Conch and Melo

The gems of the flame.

In the Caribbean lives a gastropod that reaches three kilos and exceeds thirty centimetres: Strombus gigas, the Queen Conch. Only rarely does it produce a gem. The conch is a natural pearl, calcareous in nature: it forms by pure accident, and cultivation remains beyond reach. Either it is found, or it is missing.

The colour ranges from soft pink to deep salmon and on to vivid coral, and its sheen recalls porcelain more than mother-of-pearl. It is further distinguished by an optical phenomenon that belongs to this gem alone. Within, the material is arranged in fibres: light that enters follows those fibres and leaves as a radiating flame, which moves as the gem moves. The Maya already knew it.

In the waters of South-East Asia lives a second gastropod, Melo melo. Its gems range from brownish white to a warm, deep orange, and they too carry the flame, though arranged differently: parallel, rather than radiating. It is the detail that tells a melo from a conch, and one learns it by handling many.

Drilling

Finding a conch is only the beginning. The gem is extremely hard: drilling and setting it demand great skill, and the heat the drill bit generates in a few seconds is enough to compromise the gem for ever. For this reason the hole is opened beneath a thread of running water, which carries the heat away as the bit advances. The bit proceeds with extreme slowness, and a single attempt is all that is granted.

Very few people in the world possess the training required for this delicate and demanding work. MIMÍ is among them. It is an expertise built over decades of familiarity with these gems, and it lives in the hands that have handled them.

One-of-a-kind jewels

When a conch or a melo enters the workshop, the design comes afterwards. The gem is chosen, the shape of the setting is decided together, the jewel is built. Since every gem is unrepeatable, the jewel born from it exists in a single example.

The tension setting system, patented by the maison more than twenty-five years ago, finds its clearest application here: the pearl remains suspended, held by the geometry of the metal alone, and its surface stays free. On a gem that grants a single attempt, the least invasive way is also the safest.

Exceptional pearls come with certificates issued by the most authoritative international gemmological laboratories.

To discuss one, write to info@mimimilano.com, or call Monday to Friday, from 10:00 to 16:00.

Text by the MIMÍ Milano gemmologists · updated 9 September 2026