The beautiful luster and perfectly round shape of high quality akoya pearls makes them appear extraordinary as compare to freshwater pearls. These pearls are saltwater pearls cultured from Akoya oyster. Akoya are the most popular type of pearls and are considered to be the most suitable pearls for necklaces.

Akoya pearls are well known for their aesthetic values. An Akoya pearl hardly ever produces more than 2 pearls per harvest very to the freshwater pearls. The oysters of akoya are nucleated with bead composed of mother of pearl and mantle tissue. This bead initiates the development of pearl and it is the reason why akoya pearls are perfectly round. The ideal combination of perfect shape and high luster give the akoya pearls both a higher perceived and actual value. Akoya pearls are rated many times more than freshwater pearls of analogous quality.

Akoya pearl oyster is tiny and is commercially farmed from a pearl producing oyster. This tiny oyster results into the small sized akoya pearl of around 7 to 12mm range. Although baroque and keshi pearls are considered to be more valuable in comparison with the freshwater pearls, they are obtainable only in few dollars per strand at akoya pearl farms. Except color treated akoya pearl other akoya pearls have soft, neutral color overtones. The common colors in akoya are white to grey, pink, green or silver etc. These pearls are never naturally black unless they have undergone either a radiation treatment or artificial dyeing.

Recently Akoya pearls are being farmed in China, Japan, and to a small extent, in Vietnam, Thailand and other areas of world. Akoya pearls are specialty of Japanese pearls. These are larger, smoother, round and more lustrous than any other pearls. These are the third most valuable commercially produced pearls after South Sea and Tahitians. Akoyas are most popular pearls to make an attractive jewelry such as necklace, bracelet, earrings and all other charming pieces. They are preferred by most of the retailers, consumers and other pearl industries. They are made affordable at the same time popular by unproved techniques of bead nucleation.

After all the processes from development up to finishing the akoya pearl is now ready to embellish you.

For more information on types of pearls, just click here.

Turquoise is recognized and respected all over the world as semi-precious stone, it said that Turquoise brings you luck when it comes to romance and money. Pearls are really timeless and versatile that can be worn by anyone of any age; pearl jewelry is always in fashion. The combination of pearls and Turquoise is very elegant and impressive. Charm of pure pearls and mysterious Turquoise makes very unique piece of jewelry.

Turquoise is an opaque mineral that has wide color range from blue to blue green and greenish gray. Jewelry made up from turquoise and pearls in high in fashion because of elegance of pearls and natural colors of turquoise. This jewelry is highly collectible. You can have this combination in both modern and contemporary styles that match every taste. There is everything pearl & turquoise necklace, bracelets, earrings, hair jewelry and anything you can imagine.

Most famous piece of Pearl and Turquoise jewelry is necklace made up of these beautiful gems. You can have these pearls and turquoise beads are available in many shapes like drop, pearl, coin and irregular baroque pearls are very popular among women and designers.

Pearls and Turquoise bracelet and earrings also looks very amazing. You can have many different types of pearls like Freshwater pearls, Tahitian black pearls and any other type of pearls for depending upon their quality, price and other factors. Pearl are available in many different colors; especially freshwater pearls like white, pink, violet to black almost in all colors and shades. Turquoise is also available in many different colors from greenish, dark blue, blue green and sky blue. Turquoise may have veining of black and brownish streaks; these veining is due to some impurity present in minerals. Veining on Turquoise beads give beds a very earthy natural look.You can also make this jewelry by yourself using pearls and turquoise beads.

For more information on pearls and Turquoise beads click here.

Many people are asking about the difference between the pearls that we are cultivating in our pearl farm and Japanese pearls, so we would like to spend some time to talk about Japanese pearls today.

Most of the Japanese freshwater pearls are cultivated in China these days because of their pollution problem. Both freshwater pearls and are Akoya pearls are loosely called by laymen as Japanese pearls in the world of fashion and pearl jewellery. However, Akoya means Marine water in Japanese language. Japanese Akoya pearls are well known for their thick nacre and amazing luster. They have classic quality and grace.

Japanese Akoya pearls are harvested from small oysters Pincada fucata ; it is a small oyster have average size 6 to 7 cm. Best time to harvest these Akoya pearls are the hottest and coldest time of year, in this time period oysters are dormant. Pearls harvested in some other time of year have thin nacre and dull luster.

Kokichi Mikimoto a visionary from Japan invented a technique for culturing Akoya pearls. He also patented technique of culturing pearls. These pearls were primarily cultivated in sea water off the coastal area of Japan. To form beautiful Akoya pearl, small bead of mantle tissue is inserted inside the oyster and then those oysters are left to grow in Sea water or fresh water. Oyster then secretes layers of thick nacre over that irritant which results into formation of high quality, lustrous pearl.

Natural color of pearl is completely dependent upon the specie and climatic conditions of water. In 3-5 years, pearl grows completely into nice quality pearl with thick nacre. Growth is constantly monitored during growth period to get good harvest. Bead inserted in Akoya oyster (Pinctada fucata martensii) is very small for formation of perfect Akoya pearl. Akoya oyster very rarely produces more than one pearl.

