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MOP SHELL NECKLACES BALI INDONESIA

Code: Ji P14-6 Mother of Pearl Shell Jewelry from Indonesia	Code: Ji P14-7 Mother of Pearl Shell Jewelry from Indonesia	Code: Ji P14-8 Mother of Pearl Shell Jewelry from Indonesia	Code: Ji P14-9 Mother of Pearl Shell Jewelry from Indonesia	Code: Ji P14-10 Mother of Pearl Shell Jewelry from Indonesia

MOP SHELL NECKLACES BALI INDONESIA Pearl mussels live in lakes, rivers and streams. These freshwater mollusks produce pearls that can rival those of marine mollusks in luster and diverse color. And some species of freshwater pearl mussels are known to have produced dozens of pearls at a time. The local freshwater pearls of Europe, Asia and North America have been prized for hundreds and even thousands of years. In the early 1900s, the many species of North American pearl mussels supplied the thick mother-of-pearl needed for the button industry then booming in the Midwest. Today, freshwater mussel shells provide material for bead nuclei, which pearl farmers around the world implant in marine pearl oysters to create cultured pearls.

Mother pearl shell necklaces indonesia eastern North America has lost more than 35 species of pearl mussels to extinction in the last 50 years, chiefly from habitat destruction and pollution. Today, conservation efforts are increasing to protect the species that remain. Conchs have long been commercially harvested for their succulent flesh, used in chowders, conch salad and fritters. Natural porcelainlike conch pearls, in sunset pinks and golds, are usually found as a by-product of this harvest. The Queen Conch, official symbol of the Bahama Islands and the Florida Keys, is one of the largest living plant-eating gastropods.Haliotis species Known for both their meat and mother-of-pearl, abalones, or ear-shells, can be found around the world. They produce beautiful natural pearls in shades of turquoise, rose, green and cream. Evidence from archaeological sites in California shows that natural abalone pearls were used as trade goods by native peoples for thousands of years. Species in California and New Zealand are now being cultured, chiefly for food but also for mabé pearls.

Green Abalone shell with boring bivalves Haliotis fulgens Baja California Norte, Mexico These animals thrive off cold-water rocky shores, where they cling like limpets, and are often encrusted with small clams that bore in from the outside. These stimulate the production of blister pearls. American Museum of Natural History

Paua Abalone shell Haliotis iris New Zealand Paua Abalone are cultured today for both pearls and mother-of-pearl. Many mollusks attract various species of seaweed and tube-building worms, which accumulate on the outside of the shell. American Museum of Natural History Red Abalone Haliotis rufescens This cross-section through a natural blister pearl in a Red Abalone shows that the pearl was formed when a small clam bored into the abalone shell from the outside. The abalone responded by secreting layers of mother-of-pearl on the inside surface of the shell, forming the blister pearl.

The oldest known fossil pearls date from 230-210 million years ago, although mollusks have undoubtedly been producing pearls since they first appeared about 530 million years ago. Always rare, fossil pearls are almost always associated with marine bivalves, although ancient freshwater mollusks also produced pearls. During a pearl's fossilization, the aragonite (the mineral that makes up most of the pearl) is replaced by calcite or another mineral, but in cross-section the fossils show the same concentric layering as in modern pearls. Occasionally the original aragonite is preserved with its nacreous luster.

Fossil Pearls Pinna affinis London Clay, England Eocene Period (50 million years ago) These fossil pearls have retained their nacreous luster, possibly because the fine marine mud in which they were buried—now turned to rock—prevented the nacre from dissolving during fossilization. Pinctada maxima The largest living pearl oyster, this species has been harvested for more than a century in the South Pacific for its mother-of-pearl. Though cultured as early as the late 1800s, these pearls became widely distributed only in the 1970s. In some areas, this oyster is known as the Gold-lipped Pearl Oyster, but biologists consider the Silver- and Gold-lipped Pearl Oysters as mere varieties of a single species. Modern pearl culturing emphasizes silver or white pearls in Australia and gold pearls in the Philippines, Myanmar and Japan. Silver- or Golden-lipped Pearl Oyster Pinctada maxima (Jameson, 1901)Size: 20-30 cm. This is the world's largest pearl oyster. Ranges naturally from the eastern Indian Ocean to the tropical western Pacific. A single South Sea Pearl from the Silver-lipped pearl oyster South Sea Pearls—white to gold, 10-18 mm. The largest cultured South Sea pearl is 24 mm (Paspaley Collection).

