Now is an excellent time to purchase pearls. Freshwater pearl farms in China are producing pearls which rival saltwater Japanese Akoya cultured pearls in shape, size, luster and color, at a fraction of the cost. Cultured pearls were known to be produced as far back as the thirteenth century when Buddhist monks would place little buddhas inside mollusks to make blister pearls. When mass-produced cultured pearls first entered the market in 1916 (Mikimoto's first patent for cultured pearls in 1896 never resulted in mass-production) and could compete with natural pearls they were considered inferior because they were not naturally occurring. However the demand in the industry quickly took up the slack making Mr. Mikimoto, the eater of two pearls a day for life, a very wealthy man. Now you'll pay thousands for a decent saltwater cultured pearl strand, let alone a Mikimoto. Tiffany's didn't even start to carry cultured pearls until 1956! It's my contention that the same thing will happen with freshwater pearls as they continue to produce more competitive quality pearls. The freshwater pearl industry is becoming more adept at quickly producing large semi-round to off-round pearls, baroque and circular pearls...not the puny seed or rice pearls that you would have associated with freshwater years ago. Today, larger freshwater pearls are usually produced by placing mantle tissue into the bivalve mollusk, and are therefore almost all nacre, more than cultured saltwater pearls, which are seeded with mother of pearl beads. Nacre is produced by calcium carbonate, the solution secreted by the mollusk to cover the irritating element. The pearl farmers will turn the pearls for balance and shape desired. Because freshwater pearls grow about three to four times faster than saltwater (due to the warmer waters), thicker nacre on freshwater is the norm, versus saltwater, where the nacre is generally only a half millimeter to a millimeter thick. Thicker nacre equals higher lustre.
Freshwater pearls come naturally in cream, white, lavender and rose. Freshwater pearls do not come naturally in any black, gray, blue, silver or green. Only Tahitian, South Sea or abalone pearls are these colors naturally, so don't be taken. Freshwater pearls being produced today can be very large and rival these Tahitians in quality and it is sometimes very difficult to tell the difference - price is the only indicator. The pearls are irradiated to achieve these colors (just like blue topaz, for example), though they are gorgeous and stable. Be sure to take your skin tone into account when selecting the color of your pearls.
I absolutely adore pearls. All told I have about a dozen strands of pearls, many rings, pendants and pearl drop earrings and I continue to collect them. (If you are interested in finding a good pearl dealer, eBay has a few.) Despite what the darling Miss Holly Golightly says, they are NOT just for old women any more. Pearls which have real character, i.e. baroque, potato, semi-round and circular pearls in a variety of colors have such texture and light play. I have come to find traditional 8 mm round white pearls to be yawningly boring in comparison, and don't do a thing to get rid of my mean reds.