[National Pearl]

"And what happens when the coating starts to wear off? I would bet that the coating would start to peel as well over time. I don't see why you would want to coat your pearls with anything. That would definitely take away from pearl because then most of it would be fabricated by man."

Amanda,

I do not know yet if we want ot try coating any pearls for exactly the reason you state. Its quite possible that many customers will not want ANY type of post-treatment since it takes away from the perception of a "natural" cultured pearl. But what we are exploring is if there is a certain market of customers who after paying good money for nice pearls, may want a protective layer that helps preserve their investment. The type of coating we are considering is EXTREMELY thin, almost unmeasurable by normal devices, and is the most durable coating of its kind based on the patent research I have done. It absolutely will not peel or flake off like many products will. That being said, my gut feel is that I am not confident there will be a market for this type of coating, but I think I am going to go ahead and test the coating more for this application and test the market to see what kind of response we get.