In jewelry designer Cora Sheibani’s world, it’s not just the rocks and semi-precious stones that lead colorful lives. In her new collection Skin Deep, pearls show their many colors, too, dangling from earrings, set into chunky rings and sitting alongside square-cut diamonds in a tic-tac-toe grid.

Sheibani is a color addict — and a rule-breaker — which is why she chose to work with cultured pearls. In the fine jewelry world she inhabits, cultured pearls, which are made using farming methods, aren’t particularly precious, and colored ones in particular could easily be mistaken for fake baubles.

But none of that matters to Sheibani. She describes Skin Deep as a “celebration of the diversity of cultured pearls from different locations, all with the unique traits and colors — and ignoring industry prejudices.”

“I love jewelry for its longevity, for the fact that metal and stone last well beyond a single lifetime. But pearls don’t necessarily last forever. Their sheen is especially fragile, but I couldn’t help being attracted to them, and decided that it was time for me to embark on a new collection.”

Sheibani said the pearl’s nacre, built up layer-by-layer over time, resembles human skin, with its surface telling a deeper story.

She worked with Akoya, Edison and Tahitian varieties in soft macaron tones of peach, gold and green, in addition to luminous grays and silver. Each piece is handmade in Switzerland from ethically sourced materials.

A pearl’s color depends on the species and the tissue lining of the oyster, as well as the makeup of the water where it’s grown. Minerals and other materials can also be added to the oyster to create different tones.

In typical maverick style, Sheibani refused to “test” the pearls to determine whether they were treated to attain their color. She sees it as “a quiet act of respect,” and compares it to refraining from asking an older person about their skin care routine, or tweakments.

Sheibani has form when it comes to breaking jewelry’s rules. A few years ago, she created Glow, a collection featuring stones that turn fluorescent — green, pink or yellow — under UV light.

Those stones, she said, have long been perceived as “not pure” which is why she loves working with them. Like most gemologists, she travels with a loop and a small UV light on her keychain so that — at a moment’s notice — she can flash the latter on a stone to see if glows.

Sheibani is also integrating her colored pearls into designs from past collections including Facets & Forms, and Copper Mould.

The latter collection was inspired by the the pastries she grew up with as a child. One of her jeweler friends in Switzerland made mini copper cake molds, which Sheibani turned into rings made with gemstones such as green and pink opal and lapis lazuli.

The jewels were shaped like cakes, ice cream cones, linzer tortes, and cream tartlets. From now, they’ll also be iced with pastel pearls.