TYPES OF PEARLS

Australian Pearls The Australian South Sea Pearl is unquestionably the rarest and finest cultured pearl in the world. No other pearl can equal its natural beauty and size. These high grade Australian Pearls are of such quality they do not require bleaching, tinting, dying or skinning. Their beauty will never fade because they are pure and untreated, ensuring a treasure that can be passed down from generation to generation.
Australian pearls range in size from 8mm up to 18mm, and come in many varied shapes and colours. The highly prized 'round' and 'drop' pearls are only two of the many natural shapes available. Baroque, circled, button and keshi pearls may be unique shapes, but all possess a beauty and style of their own. Like their 'round' and 'drop' counterparts, these pearls are naturally coloured silver, white, pink, golden or blue. Australian Pearls are highly prized and generally the most expensive.
South Sea Pearls There are two basic groups of South Sea cultured pearls: white and black.
Pearls from the white group are primarily cultured in the northern waters of Australia, the Philippines and Indonesia. Their rarity and exceptional sizes, from 8 to 20mm, make them highly prized. Their colours range from white and silvery blue to pale gold - the golden or light-yellowish varieties abound in Philippine and Indonesian waters while white or silvery hues occur mainly in Australian waters.
Pearls from the black group, among which is the legendary black pearl of the South Pacific, are most frequently found over a wide area stretching from the Cook Islands, eastward through Tahiti to the Tuamotu Archipelago and the Gambier Islands in French Polynesia.
Tahitian Pearls The cultured pearl of Tahiti is synonymous with magic and perfection. Most come from the atolls and lagoons of the South Pacific. They tend more toward drop shapes than round and vary in size from 7 to 15mm. They can be black, silver, dark or light grey. The rarest colour is "peacock green" - the greenish black colour of a peacock feather.
Akoya Pearls Considered the classic amongst cultured pearls, Akoya Pearls are primarily round or oval in shape and measure 2 to 10mm. They are cultured in southwestern Japan and China. Their colours range from pinkish white to creamy shades and silvery blue
Keshi Pearls Possessing a whimsical charm entirely different to the perfectly round, large pearls, seedless keshi pearls arise spontaneously in the culture of Akoya, and South Sea pearls. These small freeform pearls make fascinating necklaces in colours ranging from silvery white to silvery grey.
Mabé Pearls Mabé Pearls are attractive half pearls with beautiful, rainbow-coloured iridescence. The pearl was named after the mabé pearl oyster which is found mainly in the tropical seas of Southeast Asia and in the Japanese islands around Okinawa. Since the beginning of the century, many attempts had been made to cultivate round pearls from the mabé oyster but all had failed. However, in the 1950s hemispherical pearls (or 'half pearls' as they are more commonly known) were successfully cultivated. Today, most of these cultured half pearls do not come from the mabé oyster, but rather from the South Sea's silver-lipped oyster. Mabé pearls are also available in oval, cushion, drop and heart shapes.
Chinese Freshwater Pearls Chinese Freshwater Pearls are grown in an amazing variety of delicate shapes ranging from round and oval to button, drop and baroque. Their colours vary from pure white to orange and rosy violet.
Kasumiga Pearls The Kasumiga is a new type of pearl that comes from a lake northeast of Tokyo. The mussels are a crossbreed between Japanese and Chinese freshwater mussels, and are implanted with round or flat seeds. Kasumiga Pearls glow in rosy hues of light to dark pink.