Vijayeta, barely in her early twenties, says that the designer pearl culture is more bewitching but less expensive than cultured pearls normally available in the market.
She says: "If one takes up designer pearl production as a business, he or she will reap rich dividends because pearls market is second biggest after diamonds in the international market. If the designer pearls are of good quality, they will fetch good money."
She says: "These days in the market we have Chinese pearls, Japanese pearls and other types of pearls. These freshwater mussel designer pearls are no less in quality than the available pearls. Indeed, their rates are reasonable."
To make designer pearls, Vijayeta inserts beads with a punched shape of a deity or anything inside a freshwater mussel (that live on the bottom of rivers, irrigation canals and farm dams) collected from the River Vidisha.
The mussels carrying designer beads are then packed in netted bags, which are tied with a bamboo stick and the stick is left in a pond for 15 days.
After 15 days, the freshwater mussels are placed in the netted bags and sent for raft culture (resting in water for a few days) where the beads are gradually covered with nacre layer, Vijayeta explained.
Do you know that freshwater leafage and mussels make pearls?
BHOPAL - Very few of us know about the many ways in which pearls are formed. If you want to know the answer, ask Vijayeta Rathore, a young scholar in applied aquaculture from Barkatullah University of Bhopal.