Two other products result from pearl farming. The first is called keshi and is pure mother-of-pearl without a nucleus. Oftentimes the oyster rejects the nucleus into its protective bag but continues to secrete nacre. The resulting pearls vary from 2 to 8 mm in diameter and are often baroque in shape. While we were at the pearl farm, a randomly selected oyster was sacrificed in order to demonstrate the techniques. Our oyster had a keshi inside. See the photo at the left.
The second product from pearl farming is called mabe. The grafter inserts a plastic mold on the inner surface of the oyster's shell. The mold will gradually be covered with layers of mother-of-pearl. After a few months, a diamond disk is used to cut off the mother-of-pearl. The mabe is hollow and is filled with epoxy resin and used to make jewelry. The exhibit we saw at the pearl farm had many shells that looked like they had growths lining the shells. These were mabe. If you click on the picture to the right and above, you can see some of the shells have mabe growing in them.
I found the pearl growing process to be very fascinating! After the presentation, we all shopped in the small shop operated by the family. It was more fun to buy pearls after I understood better how they were grown.
