Freshwater pearls are produced by mollusks that live in non-saline waters such as ponds or lakes.  Freshwater pearls are baroque or semi-baroque which gives each one a unique look.  Freshwater pearls have no mother of pearl bead nucleus to give the mussle a perfectly round template to form the nacre over thus creating the oblong shapes.  Freshwater pearls are produced more readily and are thus not as expensive as pearls.

Pearls

Pearls are organic gemstones that are formed as an immune response in shelled molluscs. Pearls can come from fresh or saltwater molluscs. The lovely feature of pearls is that they can be plucked straight from the shell fully formed, perfectly shaped, and displaying a beautiful shining lustre.

Completely naturally formed pearls are extremely rare, expensive and usually very small. In order to make pearls more accessible to many, scientists have developed ways to culture and farm the beautiful stone in a nurturing habitat. Many thousands of pearls will be sorted out in order to craft a single 16” strand of matched pearls. Although pearls are relatively soft, with a Mohs hardness of 2.5 to 4.5, they are extremely compact, which makes them durable and resistant to being broken.

Pearls are the birthstone for the month of June and are also traditionally used as 3rd and 30th anniversary gifts.