Unusual Cortez Mabe Blisters

 

Whoa! This year we have a very special group of out-of-the-ordinary Cortez Blister Pearls…why are these so Special??? Well, let me explain:

1. Many of these are BIG! As you are well aware our “Rainbow Lip Pearl Oyster” (Pteria sterna) is NOT a Big oyster, more of a mid-sized animal…just between the large “black/silver/gold lips” (Pinctada margaritifera & Pinctada maxima) and the smaller “Akoya Pearl Oyster” (Pinctada imbricata=fucata). The average size of our Cortez Mabe Pearls is 14 mm in diameter.
2. These Cortez Mabe are VERY BAROQUE, or beyond baroque or simply put: Naturally Shaped. Our Mabe Pearls are never identical and are mostly free-form but leaning towards oval and teardrop shapes.
3. Their RARITY: this group is very unusual and rare…just 21 pearls out of a harvest of over 2 thousand that we harvested in 2014. Yes, basically just 1.05% of last year’s harvest!
4. Their ORIGIN: now, this is the final nail in the coffer in a manner of speaking! Why, because this group is basically made up of 100% Natural Blister Pearls that have –for the first time- been processed into Mabe.

Are these really Natural????

Yes. And there is a special story to these. Let me tell you this story.

Back in 2012, when we were seeding our pearl oysters we started to notice something odd in them…snails. There were hundreds of these snails we had never seen before. There were so many that we found them with the oysters and we started noticing some INSIDE of the Rainbow Lips too!

At that same time we received a group of Malacologists from Florida and we told them about this issue, they kept some specimens and headed back. Manuel and I started looking for the name of this unknown snail and we came up with the same name, later we received confirmation from Florida: Vitularia salebrosa, an ecto-parasitic snail of the Murex family. This blew my mind!

I had never seen such a variety of snail before and I had never seen how they actually found their way inside the oyster’s shell to suck its blood like an armored leech (yes, they suck the blood of its host), you can actually read all about it in this scientifically detailed article.

Well, the oysters don’t have their “Vampire Hunters” but instead they use the millennia old trick they know all too well: if it harms you, turn it into something beautiful…just make a Pearl!

But at the moment I was looking at these snails I just wanted to know more about them, and because of this I just left the snail inside the oysters allowing Nature to follow its course. And Nature did its thing.

We collected and photographed some of these nails, we found them in all colors and sizes. That year was the year of the Parasitic Snail.

We find them rarely these days. Must have been one of those “weird natural cycles” that Nature usually surprises us with. Unfortunately I can’t seem to find the photos I took of these snails as they were being coated with protein by the oyster. I kept one shell with its snail, but dehydration has pretty much damaged the shell.

This is the first time ever such an event has been described with these species of mollusks.

Another very interesting and noticeable feature is what I would call “Health”. Sick or unhappy oysters usually have a very dull shell, whereas “happy” or healthy oysters display beautiful colors. The oyster shell with the parasitic snail looks quite unhappy.

So, now you finally understand why these pearls are all so Special and Unique. In a way they tell us a unique story of how we can all withstand pain, endure and ultimately create something beautiful from it.

If oysters can do it so can we do it. It is your choice to create your own glorious pearl.

These pearls will soon become available for purchase in our e-Sales website

Technorati Tags: blister pearls,vampire pearls,Vitularia rasemosa,Pteria sterna,natural pearl production

, but you can also write to secure your own! Remember we only have 21 of these ready for you to set them in Jewelry and enjoy Nature’s perplexing beauty.

P.S.: I hope you don’t write in to tell me that “Pearls are produced by a Grain of Sand”. I finally have overcome my anxiety towards this myth and won’t go into a fit ;)

Cheers!!!