What's inside a clam? A retractable foot, a siphon for sucking up water, powerful muscles, and, sometimes, a pearl. And you thought ... mollusk that's encased in a shell made of two valves ...

To culture freshwater mussels, workers slightly open their shells, cut small slits into the mantle tissue inside both shells ... old Buddhas are not true pearls but shell mabes.

Getty A couple who found a pearl inside a clam while on a date years ago has turned the gemstone into a precious piece of jewelry. Ken Steinkamp and Sandy Sikorski were dining at a Rhode Island ...

Pearls are made by marine oysters and freshwater mussels as a natural defence against an irritant such as a parasite entering their shell or damage to their fragile body. The oyster or mussel slowly ...

Cultured pearls are formed by the same process, but instead of the irritant entering the shell accidentally ... layers of growth from the very inside out. More from So Expensive ...