The Halcraft Collection Freshwater pearl beads are grown and harvested in the coastal middle of China in beautifully maintained pearl lakes. Our freshwater pearl beads are purely pearlized, from their humble beginnings until when we collect, polish, and drill them for your use.
Some freshwater pearls are made by "seeding" mollusks with small shell parts or round glass parts that then get pearlized over time, but ours are made by annoying the muscle of the mollusk directly, causing the mollusk to try to cover the itch by emitting nacre over the hole. After the loose nacre material is inside the mollusk, it annoys the mollusk so it will continually coat that base pearl with nacre for as long as it grows.
Most of the mollusks that we utilize bear between 25 and 30 pearls, ranging from 2mm if they have only grown for 18 months, up to 10mm if they have grown for more than 9 years. All during their growth each individual shell and the entire pearl lake need to be checked once a day to be sure that they are healthy. Any shells that show any signs of sickness or discoloration are removed from the lake immediately so that none of the other shells will fall ill.
At Halcraft Collection we love our freshwater pearls and so will you. Our pearls have a smaller hole size than semi-precious and glass beads (0.7mm only), and they are gorgeous in a string of their own, knotted in a strand, or as lovely spacer beads between your other favorite beads.
