Opal Pacific works with other semi-precious and precious gems. We have a close involvement with the South Pacific pearl industry and New Zealand Blue Pearl farmers.

With us pearls can be chosen and matched to individual jewellery designs.

new zealand paua pearl

paua pearl jewellery

abalone shell
implant
paua shell
paua pearl

New Zealand Paua Pearl

Paua (Haliotis Iris), Abalone are a gentle sea snail found in the cool clean waters off the New Zealand coastline. Under a strict quota system, a limited amount of paua can be caught each year and this
by “free diving” only. Once harvested the paua are settled in their
new home.

At the marine farm they are seeded and the paua blue pearl development begins. Paua are hand fed high quality natural seaweed in order to thrive, eating 50% of their own body weight each week.

Paua mabe pearls sometimes occur naturally and the insertion of a nucleus mirrors what happens in nature. The shellfish must be healthy and free of stress to create a quality mabe pearl. Keeping this in mind the process of attaching the seed inside the shell is consistently being refined. Paua have no clotting agent and any injury must be avoided. Once the seed is inserted beneath the mantle the natural process of overlaying the nucleus with the brilliant pearl layers begins.

18 month to 3 years later and perhaps up to thousand layers later the result is an exquisite blue and green pearl. The colour and iridescence of which is unique.

The paua blue pearl brings an exciting freshness, unmatched colour and iridescence to the pearl market.


pearl strands

Tahitian black pearl

We source Tahitian Pearls directly from the pearl farms of Tahiti. Dealing only in natural colour pearls.
Tahitian pearls come in different, sizes, and colours.
The size range is from 8 mm to 16 mm.
Their shapes vary from rounds, teardrops, pear, button, semi baroque, baroque and keshi.

 

Akoya pearl

Akoya pearls are cultured in the Pinctada fucata martensii, also known as the akoya oyster.
This mollusk is found and farmed primarily in Japan and China. Renowned for their luster.
They are generally white or cream, with overtone colours of pink, silver, or cream. The average size is 2-11mm.

 

South Sea gold pearl

South Sea pearl produced by the Pinctada maxima mollusk. They are currently cultured in areas throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans, primarily in Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Myanmar.
The South Sea pearl has subtle array of colour in white, silver and gold. The sizes normally come between 10-18mm.