[Zeide Erskine]

Hi richard,

Orient is visible to the naked eye depending on how the nacre is crystalized throughout the pearl either on the surface of the pearl (soap bubble effect), inside the pearl (warp-on-the-back-of-a-mirror effect), or outside the pearl (colorful halo effect). The problem with candling cultured freshwater pearls (and to some extent South Seas, too) is that they are grown in an environment that is really not all that optimal for their most natural development and thus can cause severe stress making the mussels develop intermittent conchiolin layers in the pearls that can look like bead inserts on some x-rays. Naturals do that, too, in stress situations (typically under salinity and/or heat stress) but you can have some naturals that are entirely transparent while that is near impossible with cultured pearls.

The lint-like inclusions are probably capillaries (pore-like structures) filled with oil. You get that with South Seas, too, but not with akoyas since they do not have enough nacre to even dream about developing such natural features. My freshadamas have distinct pinkish color spill and do show orient (a chromatic sheeting like an aurora borealis) in transmitted light. So, even if mine are not enhanced beyond polishing and oiling, yours may have been enhanced either ex post facto or still in the shell (by feeding the host mussel carotinoid enriched algae). As I mentioned before, if you want ultra pure pearls, you have to grow your own or get some naturals.

Zeide