Oysters and pearls

Immediately after the grafting operation, the oysters are harmlessly drilled and placed inside protective baskets. The baskets are then suspended on long lines in the clear water of the lagoon for about a year and a half as the pearls inside them form and grow. Finally the oysters are removed and their pearls are gently extracted. A second graft is then performed, this time with a much larger nucleus that roughly corresponds to the size of the extracted pearl. At the harvest of this second pearl, a third graft of even larger proportions is sometimes performed. Although extremely rare, we have used pearl nuclei up to 18 millimeters in diameter! Unfortunately every successive pearl sees the increasing age of the oyster and the subsequent decline in quality. This is why very large pearls of excellent quality are so rare.