History

• Mollusks are more than 500 million years old, and over the years, pearls have been found in many extinct species. Pearl hunting was one of the only ways to obtain pearls prior to the 20th century. This method is now virtually extinct due to "perliculture," the man-made process of creating pearls.
  
  

Natural Pearls

• Pearls are created by mollusks; they have a soft inside and a hard exterior similar to a clam. There are over 100,000 known types of mollusks. Natural pearls made by mollusks are rare; only about one in 10,000 are able to create pearls on their own.
  
  

Man-Made Pearls

• Mollusks can be raised in a man-made environment to manipulate them into forming pearls in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors. The process of creating pearls was developed by Kokichi Mikimoto.