Have you ever seen a pearl necklace? Can you believe that these shiny glowing pearls come from inside a weird little animal?

This animal is called an Oyster. It lives in a shell, deep down at the bottom of the sea.

How do these beautiful pearls form inside an oyster? A grain of sand gets trapped inside the oyster’s shell-land. This bothers the oyster. Just like when some dust grain enters your eye, your eye waters – and tears from your eye try and wash out the dust particle!

When a speck of dirt enters the oyster’s shell, it can’t wash it out. Instead, the oyster’s body builds a white shiny coating around the speck. This keeps layering on top of the bothersome speck, layer after layer with this hard shinning stuff. And that makes a pearl.

Today most pearls are raised on a pearl farm. Oysters are gently opened and some grain of dust is placed inside it. When a pearl is made it is taken out.

Fake pearls are made in factories.