[Zeide Erskine]

Hi Jeremy,

It depends on the color, reflectivity, and stability of the coating material whether this is going to be viable option. If the coating is supersmooth and stable, nacre will not grow on it evenly. If it is too rough or soluble it will give you Kasumi-like surfaces and a tendency for the nacre to separate from the nucleus. The coating has to be stable enough to withstand the bleaching and dying process and reflective enough to hide the layering of the nucleus. So you can really only use it for long cultured pearls (minimum of two years, probably more). The size of the tissue graft is really more of a factor than the shape because larger grafts form pearl sacs faster and those will have more calcium carbonate-secreting cell islands. After all, you will need quite thick nacre if you intend to use encapsulated beads since you cannot use as much processing without compromising the coating and thus wind up with zebra pearls.

Zeide