Because of the technological improvements, China pearls is catching on. Nowdays' freshwater pearls can marvel the same quality as the Akoya pearls. They also come in white and cream color with natural overtones like pink, blue, green etc. These pearls also have very high luster and usually they have a perfect round shape. Since they are nearly round they are best choice for necklace, earrings and bracelet. 40 to 50 Akoya pearls make a standard pearl necklace, which very common and popular among women.

Pearl jewelry made of both Akoya pearls and freshwater pearls both are very appealing and although freshwater pearls maybe the best choice as a gift for its value and same beauty. To learn more about wholesale priced freshwater pearls, please visit www.OrientalPearls.net.

Freshwater Pearls---a Worthy Opponent of Saltwater Pearls.

When you think of Freshwater pearls, what comes to mind?

Do you invision a small, irregular shape? That was pretty much the case years ago. For a long time, Freshwater pearl farms only produced low quality pearls, while Saltwater pearls were more round and of better quality.

But now, the Chinese have made advances in their cultivating methods that have allowed them to match the quality of Saltwater pearls. Many improvements have been seen in the cultivation and processing techniques of Freshwater pearls. With modern freshwater cultivation methods, Freshwater pearls today are of excellent quality - with outstanding body, shape, and luster which can be on equal footing with that of Saltwater Akoya pearls. In some cases, freshwater cultured pearls exceed the quality of Saltwater Akoya Pearls. Therefore, the least expensive cultured Freshwater pearl product on the market today rivals the quality of the most expensive natural pearls.

This value is obvious to consumers wanting Chinese Freshwater bargains. The once inferior Freshwater pearls are steadily becoming a strong opponent of Saltwater pearls. Cultured Freshwater pearls are farmed in lakes, ponds and are grown in mussels.

The Freshwater pearl cultivating technique usually produces twenty or more pearls in one oyster. Recent research shows a Freshwater mollusk can create as many as 50 pearls at a time.

Saltwater Cultured Pearls are farmed in saltwater. The term "Akoya" is used internationally to signify Saltwater Pearls. Here’s how it works: the Akoya mollusk is implanted with a round bead along with a small piece of mantle tissue which allows nacre to develop around the bead. The number of beads that can be inserted into the mollusk depends on the mollusk, but usually no more than 3 beads can be inserted into one mollusk. This limited creation makes Saltwater pearls much more expensive than Freshwater pearls.

Colors

Freshwater pearls have an added attraction since they come in a wide range of colors as compared to Saltwater pearls. By adding very small quantities of metals to the water on a pearl farm, the colors of Freshwater pearls can be very unique, something not usually seen in Saltwater pearls.

Shapes

Freshwater pearls can be found in almost any shape that you can imagine: round, drop, rice, button, potato, oval, semi-round, Baroque, rectangle coin, heart-shape, and Mother-of-Pearl. Because of its popularity, the round shape is usually the most expensive, but as always, personal preference dictates the shape each customer will find most beautiful. Baroque pearls are favored by many people because of their irregular and unique shape. In fact, Baroque shapes, like color variety, offer beaders more options, despite the fact that farmers aim for smooth round cultured pearls.

Cultivation Periods

Japanese Akoya pearls take a shorter period of time - less than 2 years. The cultivation period for Chinese Freshwater pearls in the 1980s was 18 to 24 months. This short time resulted in small sizes and low quality.

Today, Chinese pearl farms have changed their way of cultivating pearls to let their mussels stay in the water for a much longer time. Freshwater pearls take from three years to as many as 5 to 6 years before they are ready for harvest. Longer cultivation periods have led to Freshwater pearls that are much bigger in size and higher in quality.

Comparable Sizes

New farming techniques and longer cultivation periods have increased the size of Freshwater pearls. Large Freshwater pearls in the range of 9 to 16 mm are now more common, and equivalent to South Sea pearls in size, yet more aggressively priced.

Quality

The shape, surface and luster of today’s Freshwater pearls have already surpassed the original Biwa quality. As testimony to China's achievement, good Freshwater pearls are now round enough, clean and lustrous enough to pass as Japanese Akoya and South Sea pearls.
To sum up, Freshwater pearl farmers have improved their cultivation methods and processing techniques. These farmers are creating a pearl that is much less expensive, yet its quality rivals that of the more expensive Saltwater pearls. In that way, Akoya pearls and their status as the pearl of choice has been significantly challenged by the outstanding quality of Freshwater pearls. The new Freshwater pearls that are now produced are clearly equal in quality to Akoya pearls but at a fraction of the Akoya price. When Freshwater pearls are round, they are magnificent - the nacre is full, the molecular structure of the nacre is tightly bound and the luster is spectacular.

Although China, Japan, and the U.S. all produce cultured Freshwater pearls, China dominates the market. The Chinese produce a massive volume of Freshwater pearls every year. Nobody knows how many Freshwater pearls are produced in China, but experts estimate that they produce 10 times the amount of all other Freshwater countries combined. Most pearl farms in China are within 300 miles of Shanghai. Lake Thaihu, where the Freshwater pearl culture began, is still used as a pearl farm site today. There are countless small, family run pearl farms all over the countryside in China, as well as large corporate-owned operations. The Chinese freshwater pearl industry is indeed the largest pearl industry in the world.

Click here to learn more about freshwater pearls.