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From top to bottom
• Mabe pearls of various shapes and sizes
• Mabe grown on the shiny inside of shells |
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STORY B SHEUNG
Hemispherical Delight.
THE first day I joined a jewellery magazine, I was assigned to interview a mabe supplier. The supplier showed me a big shell with three mabe grown on the shiny inside of the shell and some mabe which had been cut out from the shell.
He said, “You glue one or several pieces of plastic onto the inside of the shell through the slit of a living pearl oyster. The plastic can be in any shape you like: round, tear drop, heart, marquise, etc, but it must have a flat base to be stuck onto the shell. The pearl oyster secretes nacreous substance to cover up the plastic. Six months or more, you open the shell, cut out the dome part, remove the plastic, inject resin to fill up the hollow, and add a mother-of-pearl shell base to finish it off nicely. A mabe is born!”
He then showed me his collection of mabe rings, earrings and pendants. The big ear clips with 15mm diameter mabe, rimmed with 14K gold, made a hit in the US market, he assured me. “Mabe is the perfect answer for those who want a large pearl but at a fraction of the pearl price.”
That was 15 years ago, when big size South Sea pearls and Chinese freshwater pearls were rare. While growing mabe below 8mm and beyond 20mm was a technical possibility, most people preferred mabe in the 10 to 18mm range. These cultured mabe were appealing as their prices were far below the prices of button pearls of similar sizes.
White, black and blue
Today, mabe can be grown from various oyster species in all pearl producing regions, but the best species is said to be the winged shell species Pteria penguin. These oysters yield pinkish white mabe of fine smooth nacreous skin with a rich rainbow orient. A few pearl producers in Australia and Indonesia use Pinctada maxima to grow white mabe after the oysters have grown its first and second South Sea pearls. Black-lippped oysters from French Polynesia and Mexico produce mabe in a range of attractive dark colours.
The most enigmatic mabe should be the magical blue mabe from New Zealand, grown from the abalone oysters Haliotis Iris. They have celestial colours ranging from blue and green with splashes of pink, red and violet. Much design and marketing efforts have been put into promoting these New Zealand mabe to break away from the archaic image of Chanel vintage mabe ear clips.
Pearl or shell?
Mabe are also known as half pearls or hemispherical pearls. But I try to avoid using the term Mabe Pearl, as mabe are not exactly pearls. Some pearl professionals and many gemological institutes view mabe as a shell product rather than a pearl as its horizontal nacre composition is similar to the shell structure, and differs from the concentric structure of nacre crystals in pearls.
Mabe Tips
• Not all mabe are equal. Some are finer than others. Good quality mabe have a fine smooth skin and a good lustre. Lower quality mabe show a coarse grain texture and a duller lustre.
• Pinkish white mabe are higher priced than creamy white ones.
• A nice make (finishing) is also an important quality factor as mabe are composite items with a mother-of-pearl base. The mother-of-pearl base should be finely crafted and seamlessly fused to the pearly dome.
• And the same advice for all jewellery purchases: go only to a trusted jeweller if you want quality and after-sales support. |
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