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The pearl is making a comeback in the
world of high fashion jewellery and the South Pacific black pearl is a
major new player. The black-lipped mother of pearl shell Pinctada
margaritifera is a native of the South Pacific and thrives in the
clear, unpolluted waters of the lagoons of the Northern Cook islands of
Manihiki and Penrhyn.
The Cook Islands has
built a new and thriving industry out of this interest in the black pearl.
The cyclone in Manihiki of November 1997 was a serious setback but the
pearl companies have begun the process of reconstruction.
Black pearls derive their lustrous color from the greyish-black nacre of the oyster shell. There are many different shades
of black. Color is not usually a factor in determining price. Growing
pearls is a highly skilled process.
First, the oyster is collected and a trained
technician puts a nucleus into the shell as well as a piece of mantle from
a donor shell. The nucleus is a tiny sphere of crushed Mississippi
freshwater clam specially farmed for the purpose. The mantle is the part
of the oyster flesh which lays down the mother-of-pearl coating, the nacre.
The mantle creates a pouch around the nucleus and, over two years or so,
puts thousands of very thin layers of nacre over it. The result, if
perfect, is a perfectly spherical black pearl.
Pearl seeding technicians are highly skilled.
Most are Japanese and are booked up for years in advance. They are
probably the highest-paid workers in the world, the best of them earning
over a million dollars a year.
To help them withstand the stress of the implant
operation the mother shells have to be kept in good condition and this
entails cleaning them constantly to prevent the build-up of algae and
barnacles. This is the most important and time-consuming part of pearl
farming.
The price of a pearl depends on its quality and
size. Pearls are graded by size, shape, surface characteristics, color and
lustre. Size is in millimetres ranging between 8 and 12 with the
occasional rare beauty reaching 13 to 15 millimetres. Surface
characteristics can include surface blemishes such as pits, bumps, ridges,
cracks and spots. Color is a matter of taste: it can range from deep black
through silver grey and into white. Lustre is caused by the reflection of
light from the surface. Shape can be classified by round, drop or pear,
button (round one side and flat the other), baroque (irregular) and
circled (ringed).
Keshi pearls are formed when the mother pearl
shell rejects the nucleus and only the donor mantle remains. The shell
then forms a small, irregular seedless pearl. Mabe (mar-bay) pearls,
also known as blister pearls, are half-pearls formed by cutting the
nucleus in half and attaching it to the inside lip of the mother shell.
They form oval, teardrop and heart shapes and often show the colors of the
spectrum.
There is another extremely rare pearl to be found
in the Cook Islands: the natural Golden Pearl (poe pipi). This is
one of the few remaining types of natural pearls left in the world today.
It grows in the lagoon of Penrhyn in the
shell Pinctada maculata, the smallest pearl producing shell
in the world. The pearl is seldom bigger than 8mm in diameter.
Much of the population
of the island is involved in pearl production in some form or another.
At present there is not
rentable accommodation in Manihiki and therefore little, if any Tourism.
Last year (1998) Manihiki was hit by a cyclone, many houses have not yet
been rebuild.
For
more general information
on Cook Islands, go to: |
