PRODCUT: PEARLS

A pearl is a hard, rounded object produced by certain marine animals, primarily mollusks such as pearl oysters. Pearls can be used in jewelry and also crushed in cosmetics or paint formulations.

Natural pearls are 100% nacre. It is thought that natural pearls form under a set of accidental conditions when a microscopic intruder or grain of sand enters an oyster (or other mollusk) and settles inside the shell. It takes about 8 months to create one. The oyster, being irritated by the intruder, secretes the pearl substance called nacre to cover the irritant. This process is repeated for many years, thus producing a pearl.

The largest pearl ever found so far, came from the Philippines in 1934. It weighed 14 lb (6.4 kg) when it was discovered by an anonymous Filipino Muslim diver off the island of Palawan. Later, a Palawan chieftain gave the pearl to Wilbur Dowell Cobb in 1936 as a gift for having saved the life of his son. The pearl had been named the Pearl of Allah by the Muslim tribal chief. It is believed to actually be the Pearl of Lao-Tzu which was lost due to a shipwreck in 1745.