VietNamNet Bridge – It took Pham Van Huong, a 71-year-old farmer in the southern province of Dong Nai, 25 years to find a method to create pearls in the shape of Buddha and Jesus.

The unique pearls are created by Huong by grafting in freshwater mussels. "It took me almost 25 years to succeed with pearl statues. The amount of mussels I used to test was nearly two tons, and it cost me tens of million dong," he said.

Currently, he owns almost 30 pearl Bodhisattva Buddha, Maitreya Buddha and Jesus statues. These products won a prize at a local technical innovation contest in 2013.

Huong said in 1990 Tan Phu district held a training session for farmers on a technique to make pearls from freshwater mussels. Huong was not chosen for the course, but he borrowed documents from attendants to study. The technique of grafting something in mussels to create round pearls was ineffective, so many farmers gave up.

He said: "I was about to quit when I accidentally discovered a pearl-covered nail in a mussel. Since then, I rushed to explore and find ways to create pearls".

Since then, he has turned his 1 ha pond into a mussel pond. Every day, he goes to the markets in the region to buy big mussels to study.

After researching the pearl nail, Huong selected the biggest mussels and perforated the shells to add objects inside. "If the shell is perforated too large or the perforation tears the fleshy part of the mussels, they will die instantly. Therefore, the work must be done meticulously,” Huong said.

After perforating the mussels, Huong added objects with the desired shapes into them and used plastic to cover the holes. After a period of one to two years, mussels will release the pearl to enclose the foreign objects. Huong put Buddha, Maitreya and Jesus-shaped cement pieces into the mussels to collect pearls of the corresponding shapes. The mussels weighing 0.3 to 0.5 kg will be perforated on the shell to graft with at least two objects.

The process of releasing pearls around the object will occur successively over time. If the pearls are harvested early, the pearl statues will be clear but thin and fragile. If this process takes too long, the pearl will not be clear and beautiful. Therefore, the best time to collect pearls is two years.

Huong’s products are favored by many people but he has not sold them yet. He is creating many more products. "I'm registering for intellectual property rights to create a brand for myself. I am also seeking to create iridescent pearl products so I don’t want to launch my products to the market yet," he said.

Zing