Visit the second largest city on the island of Mallorca in the Balearic Islands - Manacor - located inland in the eastern part of the island. Here you will not only find an array or furniture businesses, but the product for which Manacor has become famous, namely the cultured pearl, and is the reason why the majority of people come to this city.
All over the island, you will see shops specialising in the sale of pearls. However he most well known company is Majorica that is easily recognisable as you walk along the streets of the larger resorts.
The Manacor pearl dates back to 1897 when, in Barcelona, a German by the name of Friedrick Heusch started the art of imitating the way in which pearls were created. Within a short period of time, the demand for his work from the fashion capitals of Europe escalated to such an extend that he took the decision to set up factories in Manacor and, to the south, Felanitx.
Patents were in place in order to stop competitors and by 1948 the Heusch empire had grown to over 1,000 employees and his company - Majorica - survived due to the fact that it could not be beaten on both price and quality.
The normal process of producing a cultured pearl would be to insert a tiny particle into the shell so that the shellfish produced a small coating of mother-of-pearl around it. Majorica pearls are produced by a different method in that a small core of artificial material is dipped into a paste made up of things such as fish scales and shell sand. Each time it is dipped [which can occur up to 30 times] the layer is heated to force the molecules to fuse together and to form what is known as the Majorica pearl.
You will notice that different colours can be bought, such as black, grey, plum, peach and cream to name just a few. The colours are obtained by adding coloured minerals during the dipping stage. At the end of the process, the pearls are carefully filed and polished to a high shine and set in gold or silver.
As for cost, although the Majorica pearl can be fairly expensive, they are far cheaper than the pearls produced by oysters. The price, however, does reflect the time consuming production process each pearl undergoes.
The most well known place to see demonstrations during a free factory tour is Perlas Majorica that is normally open from 09:00 to 20:00 Monday to Friday and until 19:00 on other days.
Patents were in place in order to stop competitors and by 1948 the Heusch empire had grown to over 1,000 employees and his company - Majorica - survived due to the fact that it could not be beaten on both price and quality.
The normal process of producing a cultured pearl would be to insert a tiny particle into the shell so that the shellfish produced a small coating of mother-of-pearl around it. Majorica pearls are produced by a different method in that a small core of artificial material is dipped into a paste made up of things such as fish scales and shell sand. Each time it is dipped [which can occur up to 30 times] the layer is heated to force the molecules to fuse together and to form what is known as the Majorica pearl.
You will notice that different colours can be bought, such as black, grey, plum, peach and cream to name just a few. The colours are obtained by adding coloured minerals during the dipping stage. At the end of the process, the pearls are carefully filed and polished to a high shine and set in gold or silver.
As for cost, although the Majorica pearl can be fairly expensive, they are far cheaper than the pearls produced by oysters. The price, however, does reflect the time consuming production process each pearl undergoes.
The most well known place to see demonstrations during a free factory tour is Perlas Majorica that is normally open from 09:00 to 20:00 Monday to Friday and until 19:00 on other days.
For those of who are superstitious about giving or receiving pearls as a gift, don't worry as a small payment of a few cents or pence is known the break the spell.
Author : Gail Hewitt - Corona Holidays
No comments:
Post a Comment