How does an oyster make a pearl and how long does it take?

Answer 1

Pearls come from a group of water organisms called pearl molluscs, which includes oysters, mussels, and clams from both freshwater and saltwater. The pearl itself actually begins as an irritant. Sand, a pebble, or a pesky parasitic organism gets inside the oyster's shell. To reduce the irritation, the oyster coats the intruder with layers of a solid, slick material called nacre.

The oyster's mantle tissue secretes the two main components of nacre: thin layers of the mineral aragoniteand a gluelike substance called conchiolin, which cements the layers together. Because the aragonite is translucent, light interacts with the overlapping layers to give the finished pearl its lustrous appearance. Pearl molluscs also coat the inside of their own shells with nacre, so some shells picked up at a seashore are shiny and iridescent inside.

Answer 2

Its a piece of sand! When the oyster opens and filters out the food that it needs a piece of sand may become lodged under the body of the oyster, between body and shell. That is why there is such a difference in price between a "true natural pearl" and a "cultured pearl" which is artificially "seeded" with a foreign object, a few pieces of sand through a blow tube! Then the longer they wait the larger the pearl. A year or more, depending on the size of pearl you want. Bigger the pearl the more money you get for them. I learned all about this when I lived in Hawaii where they harvest cultured pearls all the time. You can even see stands sometimes at fairs, local events, and Waikiki, that sell you a live oyster for say a certain small amount of money on the lucky chance you get a biggie! Never really happens but they such you in on the hunch that just maybe it will be valuable for the price you paid for the oyster itself. No pearl, or just a little tiny one that you can't do anything with anyway, so sorry...you tried! The real oyster pearls are caught at great depths in Asia where women dive down to, without the need of scuba equipment or snorkels, and harvest the untouched "virgin" oysters. A certain percentage have pearls, some don't. That is why you pay way too much for a Pearl vs a "cultured" pearl! I hope I made myself clear and this helps. Most women can't tell the difference, or care, as long as it's a "real" pearl and not just plastic!

Answer 3

An oyster is formed through a bit of sand or other small object being lodged in the oyster, this causes some irritation that the oyster rectifies by excreting a coating around the irritating object.
Cultured pearls are formed by a bead being physically inserted into the oyster. The process starts soon after insertion the longer the oyster is left the larger the pearl

Answer 4

We dove deep into the Pearls category in the Yahoo! Directory and searched the oceans blue to discover that pearl-making is a pretty involved process. How long it takes depends upon how big of a pearl you want.
Any mollusk with a shell can create a pearl. In fact, the same materials that create the animal's shell go into the pearl itself. Contrary to popular opinion, it's not always an irritating grain of sand that prods an oyster into making a pearl. More likely, a stray food particle gets stuck under the shell.

The mollusk coats the irritant with layers of aragonite and conchiolin, and the composite material is called nacre. That is what gives pearls their luster. At least one species of oyster can secrete nacre over an irritant at a rate of about 0.1mm to 0.2mm per year.

But mollusks rarely create pearls naturally -- only one out of 10,000 animals will produce a pearl in the wild. Since the 1930s, the vast majority of pearls have been created with the help of humans. Cultured pearls are created by surgically implanting a bead or piece of shell into a mature oyster. The bead or shell becomes the irritant around which the oyster naturally forms layers of nacre. The bigger the irritant, the bigger the final pearl.

Successfully implanted oysters are returned to the ocean or a lake to grow the pearls. The pearls are harvested anywhere from one to three years after implantation, depending on conditions in the pearl farm and the size of the pearls desired.

Answer 5

The oyster's mantle tissue secretes the two main components of nacre: thin layers of the mineral aragoniteand a gluelike substance called conchiolin, which cements the layers together. Because the aragonite is translucent, light interacts with the overlapping layers to give the finished pearl its lustrous appearance. Pearl molluscs also coat the inside of their own shells with nacre, so some shells picked up at a seashore are shiny and iridescent inside. How long it takes visit - http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20030820.html (wed Aug 20 2003)

Answer 6

a pearl formation is a protective mechanism.when sand grains enter the shell of oyster,they cause irritation to it.In result,it secretes calcium carbonate around the sand grains.the secretion hardens and becomes a pearl.it is called a natural pearl.there is no particular period for that.now-a-days we can also make artificial pearls by introducing sand grains to the shell of oyster

Answer 7

it starts with a grain of sand and that is all i know