Our Chinese pearl farm
Liusha Harbor is the most famous harbor for Akoya Pearl farming in China, Liusha Harbor with the long and gentle coastal line, clean and non-polluted sea water,proper water temperature, rich seabed microorganisms and minerals, and right salinity, suitable for the culture and growth of Pteria martensiihas。 Liusha Harbor has thirty years history of origin for southern pearls culture,and it is well known as “the first pearl village in China“。My family involves into the pearl farming in Liusha harbor in the end of 1970's ，Our quality akoya pearl most come from our pearl farm in Liusha Harbor 。
When you on the way to the pearl farm, you can see the Log rafts, long lines, lighted buoys, floats, anchors, chain rope, juvenile rearing cages, cages, frame nets, dinghy, out-board motor, floating sheds and miscellaneous tools all over the farm. You may also attracted by the busy farm superintendent,technical assistants, farm labour。
Cultured pearls are grown on pearl farms and the entire process takes up to 2-5 years. The process begins by breeding of pearl oyster.once oysters are two- three years old and are healthy, they are able to undergo surgical implanting。Now the Natural spats are getting fewer and fewer, and artificial spat raising must be used for breeding. Artificial spat culture is a complicated process involved with high technology, roughly with the processes as follows: Sex identification of parent mussel--selection of parent mussel --proliferation of parent mussel--inspection of spat--selection -- selection and breeding of host mussel --spat collection --spat separation--young mussel management--harvest and transportation of young mussel If the baby oysters are grow healthy,the young oysters are need to tended for 1-2 years till they mature and are ready for grafting。Then we begain to surgical implanting the oyster, this is also known as seeding grafting or nucleus implanting of oyster.
Natural pearls occur when a foreign body, such as a boring worm or grain of sand, irritates the pearl oyster. Nacre is secreted around the foreign body by the mantle tissue to protect the pearl oyster’s tissues. Grafting is a means of imitating this natural process so that a cultured pearl can be grown. Nucleus implantation is a very delicate operation and takes many years to perfect, as it is designed to minimise stress on the oyster. It involves below stages:
1. Preparation of the graft
2. Attaching the graft
3. Inserting the core
4.Inspect after core implantation
5.Post grafting care
After 2-3 years after grafting, the oysters are harvested，If the seeding was successful, thousands of dollars worth of fine quality pearls will have been produced. Harvesting of the cultured pearls is usually carried out manually, manual extraction the pearls are collected by initially separating the two shell valves, by cutting the adductor muscle, making an incision on the gonad and squeezing the pearl out. After pearl are harvsed, original pearls are washed in distilled water, treatment of pearls for removal of minor blemishes， and pearls are polished with refined salt ,The pearls will be much more lustrous after cleaning， then the pearls are sorted for sale according to size, colour, shape, luster and other external characteristics.
After pearl are harvesed and cleaned,the carefully selected pearls are returned to our workshop ,our worker drilled the smooth hole in the pearl,and made up the pearls in uniform strings according to their quality and size .Also the pearls are make into jewelry piece such as necklace ,pendant,bracelet ,earring, ring etc.