Imitation pearls are man-made objects (often beads) that are designed to resemble real pearls. A variety of methods are used to create imitation pearls from starting materials that include glass, plastic, and actual mollusc shell. Some beads are coated with a pearlescent substance in order to imitate the natural iridescence of nacre or mother of pearl. Varieties of imitation pearls include:
Bathed Pearl (also called Angel, Sheba, Mikomo, Kobe, Nikko, Sumo, Fijii, Aloha or "improved cultured pearl"): a mother-of-pearl core coated with a mixture of plastic enamel, lead carbonate, mica, and titanium dioxide, then with a film of iridescent nylon.
Bohemian Pearl: cut and buffed mother-of-pearl protuberance.
Glass Pearl: glass bead dipped or sprayed with pearlescent material, or hollow glass bead filled with pearlescent material. A variation is called Majorcan pearl. Wax-filled pearl simulants are hollow glass beads coated with essence d'orient and filled with wax. Variations of these wax-filled simulants, which are produced in slightly different manners, include Parisian pearls, Paris pearls, French pearls, Bourguignon pearls and Venetian pearls.
Mother-of-Pearl Pearl: crushed nacreous shell powder, sintered into the desired shape. See also shell pearl (1) below.
Plastic Pearl: plastic core coated with pearlescent material.
Roman Pearl: alabaster core coated with pearlescent material.
Shell Pearl (1): cut, buffed, and sometimes dyed nacreous portions of mollusc shells. Variations and alternate names include cat's-eye pearl, coque de perle (from nautilus shells), mother-of-pearl pearl (from mother-of-pearl), and hinge pearl (from the hinge of bivalve shells).
Shell Pearl (2): spherical shell core coated with pearlescent material.
The pearlescent substance used to coat various cores may contain essence d'orient, isinglass, fish scales, oyster scales, mother-of-pearl powder, along with binders or dyes.
Coral is sometimes used to imitate pearls from the pink conch, and hematite is sometimes used to imitate black pearls.
