Freshwater Pearls

Freshwater Cultured Pearls, are farmed in freshwater and grown in mussels. The irritants and the oysters used in making freshwater pearls are smaller than saltwater pearls. Freshwater pearls cultivating technique usually produce twenty or more pearls in one oyster.

When you think of freshwater pearls, small size and lopsided shapes may come to mind. That was pretty much the case ten years ago. For many years, freshwater pearl farms only produced low quality rice pearls, while saltwater pearls, were more round and of better quality. The past ten years has seen many improvements in the cultivation and processing techniques of freshwater pearls.

The least expensive cultured pearl product on the market today rivals the quality of the most expensive natural pearls ever found. This price-value is obvious to consumers as they buy Chinese freshwater bargains. Pearls from freshwater mussels lie at the center of the liveliest activity in pearling today. In the 1990s, China surprised the market with freshwater pearls that were of much higher quality. The ever-inferior freshwater pearls are now steadily becoming a strong opponent of their saltwater counterparts.