Credited to North Macedonia. Both families say the method was brought to Ohrid by a Russian emigre, Jovan Subanovic, so the underlying knowledge came from abroad; the craft as practiced with Lake Ohrid fish developed in Ohrid. The Talev and Filev families also dispute which of them learned it first.
How it began
According to local accounts, a Russian emigre named Jovan Subanovic came to Ohrid more than 100 years ago and brought the knowledge of making pearls from fish scales. Two Ohrid families learned it from him. Vane Talev says his grandfather, who worked with diamonds, paid 25 Napoleons for the secret in 1924. Pavel Filev says his father learned the complete craft from Subanovic, whom he met in the family's restaurant. The families give competing versions of who learned first.
How it works
The pearls do not grow in oysters or mussels. A grain of ground shell forms the core. An emulsion is prepared from the scales of the plasica, a small silvery fish of Lake Ohrid, by a formula that both families keep secret, and it is applied to the core layer after layer by hand. If the formula is wrong, the pearls lose their shine on contact with perspiration. The Talev family says the making season runs from the end of October to early April.
What changed first
The craft gave Ohrid a jewelry product tied to its lake. The Talev family business dates its start to 1924, and the Filev shop in the Old Town has been known for almost a century. Both shops display portraits of European royalty wearing their pearls, and a Talev necklace was given to Queen Elizabeth II in 2001 by the wife of the Macedonian president.
What lasted
The two families agree that nothing in the process has changed in a century and that it passes only within the family. In the Talev family it has gone to sons; Pavel Filev says his daughter will inherit it along with his son. Output is limited by hand work: Vane Talev and his son make about eight necklaces of 5 millimeter pearls in a day.
Where it stands today
Ohrid pearls remain a well-known product of the town, which UNESCO inscribed with the Lake Ohrid region as a World Heritage Site in 1979. Many shops sell items labeled as Ohrid pearls, and visitors report that a lot of them are imported imitations, so the two family shops are regarded as the authentic sources. The craft depends on the lake's stock of plasica, for which the makers say there is no substitute.
