Strictly speaking, this is the moment that begins the creation of a cultured pearl. The pearl oyster that has taken some three years to grow to maturity is now ready for grafting. This is a process that stimulates the secretion of nacre and the eventual formation of a pearl.
The first step is to select a donor oyster to provide the soft tissue graft - a small segment of the secretory mantle of the pearl oyster. The donor should be a young oyster that has a good colored nacre, or mother-of-pearl.
The second step is the selection of a recipient oyster that is in good condition and has a large, well-developed gonad, or reproductive gland. The recipient pearl oyster is opened with pliers.
Inserting a foreign body into the living flesh of a pearl oyster is an operation that demands considerable skill. First, the mother oyster is artificially induced to spawn, expending its excess energy. Then a section of the mantle lobe (called a graft) from another mollusk is cut and prepared.
Photo Source: "La Magie de la Perle Noire", P. Salomon and M. Roudnitska
The oyster is secured on a shell stand. Specially designed surgical instruments are used to make an incision in the soft tissue. The graft is inserted. And a spherical nucleus bead 6-9mm in diameter that comes from fresh water bivalve mollusks in the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers of the U.S.A. is placed right next to the graft.
Photo Source: "La Magie de la Perle Noire", P. Salomon and M. Roudnitska
