Baroque pearls are mostly irregular in shape, appearing rough in contour, asymmetrical and not round. Baroque pearls are grown from saltwater and freshwater shells. Baroque pearls are free-forming inside the shell particularly growing in the mantle of the shellfish, thus their shapes are not uniform. The shellfish is a living organism whereas the protecting attachment is called the shell.



Baroque pearls are real pearls

Baroque pearls are real pearls, though nowadays, they are better classified as cultured pearls. Although the nucleated pearls are more costly, it does not mean that the baroque pearl is inferior if the nacre aspect is considered.

When a bead is introduced to the shellfish, its normal reaction is to treat it as an irritation. So to protect itself from the unknown matter, it secretes a substance called nacre. The nacre is intended to coat the unknown matter. In cultured pearls, these materials can come from materials like the insides of a bivalve shell.

The nacre gives the pearl its real beauty. The more nacre it has, the pearl will appear much brighter. The element of brightness in any pearl is called the luster or the iridescence of the pearl which when exposed to light will give a show of colors that ladies find irresistible.

Since any foreign body is naturally ejected by the shell, baroque pearls are formed due to this action. Sometimes the shell throws out the preformed nucleus bead at an earlier time before fully coating it. Normally, the shell cannot stop nacre secretion immediately even after the release of any foreign body. Thus, nacre will still be produced and stays in the mantle tissue. The shellfish cannot absorb this again and the shell accumulates the nacre into little beads. The results are the irregular shaped baroque pearls.

The Keshi Pearl is a baroque pearl

Keshi pearls are well-known kind of baroque pearl since it is a free-forming pearl without a nucleus. This means that there are no beads imbedded inside the mollusk, hence this pearl is purely composed by layers upon layers of nacre.

Akoya is another kind of baroque pearl

Akoya pearls are cultivated in Japan and have been cultivated for at least a century now. Due to the fast growing production demand of pearls, China has engaged in massive pearl farming too but Akoya has become the largest producer of cultured pearls.

Akoya pearl shells are implanted with several of these pre-formed nucleus beads. The number of beads implanted can range from 1 to 4, depending on the size and condition of the mollusk.

Baroque pearls can be formed inside the Akoya shell when two of the beads stand closely to each other. As a result, the beads which are almost side by side to each other will be coated with nacre. The result will be a "Siamese" pearl, which cannot be separated anymore.

However, the most expensive baroque pearls are identified as the Tahitian pearl and the South Sea pearl. In general, baroque pearls are smaller than other saltwater pearls because the mollusks that bear them are smaller too.