A Tahitian Cultured Black Pearl is a pearl that is obtained by means of a grafting operation performed by a skilled technician on the "Pinctada Margaritifera" or "Black Lipped Oyster" of French Polynesia.

Cultured Pearl is the birthstone for June. Cultured pearls are the beautiful and affordable alternative to scarce natural pearls. Both are organic in nature and derive their beauty from their iridescent aura. In fact, the only sure way to distinguish cultured pearls from natural pearls is to x-ray them. Nearly all cultured pearls are treated to enhance their colors through bleaching, dyeing or safely irradiating them.

The black-lipped oyster found in French Polynesian waters naturally secretes a dark pigment which, depending on the quantity, gives the resulting pearl a basic color ranging from steel gray to black.

Strictly speaking, natural pearls are those created without any human intervention whereas cultured pearls require human intervention.

The mission of Little Black Pearl (LBP) is to create opportunities for youth and adults to deepen their creative involvement through the arts, cultivate their entrepreneurial skills and use the arts as a means for economic empowerment and community transformation.

The LBP Art and Design Center is located at 1060 E. 47th Street, on the corner of 47th and Greenwood in Chicago's Kenwood/Oakland area. The LBP Art and Design Center is a state of the art, 40,000 square foot facility that includes a two-story glass atrium with courtyard space, a computer lab, workshops and art studios, a restaurant, retail space, and an art gallery. The Center has facilities for ceramics, woodworking, metalworking, mosaics, painting, glassblowing and much more.

Because it is created in the womb of the special black-lipped mollusk found in French Polynesia waters known as the Pinctada margaritifera, or black-lip mother-of-pearl, for short. This mollusk naturally secretes a black pigment, which, depending on the quantity, gives the resulting pearl a basic color ranging from black to gray.

Alexandrite: Because of the price and often limited availability of genuine Alexandrite, this mfr. uses Green Tourmaline to represent the green color of Alexandrite. (Alexandrite is a color-change stone.) Green Tourmaline however is more of a medium to medium-dark olive green color. Opals or Cultured Pearls: Opals are cabochon-shape stones... they are domed with no facets so when set they look different when compared to a faceted stone when viewed from the top and the side.

quot; Black" Pearls are actually most often multicolored, with metallic steel gray being the most common color. The color of the pearls is entirely natural and is imparted by the oyster, which produces dark, multicolored mother-of-pearl secretions.

The main criteria are: size, shape, surface quality, luster and color. The most expensive pearls are rare colored, large, round, free of surface imperfections with high luster.

Yes, memberships are strongly encouraged. Through your membership, you and your family will enjoy special workshops and benefits exclusively for members. Please go to our membership link for further information.

A. Black pearls are produced from black-lipped oyster Pinctada margaritifera. It means that Pinctada is genus and margaritifera is species. The largest and darkest of these "black-lipped" shells are found around Tahiti. Our black-lipped oysters around Ngapali beach are different sub-species and the size of oyster is very small and the pearls produced are small with no lustre. The pearl oysters can grow and produce pearl only at their natural habitats.

Little Black Pearl programs are designed to serve a wide range of ages. Some classes, however, do have age requirements for youth. A full listing of our programs and class age requirements will be forthcoming on this website within the next month.

Yes, the Hidden Pearl retail store is located in the Arts and Design Center. The store has a variety of items produced by artists and students. Hidden Pearl is open during normal business hours which include: Monday ? Friday, 9 a.m. ? 6 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. ? 1 p.m. Little Black Pearl does rent space for events. The spacious conference rooms and atrium will be available for lease to community groups and individuals.

A "pearl" is typically a dry powder that can be added to a multitude of paint products. Pearls come in dozens of colors, and they are the consistency of baby powder. Spraying a white base, followed by a blue pearl, and then clearcoat, will give you a white finish that has a pearl-blue haze/hue when seen at certain angles.

We have performed gene karyotyping on the MLPC clonal cell lines to determine genetic stability. The results have shown that the cells are genetically stable and have no deletions or mutations. This was performed on both early (passage 4) and later passaged (passage 18) clones. We follow the cells from early culturing and throughout observing morphology and growth characteristics. We perform immunophenotype staining throughout the culture at various time points.

Absolutely not. Cultured pearls, like natural pearls, are grown within live oysters. Each begins when a skilled technician surgically implants a host oyster with a shell bead and piece of mantle tissue. To protect itself, the oyster secretes a crystalline substance, called "nacre," over the irritant. Over time, the nacre layers build on one another, creating a surface that glows with a luster unique to true pearls.