What is the difference between “cultured” and “natural” pearls?
Natural: Formed from the secretion of nacre around and irritant, which is commonly a particle of sand, shell, or a tiny crab, snail or worm. Cultured: The irritant is purposely inserted into the mollusk by a pearl farmer. This irritant is usually a piece of “mantle” which is a membrane from a mollusk that secretes nacre (the stuff pearls are made of) or a plastic bead. Are these natural colors or dyed? Both! Natural FW pearl colors tend to be along the lines of whites, creams, pinks. If your pearls are these colors they might not be dyed. It doesn’t matter though, as dyed FW pearls have no affect on their value or importance and they can dramatically enhance their appearance. Natural colored cultured saltwater pearls, however, tend to have more value that dyed saltwater pearls (and are graded on many other attributes). Pearls are very porous so they take to dyes well. How do you get those funky shapes? The most interesting shapes tend to come from cultured pearls where the irritant tha
