Hi Sam,

You are doing just great. Yes that is exactly it. Unbleached high-grade pearls retain their conchiolin and thus appear a tan-tinted translucent color that concentrates towards the core of the pearl while bleached pearls have their conchiolin denaturized and appear to have residual blotches while overbleached pearls have hardly any residual conchiolin to connect the aragonite crystals and the result is a dull murk.

There is one proviso, though and I hope that Richard and Fred will be able to take proper pictures of that. Pearls of perfect water and orient (that means translucent pearls that have not been bleached) do look more like harlequin opals than jelly opals in transmitted light. Actually they look like a slightly yellow mist with an aurora borealis sheet waving inside them. It took me quite awhile to assemble the "teaching strand" I just sent to Richard so it would include every type of translucency and combination thereof, every type of orient and combination thereof, every type of reflectivity and combination thereof, as well as every type of flaw and foul known to pearl world. I even like wearing it, too.

Zeide