Blue Pearl Culture

Paua are carefully selected from the wild for their strong and vibrant shell colours. Once harvested and settled into their new home, the paua are nucleated on board a specially developed pearling vessel.

The nucleation process mirrors what happens in nature. In the wild, paua are sometimes found out of the water above the low tide level. By taking this operation to the paua, the time that the animals are out of the water is kept to a minimum. Paua must not only be healthy, but happy in order to create an exquisite, iridescent blue pearl.

Although most of the nucleation process is kept a secret, the Eyris Blue Pearl Company are continuing to refine the art of attaching a seed to the inside of the shell, beneath the mantle, so that a blue pearl mabe can develop. This is a delicate process as paua have no blood-clotting agent and a single nick can be fatal.

Once the seed is inserted beneath the mantle, the paua begins to overlay this nucleus with its brilliant mother-of-pearl, made up of layer upon layer of conchiolin and nacre.