[Joelery]

There seems to be a conspiracy of sorts in the jewelry industry surrounding how to effectively dye pearls. It’s held as an “industry secret” which seems to me to be ridiculous, and I assume that it’s just generally a pain to do, and time consuming, thus people steer away from it, and those who have the patience to do it don’t want to share.
At this point I’ve tried using petroleum based coatings, but they all scrape off.
I have used acid dyes, and am currently soaking some pearls in aniline dyes and hair dyes, but progress is slow.
Pearls are primarily aragonite or calcite, so I figured water would be the best vehicle for the dyes, but I feel like there must be a way to speed up/ intensify the progress/depth of saturation in the process.
I hope someone has some answers for me! We all need answers these days.

[AntoineLavoisier]

I'm thinking if you increase temperature and/or pressure you will increase the reaction rate. However, if you go too high, some of your dyes might degrade.

[Enthalpy]

[...] petroleum based coatings, but they all scrape off.
I have used acid dyes, and am currently soaking some pearls in aniline dyes and hair dyes [...]

I wouldn't use organic dyes on a mineral material as I fear they wouldn't adhere. Metal compounds instead. But that's only a gut feeling.

Could the pearl producers incorporate the dyes while the pearls grow?

[wildfyr]

There are colored organic compounds like pthalocyanines that can very strongly bind transition metal ions

[Joelery]

[...] petroleum based coatings, but they all scrape off.
I have used acid dyes, and am currently soaking some pearls in aniline dyes and hair dyes [...]

I wouldn't use organic dyes on a mineral material as I fear they wouldn't adhere. Metal compounds instead. But that's only a gut feeling.

Could the pearl producers incorporate the dyes while the pearls grow?

Pearls can be irradiated from early on in their growth, but that’s a process that we would probably have to job out to China, and they would want a huge bulk order, and pearls can only be irradiated in so many colors/ we want to be in control of the pearl quality.