Tahitian Pearl Jewelry

All pearls are beautiful and Tahitian pearls are rather special. Tahitian pearls come in black, chocolate and peacock and make wonderful, feminine jewelry. Follow some of my tips on how to spot a genuine Tahitian pearl and learn how they come to be. In addition browse an handpicked selection of jewelry, including vintage jewelry from reputable sellers showcasing some wonderful examples of South Sea pearls.

Photo: mj007 on Shutterstock

1. As with any purchase - buyer beware! There are a lot of unscrupulous people who will be only too delighted to take your money, so buy from a reputable source.
2. Look carefully at the pearls - if there is more than one - you will notice, in genuine Tahitian pearls, no two pearls are exactly the same. Take them outside into daylight if you can or look at them under bright light. The hue, luster or overtone of a pearl will be subtly unique to that pearl. Of course REALLY expensive pearls can be matched very closely but if you can afford to buy those, you can afford to pay for an independent gem expert to examine them and provide you with certification.
3. In the same way that no two pearls are the same color, no two pearls are completely the same shape. Natural or properly cultured pearls will have fine irregularities that you may not see with the naked eye but you will probably feel when you touch them.
4. Real pearls also feel slightly warm to the touch. Not heat, just a certain warmth as opposed to the coolness of glass, plastic or some other synthetic material.
5. They also have a bit of a weight to them. Fake pearls tend to be very light, often because they are hollow.

Rings are popular gifts for any occasion and these Tahitian pearl rings are just right: whether you are shopping for an engagement ring, anniversary ring or a cocktail ring - you can find a pearl ring to suit every taste and every budget.

1. Tahiti is the main island of French Polynesia - often referred to as South Sea islands - there are five main archipelagos that make up the islands.
2. The pearls come from a large oyster native to that area and the warm sea and lagoons around the island.
3. Tahitian pearls come from a black-lipped oyster species called Pinctada Margartifera that are only native to French Polynesia.
4. Those pearls that are harvested from wild oysters are extremely expensive. Oyster divers can end up opening thousands of oysters and only to find a few pearls.
5. Since the 1960s, pearl farms have been established to 'grow' pearls within oysters on an oyster farm. These are called cultured pearls.
6. To create a pearl - a 'grafter' very carefully inserts a tiny tiny piece of shell underneath the mantle of a living oyster. The oyster will then seek to isolate the intrusion by surrounding it with a coating = a pearl.
7. Cultured pearls can be from sea-water oysters or fresh-water oysters - these are sometime called river oysters.
8. A pearl can take up to 2 years to form.
9. The tiny piece of shell used to insert is polished so it will help to produce a perfect sphere pearl.
10. The Tahitian pearl farmers use shell which comes from Mississippi in the USA.

Choose from brooches and pins, all featuring these incandescent beauties. If you are looking for a gift for birthday, anniversary, Mother's Day or Christmas, there will be an ideal brooch or pin to suit everyone.

How pearls get their color

The color a pearl is, results from the temperature of the water plus the nutrients that are in the water around the oyster. The colors can range from very pale to very dark with black being the most commonly occurring ones in the South Seas islands.

It you look at a real Tahitian pearl what you will notice is that it is actually many colors - the shell that makes up the surface of the pearl comes from the same iridescent substance that you find on the

13.1 x 15.4mm multicolor black Tahitian south sea cultured pearl necklace 19"

The most popular Tahitian pearl are the ones we call black - in reality they are very dark gray with a dark green luster. The only naturally occurring black pearls come from the black-lipped oysters that are native only in the Polynesian Islands.

1. Naturally occurring pearls can be anywhere between white and black but the ones farmed in the South Seas are mostly black. While they may not seem true black, the main body color of them is while they have shimmering overtones of radiant incandescent colors - anything from green to blue to pink to deep gray.
2. The different colors result because of the temperature of the water, plus the nutrients and the chemical composition that exists within the water surrounding the oyster.
3. The best colors come from oysters in the beautiful blue lagoons at Tuamotu-Gambier Archipelago as well as in some of the lagoons of the other islands.
4. In cultured pearls, the colors can be altered by inserting tissue from another oyster when the mollusk shell bead is inserted.
5. Tahitian pearl colors can be yellow, silver, green, blue, charcoal, chocolate, or even pink. Sometimes these are combined to make peacock pearls: many different colors shifting as the light hits the pearl.
6. The darker hues are almost but not quite black.
7. Chocolate pearls are produced by a bleaching and heating method - black pearls are subjected to different strengths of bleach and to different heat levels to alter the color.
8. False chocolate pearls are relatively easy to spot - they are dyed instead of going through the patented process. This means the color is only surface deep and will fade or even peel over time.
9. Tahitian chocolate pearls carry a luster - a luminescence that cannot be reproduced by dying freshwater pearls.
10. Chocolate is not a natural color in any pearl and only the pearls from the black lipped oyster will 'take' the process necessary to change it from black to a rich, warm chocolate brown.

Feminine and delicate pieces