What Are Treated Pearls?
Cultured pearls are frequently treated in one of several ways to alter or improve their color or luster. Does this Spark an idea?
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Bleaching
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Most pearls have been bleached in an effort to brighten their whiteness. This is typically accepted in the industry as standard practice. Pearls.com reports that the Japanese often bleach their pearls with a combination of hydrogen peroxide and regular or fluorescent light.
Irradiation
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Some pearls are exposed to radiation in an effort to recolor them to a gray or sometimes near black shade.
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Dyeing
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Recoloring a pearl through the use of dye is a common practice. Though pearls do come in certain colors naturally, dyes are often employed to give them a more appealing look or an appearance closer to rarer, more valuable colored specimens found in nature. Pearls can come in white, cream, silver, gold, green, blue or black, according to pearl-guide.com, although they may have overtones that add other colors as well.
Heating
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Heating has a more controversial history than some other methods of pearl treatment. Given its more recent entry into the industry, less is known about its precise effects, but heat is of use mainly in creating golden pearls, which are very hard to come by in nature and hence more valuable. Laboratory techniques to separate heat-treated pearls from those that are naturally golden have improved considerably. "Treatment methods are typically considered proprietary, so how the color alteration is achieved remains largely a mystery," said colored-stone.com. "It is believed to be stable, however, and reportedly does not incorporate bleaches or organic dyes."
Prices
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Pearls.com estimates that golden pearls that have acquired their color through treatment sell at about 10 to 30 percent of the prices of their natural counterparts. Treatment that alters the pearl's value in any significant way should be disclosed to the buyer and this is generally the case; however wholesalepearl.com cautions that golden pearls being sold too cheaply may indicate heat treatment. "If you know the market for a good quality, golden 15 mm pearl should be around $3,000 to $4,000, and instead you're seeing it at $400 to $500, that should be a red flag to see what's going on," says Arman Asher of Albert Asher south Sea Pearl Co., in an article from ganoksin.com.
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