Pinctada margaritifera Like the Silver-lipped Pearl Oyster, this species was long harvested for mother-of-pearl. In the Red Sea region, where pearlers called this kind of pearl oyster sadaf, harvests provided large "black" pearls for Indian and Persian monarchs. Rarely pure black, these pearls more commonly are gray with green, blue or rose overtones. With the widest geographical range of all living pearl oysters, the Black-lipped Pearl Oyster is now cultured for pearls in French Polynesia as well as many other areas in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Black-lipped Pearl Oyster Pinctada margaritifera The dark edge of the shell and its large size confirm that this is the shell of the Black-lipped Pearl Oyster. Black-lipped Oyster pearls Pinctada margaritifera Cultured Black-lipped Oyster pearls are sold today as Tahitian cultured pearls. Circlé pearls are ringed or grooved, an unexplained imperfection that can occur in pearl culturing. Once considered nearly valueless, they now add distinction to elegant jewelry. Many people mistakenly think that their next plate of oysters on the half-shell might contain a gem. But unlike pearls of gem quality created by pearl oysters, pearls produced by edible oysters have low luster and resemble pebbles. Edible or "true" oysters, the type most commonly eaten, are not as closely related to pearl oysters as their names imply. Both are marine bivalves with similar anatomies and modes of reproduction, but they belong to different taxonomic families.

Cemented group of true oyster shells Crassostrea virginica Eastern United States Members of the family Ostreidae, these true oysters cement themselves to hard surfaces and can live in estuaries with low salt content. They are raised and harvested as a desirable food source. Two Shells Are Better Than One Despite the general ability of mollusks to produce pearls, very few of the ones with single shells (gastropods) do so. Most pearls come from bivalves, the mollusks with two-part shells. The explanation lies in biological and ecological differences between these two groups of mollusks. Pteria penguin and Pteria sterna Mabé pearls are cultured blister pearls that form on the pearl oyster's shell rather than in its soft tissues. A mold made of plastic or other material inserted between the pearl oyster's shell and body causes the pearl oyster to produce layers of nacre over the mold, which is eventually cut from the shell. These two species of thin-shelled pearl oysters, the most common sources of mabé pearls, also produce free pearls less frequently.

Black-winged Pearl Oyster Pteria penguin (Roding, 1758) 8-25 cm. Mabé pearls—white, 20-25 mm Ranges naturally in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and the tropical western Pacific. Pinctada imbricata In 1492, when Christopher Columbus sought a new route to the Orient, pearls headed the list of goods that the Spanish monarchs desired. Though he never reached Asia, Columbus did land upon the Venezuelan coast in 1498, passing the pearl-rich islands of Margarita and Cubagua. Over the next century, millions of natural pearls from the region's Atlantic Pearl Oysters were shipped to Europe to satisfy the craze for these gems, bringing the Atlantic Pearl Oyster close to extinction. Although the pearl oyster beds have never fully recovered, there have been some commercial ventures in the last century.

Pinctada mazatlanica Before Black-lipped Pearl Oysters were first cultured for pearls in French Polynesia in the last century, most of the black pearls seen in Western countries—including many of the larger pearls worn during the European Renaissance—came from La Paz Pearl Oysters in Panama or Baja California. Recent pearl culturing ventures in the Gulf of California are now returning New World black pearls to the market.

La Paz Pearl Oyster shell Pinctada mazatlanica Veracruz, Cameron, Panama Members of the family Pteridae, these pearl oysters attach to hard surfaces with threads called a byssus, rather than cementing themselves as true oysters do. They also require more "open water" oceanic conditions than the edible species.

Three small areas in the western Indian Ocean—the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and Gulf of Mannar—consistently dominated the world's pearl markets from antiquity until the advent of the cultured pearl industry in the 1920s. Most of these pearls came from the Ceylon Pearl Oyster, called bil-bil by Red Sea pearl fishermen. Remarkably, wild populations of this oyster have endured despite the many centuries of continual harvesting. Efforts are now underway to develop culturing techniques. Pinctada fucata Mother-of-pearl from the shells of Akoya Pearl Oysters has long been valued in Japan for decorative inlay, but until recently pearls held little appeal for the Japanese. Akoya pearls became popular in Japan only after they began to be cultured for export in the 1920s. By the 1950s, Akoya pearls had won widespread popularity. The single strand of pearls soon became an essential for the well-dressed woman in Japan, the United States and Europe.

Gathering and Culturing Finding a valuable pearl requires as much luck as skill. And in their quest for both pearls and mother-of-pearl, people have sometimes taken extraordinary measures. For many centuries, divers for marine pearls had to outmaneuver sharks and other dangers to locate the pearl oysters they hoped would contain natural pearls. Some people attempted to "farm" natural populations of mollusks, periodically checking each animal for natural pearls in development. And over the last 100 years, scientists have developed elaborate techniques for artificially inducing the growth of pearls inside mollusks. The process, known as "pearl culturing," has dramatically increased the number and quality of pearls harvested each year. Nevertheless, the allure of uncovering a hidden pearl—either natural or cultured—remains as enticing today as ever. Unlike gemstones produced deep inside the Earth, pearls are created by living creatures called mollusks. Mollusks commonly have a soft, unsegmented body and a hard exterior shell, such as a clam or snail has. These animals live in marine and freshwater habitats as well as on land. The evolutionary history of this group extends back some 530 million years, with approximately 100,000 species of mollusks alive today. Any mollusk that produces a shell can produce a pearl. Nevertheless, naturally occurring pearls are rare, found in perhaps one of every 10,000 animals. The cultured pearl industry, which has flourished since the early 20th century, has developed techniques to greatly improve these odds. Indeed, more pearls are produced now than at any time in human history.

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