An Australian cultured pearl is two years in the making. The process begins with the collection of the wild pinctada maxima oysters. A pearling boat tows divers slowly across the sea bed and pearls are collected and placed in bag hung around the divers’ necks.

            Once on the boat, the oysters are then cleaned and fitted into a wire frame. After a short period in the boat storage tank, the oysters are lowered in their frames to the sea bed to recover before they are seeded.

            A cutting is taken from the mantle of a donor oyster and implanted beside a spherical nucleus of polished mussel shell in the oyster to be seeded. The graft supplies cells that develop around the nucleus and created a sac that creates nacre. The oyster is returned to the sea to recover before being taken to the pearl farm.

            There, the oyster is regularly turned and cleaned. After six months, the oysters are x-rayed to check if the oyster has rejected the implant.

            Finally, the oyster is harvested and the pearl is removed and graded according to size, color, shape, and surface quality.