TECHNOLOGY has helped nature beat pollution, demand and the constraints of time in one of its most delicate and unpredictable processes - pearl growing. Traditional methods of culturing pearls, unpredictable and time-consuming, are also hampered by poor environment and polluted seas that reduce the oyster's ability to produce a pearl of good quality. However, on display at this week's fair is a cultured pearl that has been praised by Osamu Aoki, the man credited with developing the globular pearl for the famous Mikimoto company. Mr Aoki has said Third Pearls were 'equal to that of the highest-quality pearls produced by a small percentage of oysters'. 'They are also equal to those in a necklace presented by Mikimoto to the former Empress of Japan as a wedding present,' he said. The Third Pearl was invented by Sato Pearl, of Japan, in 1964 and launched in Tokyo the same year. Sato's patented technique works by controlling the pearl coating process. The thickness of the pearl layer depends on the ability of the oyster to coat the nucleus. Polluted seas result in poor pearls. But in the Sato process, the natural pearl essence is extracted, then re-applied to the pearl nucleus, layer by layer. This way, the thickness of the pearl can be controlled and the quality of the pearl can be consistently maintained. The resulting product possesses very few of the flaws found in natural and cultured pearls. A Sato spokesman said any pearl's colour and lustre would fade, but that a Third Pearl was more durable against sweat and cosmetics, which degrade the quality of the natural pearls.
