Are cultured pearls artificially manufactured?
Cultured pearls are formed just like saltwater pearls. The only difference is that they are farmed by man, making them much more accessible and cheaper to get. Cultured pearls are still formed from an irritant inside a mollusk’s shell, forcing the animal to produce nacre around it. The best part about cultured pearls is that you can custom-make "irritants" in which the animal forms its nacre around, such as "diamond" or "coin". This way you get custom made pearl shapes like: http://www.stonesandfindings.com/Pearls/shapes/diamond/all/. So yes, cultured pearls are still REAL pearls.
No—cultured pearl jewelry is just as genuine as natural pearls. Each type of pearl is grown within a live oyster. A pearl is created when an irritant—a grain of sand, say, or a piece of shell—gets inside an oyster. To protect itself, the oyster secretes a casing, called ” nacre”, to surround the irritant. The oyster never stops secreting, so over the years the nacre layers get thicker and thicker until you have a pearl. With natural pearls, the irritant gets into the oyster by chance. With cultured pearls, a technician injects it. But the pearls look the same and are grown in the same way. Artificial pearls, on the other hand, are not grown within oysters at all—they’re created using glass and chemical compounds. While artificial pearls do have some surface shine, the unique inner glow of genuine pearls, whether cultured or natural, cannot be reproduced in a laboratory.
Absolutely not. Cultured pearls, like natural pearls, are grown within live oysters.Each begins when a skilled technician surgically implants a host oyster with a shel bead and piece of mantle tissue. To protect itself, the oyster secretes a crystalline substance, called “nacre,” over the irritant. Over time, the nacre layers build on one another, creating a surface that glows with a luster unique to true pearls. Artificial, or imitation, pearls, on the other hand, do not involve oysters in any way, but are manufactured from various chemicals and compounds. Even so, be aware that some imitation pearls are sold as “organic.” One popular technique for producing artificial pearls involves dipping a glass bead many times into a fish-scale-and-lacquer substance.
