Different kind of Baroque Pearls

Amongst all the gemstones, Pearls carry their own exclusivity, being the only gems produced by a living organism. Pearls have always been considered as priced possessions for their innocent beauty and rarity.

Baroque Pearls are normally irregular in shape, appearing in asymmetrical, rough contours. These are grown from fresh & saltwater shells & form inside the shell. They growth within the mantle of shellfish because of which their shape is not uniform.

Baroque pearls are better classified as cultured pearls. The beauty of these pearls is due to the nacre present within, the more the presence of nacre pear, the brighter pearl appears.

The element of brightness in pearls is called the iridescence or luster which when exposed to light gives a show of colors which any person would find irresistible.

Let us go through the process by which baroque pearls are formed. Since any foreign body is ejected by the shell, these pearls are formed because of this natural action. Sometimes the shell throws out the nucleus bead which is preformed earlier than normal before fully coating it.

Usually, shell does not stop nacre secretion immediately after the nucleus bead is released. Thus, nacre still gets produced & stays in the mantle tissue. The shellfish does not absorb this nacre again & the shell accumulates it into little beads, resulting into irregular shaped baroque beads.

Some other kind of baroque pearls are: Keshi and Akoya Pearls.

Keshi Pearls: These are well-known baroque pearls as they are free-forming pearls which do not have a nucleus. It means that there are no embedded beads in the mollusk, so the keshi pearls are purely composed of many layers of nacre.

Akoya Pearls: For at least a century now, these pearls have been cultivated in Japan. In Akoya pearls the shell is implanted with several of previously formed nucleus beads which range from 1 to 4 depending on the condition & size of the mollusk.

The pearls are formed inside the shell when two of the beads are close to each other. As a result of which the beads that are almost side by side get coated with nacre resulting in a “Siamese” pearl that can’t be separated anymore.