alwaysperfectly compact and homogeneous, since it is directly dependent upon the origin of its formation.
The rarest natural pearls are spherical, followed by oval pearls, drop-shaped and button-shaped pearls; rarely they are perfect.
The market of natural pearls, given their rarity, is considered almost non-existent.
- Conch pearls - Melo pearls - Abalone pearls
Melo Melo is a univalve gastropod of the “Volitidae”'s family, that lives in the southeast Asian seas. It is usually quite large, and have a remarkably long life. Melo pearls' form is usually spherical or nearly perfectly spherical (subspherical). However oval or ellipsoidal examples can be found. Pearls with an irregular shape, the so-called baroque pearls, are much more rare.
The colors of Melo pearls spans from dark brown to orange, and the orange pearls are the much sought-after.
The pearls farming uses a certain number of technical terms of which it is wise to know the significance before being plunged in this universe.
Key words of pearls
Over 2000 years B.C. they assured long life and prosperity to Brahma's disciples. It's been spoke extensively of the pearl, prolonging life, in the "“Rigveda”" ( XII-VII century to.c), the most ancient testimony in the Indian literature, that gather over thousands hymns and force of nature'spersonifications, and in the "”Atharvaveda”", “knowledge of the magic” formula and fourth text of the Vedas, that preserve many traditions of the popular cults and formulae of medicinal preparations for the treatment of diseases. The Ayurveda's medical tradition prescribes that the pearl's dust is obtained by cold working, to improve the sight, fight the bone diseases', bronchial asthma, tuberculosis, and as vitalizing| and aphrodisiac.
- The Vedas - In China
- Pliny the Elder - In Polinesia
-The Vedas -In China
-Pliny the Elder -In Polinesia
The international recognition
A commitment for the quality
Two events have considerably increased the international recognition of Tahiti's pearls.
First, the Gemological Institute of America has officially recognized the natural color of the cultivated pearls from Tahiti in 1976.
Second, the Confédération Internationale de la Bijouterie, Joaillerie et Orfèvrerie, also known as the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO), has adopted the commercial term "Tahiti Cultured Pearl" in 1989.
Today's pearl farms have replaced the diving industry of past Polynesian generations . Patient breeding techniques have replaced the devastating collection of oyster shells by divers.
But long before anyone considered breeding Pinctada Margaritifera oysters for grafting to produce the black pearl, man intervened in Nature's process in several attempts to increase the mother-of-pearl's population that many seasons of diving had made rarer and rarer.
By the end of the 19th century it became clear that in order to save the species it was necessary to control the collection of the breeding beds.However, it was not until 1953 that Gilbert Ranson, deputy director of the Museum of Paris and an oyster expert, came to Papeete and proposed regulations and guidelines to create natural reserves in the lagoons --using "spat" collectors-- to replenish depleted oyster stocks.
In 1976 the Department of Fisheries became involved in Ranson's program. And if the species is saved today, after being so close to disappearing, it was not without much effort and decades of hard work.
-Definition - The pearl farm - The pearl's story
- Round : An almost perfect sphere with a maximum of 2% variation in the diameter. These are the rarest and the most expensive pearls.
- Semi-Round (Or Near-Round) : A spherical pearl with a variation in diameter if between 2% and 5%. These pearls, once mounted, appear to be round, but due to their imperfection can be bought at a cheaper price.
- Semi-Baroque : Pearls shaped like a tear-drop, a pear, an oval or a button. The diameter varies more than 5%, but the pearls are symmetrical and often mounted as pendants.
- Baroque : Pearls that have no definite shape (irregular), are asymmetrical and therefore not in the above categories.
- Circled : Pearls having one or more concentric rings.
- The choice - The shape - The quality
In addition to their color, it's the size which differentiates the pearls of Tahiti from the white pearls of Asia.
They are measured at their diameter, at their widest part for Semi-Baroque pearls.
The smallest have a diameter of 7,5 mm
The medium size is up to 11.5 mm
Those pearls larger than 12 mm are the rarest, and are very small percentage of the harvest.
Pearls over 14 mm are exceptional, and those of high quality are especially sought after.
The commercial name is deceiving, as the "Black Tahitian Pearls" are far from being all black; it seems that the name is coming from the pearl oyster the Pinctada Margaritifera with black lips. On the contrary, the colors range from the purest white to the deepest black, passing through every shade of silver, peacock greens, eggplant purple, golden browns and even rainbows. These colors are natural, and vary according from the graft's origin implanted with the nucleus and also to the farming techniques and the lagoon.
The color is not a criterion of quality, and each person may choose according to their taste.
-Conch pearls -Melo pearls - Abalone pearls
The Perle Abalone are produced from the Haliotis gastropoda mollusc. These pearls |rarissime|, I am generally of blue iridescent color and from the irregular forms.
The inside part of the hull of mother-of-pearl of the mollusc has an intense shine and a variety of motley, blue shades, lavender, orange, green, pink and silver that is combined giving of exceptional reflexes. The beauty of these pearls is determinate by the combination of its fantastic colors and from the irregular forms
![18 []](http://static.wix.com/media/a507095aea52c0a3b22479a784725974.wix_mp_128)
![8 []](http://static.wix.com/media/3acdd14e05972b54622be20cd8344289.wix_mp_128)
![14 []](http://static.wix.com/media/c6e9d00ab5f1b443e55b867641e516bb.wix_mp_128)
![7 []](http://static.wix.com/media/b3d408d339378fd2538ce52c184d1201.wix_mp_128)
![6 []](http://static.wix.com/media/950f2c6418709b19da9b97a695fb3419.wix_mp_128)
![11 []](http://static.wix.com/media/2e0e2ccedcc5dfb10c64a3e8254a89f3.wix_mp_128)
![anatomie []](http://static.wix.com/media/4e21064c39edc1317f4d4ef28168bf77.wix_mp_128)
![copia di dscn0021 []](http://static.wix.com/media/f0a5b2e1627b497101ea1bbaff2f794d.wix_mp_128)
![prepgref1 []](http://static.wix.com/media/62d131df01ac82727330f115cf21df8d.wix_mp_128)
![tahiti7 []](http://static.wix.com/media/e31d14acb6f219ed79461dd804333aa5.wix_mp_128)
