| Yes, the talk was "pearls". I believe that myth was very intentionally perpetrated. But from the first strands I picked up in 2002, I knew there were no pearls inside. I broke a few for the original Modern Jeweler article. Folks on the ground in China confirmed that although they had tried, they had no success with pearl in a pearl culturing. We discussed this with several growers, and asked the question to a few companies as well.
Well here is the good news on the ikecho. It is here, you can sell it. There is nothing wrong or illegal about that. You can even buy the shell here in the US if you find it at a furniture store, for example. What is restricted is the harvesting, import, and export.
Truth be told, I do not know if anything will change, even with the cat out of the bag. |