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Abalone Pearls


Abalone pearls are natural pearls from the gastropod mollusk, Haliotis. They are iridescent calcareous concretions that are created by a univalve organism, the abalone. These natural pearls occur in all the colors of the rainbow with the most common colors being blue and green. They also occur in combinations of red, pink, purple, magenta, silver, and cream white. Although the abalone creates round pearls, they are mostly in baroque shapes. Their size range from seed pearls to over 500 carat pearls. They are byproducts of harvesting abalone in the wild and they are so rare that only a handful of gem quality is found each year.
The Haliotis Rufescens or "red abalone" as it is commonly called is the largest of approximately one hundred species found worldwide and produce the largest gem quality natural pearls in the world. The red abalone prefer colder temperatures, and consequently produce pearls with the thickest nacre. These pearls are created naturally when an intrusion of a foreign object into the abalone's soft parts induces the abalone to entomb it with concentric layers of nacre. The shape of the pearl depends on the part of the body the parasite attacks. Round pearls develop in the stomach area. Crescent shaped pearls form around the columella and the horn shaped pearls develop in the gonad. Only a small percentage is found in rounds or buttons.
 
 
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