Cultured Abalone Pearls 

Experts in Canada, New Zealand, and California began experimenting with culturing whole and blister pearls in abalone as early as 1989. By 2009 the only abalone pearl farms were in New Zealand and Northern California. When culturing began in New Zealand, only 15 percent of the abalone used for pearls produced marketable products after two years or more, which is the typical pearl growth period. Within five years of the program’s inception, the success rate had grown to almost 20 percent.

Culturing abalone pearls is extremely difficult because the mollusks have a type of hemophilia that causes the animals to bleed to death if cut. Abalone are also browsers—they move around while feeding—and their movements can dislodge implanted nuclei. Cultured pearl–producing bivalve mollusks are filter feeders that generally remain in one place. Although there’s some interest in whole abalone pearls among producers and consumers, success at farming them has proven elusive.

Azad
Since their introduction to the international gem market in 1996, cultured abalone blister pearls from New Zealand have appeared in many pieces of fine jewelry. The pendant, which features a cultured abalone blister pearl, is attached to a strand of cultured pearls from French Polynesia.