Can anyone explain to me what "orient" means?

[Kelli]

I''m trying to do as much research as I can before deciding what to buy. This would help a lot. Thanks in advance!

 

[Skippy123]

Date: 5/27/2009 11:17:05 AM
Author:Kelli
I''m trying to do as much research as I can before deciding what to buy. This would help a lot. Thanks in advance!

it is a kind of a rainbow sheen to it, it isn''t a flat color it has a shiny slight rainbow hue to it if you look closely at the pearls and gives life to the pearl.

 

[Streeter1]

Orient is the product of something known as Thin-Film Interference. It is a combination of reflection and diffraction when light hits the surface of a pearl and reflects from the surface of a pearl and travels through the nacre reflecting from the linear edge causing diffraction. You will see it most often in high-end South Sea pearls and akoya, very rarely in freshwater, and never in Tahitians because the nacre is opaque. People do refer to the intense moving overtone of Tahitian pearls as orient, but it is not in the truest sense of the word.

 

[suna]

it''s rainbow overtones.

 

[Kelli]

Thanks everyone! That definitely helps, and that''s what I''m pretty sure I saw in the two pairs of studs I gave to my mom and grandma for mother''s day. One showed it more than the other though, and that was the warmer colored rosey pair. Does the color of overtone make a difference in orient? For example, if I ordered white Freshadamas (or something similar) with silver overtones rather than rose, am I decrerasing the chances to see the orient, or did the rosy ones I ordered just happen to have more than the other pair? I liked what I saw, but I think I''d rather have silvery pearls.

 

[brightlight]

It is often confused with overtone and overtone is often mistaken for orient, but it is not overtone. The best visual I can suggest other than actually seeing orient on a pearl is soap bubbles. If you look at a bunch of soap bubbles from a certain angle, you can see a rainbow sheen on them. That rainbow sheen is what orient looks like.

 

[Skippy123]

Date: 5/27/2009 2:51:55 PM
Author: brightlight
It is often confused with overtone and overtone is often mistaken for orient, but it is not overtone. The best visual I can suggest other than actually seeing orient on a pearl is soap bubbles. If you look at a bunch of soap bubbles from a certain angle, you can see a rainbow sheen on them. That rainbow sheen is what orient looks like.

ditto, you still have the silver overtone but you see the rainbow shine to it.

 

[Kelli]

Date: 5/27/2009 4:07:40 PM
Author: Skippy123

Date: 5/27/2009 2:51:55 PM
Author: brightlight
It is often confused with overtone and overtone is often mistaken for orient, but it is not overtone. The best visual I can suggest other than actually seeing orient on a pearl is soap bubbles. If you look at a bunch of soap bubbles from a certain angle, you can see a rainbow sheen on them. That rainbow sheen is what orient looks like.

ditto, you still have the silver overtone but you see the rainbow shine to it.

Great! That is exactly what I wanted to hear. The soap bubble analogy is the perfect way to describe what I saw in the rosier ones. Not just the rosy color, but also the rainbow effect. The other pair was less pink-ish, and also showed less of the rainbow effect too. I wonder if I can request silver overtones with strong orient when I make the purchase. I don''t know if that''s asking too much though.

 

[Indylady]

I have heard that orient seems more noticeable on rosier overtones, and that a lot of people request their freshwaters to be rose because of it. Personally, I have requested "orient" specifically; if you are buying akoya''s its probably not really necessary to ask for, but otherwise I don''t think it would hurt to try.