Has anyone ever seen these "cavities" in a freshwater cultured?

[Amy in IL]

Hello, new to the forum but I've made a few posts now....anyways I wanted to ask if anyone has seen this before. This pearl came from a batch of "wish" pearls that I ordered for fun for my kids to open. I'm not big into the pearl party scene, but the kids like it and so I've ordered a few batches directly just for the fun of opening them. I'm aware of the risks, we always wear gloves and dispose of the trash in a zipped ziploc, and we never spend more than $20 on a batch (got us 30 "pearls" last time). Anyways, this batch I got was a bit different. They were in mussel shells, not repacked into akoya shells, as I'd gotten before. Also, they were all baroque freshwaters, not dyed, all natural colors. The packages were vacuum packed and did not smell at all when opened, either of alcohol or formaldehyde, they didn't have a smell at all really. Then we found this pearl with the cavities..it has one on each side of the pearl. The holes were filled with a mushy grey stuff that didn't have a smell and washed right out under running water. It left these grey holes in the pearl and I can't tell if there's more nacre inside, it looks metallic looking to me, almost like a lead pellet. They don't use lead starters in China do they? That would seem not very cost effective vs plastic. Anyone ever seen this and what is it??

 

[pearlescence]

Hi
Welcome to the forum.
What you have there is a really low end pearl. The sort which normally doesn't make it to the market at all

About a year ago I asked one of my wholesalers with his own factory to take a scoop out of an incoming lot at random and among the pearls were these (as well as some good ones) You can see from the photo that the really bad pearls really were really bad.
So what you have got is something which is more like the randomness of a real pearl harvest but at the same time you have got pearls from a supplier who isn't trying at all

 

[Amy in IL]

I would agree. I didn't expect much effort for what I paid for them. But I'd just never seen this before. Do you know if it's bacteria that cause the nacre to deteriorate like that?

 

[ericw]

These cavities are often that remains of pieces of epithelium tissue (badly) inserted with nucleus in mussels, to induce their pearl generation.

 

[Amy in IL]

Awesome, excellent answer Ericw. Thank you. I'm happy to know exactly what it is!

 

[Amy in IL]

Thank you pearlescence, I agree. I wasn't expecting much effort for what I paid for them. It was just a fun thing to do. Excellent explanation ericw, Thank you very much for that. Interesting to know what is going on. Thanks everyone!