It wasn't so very long ago that carving of pearls was considered scandalous. Galatea's lovely gem nucleated pearls were, at first, as shocking as they were beautiful. The idea of stripping away nacre was definitely not mainstream then, and while it is still outside of the norm, it is no longer thought of as desecration.
Consider these intricate Tahitian pearl carvings, usually only done to save flawed cultured pearls for tourist trinkets, but done in larger amounts during the downturn of...
