[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Cam,

The technology that they are using is transplanting natural pearl sacs that they multiply by cutting them into smaller parts and growing them out again in petri dishes where the tissue closes again to form more sac like shapes. You can manipulate the final shape of the pearl sac that way. When the pearl sacs have the desired shapes, they are transplanted (homografted) to another shell where the actual pearl then grows. This method is acceptable even to the Bahrainis because the pearl sac originated naturally and all pearls spontaneously produced by such a pearl sac are technically indistinguishable from natural pearls. This method is also being used in Djibouti, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and China.

The Russian technology also includes some pearls where the pearl sac has been grown in culture medium for the entire process. This method may also yield pearls from molluscs that do not produce pearls in nature (at least not in any mentionable quantities) like the nautilus and round pearls from molluscs that typically are hard to obtain in vivo like abalones.

Zeide