In 1994 The Cook Islands Pearl Guild was established to develop and set comprehensive standards to safeguard the industry. These policies include product verification to ensure that all industry criteria are met and adhered to thus protecting consumers at all levels.
All good retailers and wholesalers will display the Pearl Guild Logo. Since its inception, The Pearl Guild has become synonymous with quality and is your international guarantee of quality.

Creation of a Cultured Pearl

In the remote Northern Cook Islands atolls of Manihiki and Penrhyn, a remarkable collusion of science and nature begins, the Black Lipped Oyster (Pinctada Margaritifera) are coaxed into producing the rare Black Cultured Pearl.

With surgical precision, a technician or grafter uses a scalpel to make a small incision into the oyster's gonad. A snippet of donor mantle tissue is inserted, followed by a nucleus, a bead carved from the shell of an American freshwater mussel.

The mantle tissue then forms a living sac around the nucleus where nacre, the substance that a pearl is made of, is secreated and deposited over the nucleus. As the Pinctada Margaritifera is sensitive to variations to water temperature, it will only flourish in certain lagoons, limiting the number of pearls produced. Like all South Seas pearls, Cook Islands South Seas Black Pearls require two years to develop their heavy coating of lustrous nacre that is 1.5-3mm in thickness.

For centuries, pearls have been valued by people of all cultures and have come to symbolize love, good fortune and prosperity. Today the legendary islands of the South Seas produce the most famous and sought after black pearls in the world...
In 1994 The Cook Islands Pearl Guild was established to develop and set comprehensive standards to safeguard the industry. These policies include product verification to ensure that all industry criteria are met and adhered to thus protecting consumers at all levels. All good retailers and wholesalers will display the Pearl Guild logo. Since its inception, The Pearl Guild has become synonymous with quality and is your international guarantee of quality.

Our locally made black pearl jewellery accents the pearl's natural beauty. We endeavor to provide our customers with the latest designs and our strong connections with pearl farmers help us to give you the best prices.

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