Buying just for orient

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skyflyer3

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After reading a few posts about orient, I'm curious as to how one purchases a strand of pearls with strong orient. I understand that Freshadama may be the obvious choice for consumers, but if I'm on a budget and don't want huge (>8mm), perfectly round pearls, where do I go? Thanks....
 
Hi Skyflyer,

Freshadams are offered in 6-7mm at a far lower price than the larger ones

Zeide
 
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Thanks, Zeide, for the advice. If you can point me in the direction of retailers that might carry such pearls, that would be much appreciated as well. I have only a vague idea of what orient might look like - I've seen mother of pearl faces on watches that have a rainbow iridescence that lends depth. Are there other types of pearls besides keshi to look for?
 
All this talk of "orient" in pearls prompted me to take a look at my loose keishis from a different perspective. I found a few that look like little opals when they are moved around. I have included a couple of jpgs.
loose keishi one was shot using halogen light, the one in the middle is amazing

Loose keishi two, same pearls in natural light on a cloudy day .
I tried to shoot some strings of Keishi that have that have good orient but couldn't get it to show as well as these.

No photo shop massage etc. just the original photos.
Doug
 

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kittymary said:
This ebay seller has a load of keshi pearls in weird and wonderful shapes.
Click to expand...


How would you make use of such pearls? Most appear flat & thin - difficult to imagine in jewelry.
 
skyflyer3 said:
Are there other types of pearls besides keshi to look for?
Click to expand...


On this forum everyone knows what pearl names mean... but once out, 'freshwater keshi' sounds exotic and when used, every shop seems to have a different understanding for these words (anything from slightly off-round, to thin 'petal' shape described HERE). Honestly, I am not sure either what is the correct meaning, since most freshwater pearls are non-nucleated anyway and 'keshi' was meant to descibe non-nucleated accidents from saltwater cultivation.

All in all, the 'Freshadama' are really not expensive compared to any pearls with collector's pedigree I have ever found (meaning, no treatment & high quality... regardless of shape and size). I didn't try Ebay and would like to look for some oddities there in the future, but so far nothing really jumped off the screen as a real bargain. Zeide's find(s) logged on this forum are quite tempting though!
 
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Hi Ana,

In freshwater culture, the term keshi refers to coincidental pearls from the soft body (actually natural pearls occuring in a mussel otherwise under pearl cultivation) and now also the second-generation pearls that form in existing pearl sacs after the original cultured pearl has been harvested. However, you are right inasmuch as that the term keshi is really not indicating a distinguishing feature in freshwater culture unless the Chinese freshwater pearl culturing industry is trying to get consumers used to nucleated freshwater pearls as the standard ware which would make the solid-nacre ones all keshis.

Zeide
 
Hi Zeide,
The freshwater Keshi I have are very different looking than the Baroques that I have even the flat baroques don't look like a keshi pearl. There must be something in the growth process that makes for very different pearls?
When I wanted to start using pearls again in my work I had memories of big fat " Lake Biwa" pearls I used to buy. Then I found out that "Biwa " pearls seemed to now be synonymous with "stick" pearls and that what I wanted are now "keshi" pearls. However Keshi is being used to describe a lot of different looking freshwater pearls, particularly the very thin ones. I presume that these are so thin because they have not been allowed to grow fatter before harvest?

After a lot of research to try and figure out what was what I finally purchased what were sold as "reborn" pearls, another term the Chinese are using for Keshi and are pretty much like the high end pearls I used to buy from "Lake Biwa". I think that what I would call the wild west nature of current freshwater pearl marketing leads to a lot of potential for confusion and misunderstanding.

Doug
 
Thanks for the straight fw. 'keshi definition'! Have you seen the last AGTA PR bit about pearls? (not terribly new - Prism Newsletter, Spring 2006): the pearl article (start on page 14 or so) describes what appear to be significant difficulties separating between naturals, keshi and freshwater pearls. Perhaps this wasn't the intention of the article, but I found the technical confusion gratifying for an admirer of all-nacre pearls in the PPB world. Here's the thing: LINK to 'Prism'.


... speaking of keshi... and EBay as it happens: These guys sometimes have more convex ('nuggety' they say) saltwater keshi. Most are very baroque, but when the roundish ones came in, no one cares to price them differently. Perhaps I just don't know enough to figure out what's what in this case, but with most prices ending under $100, there isn't much at stake. Imperfections are interesting :)
 
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Hi Doug,

The "reborn" pearls are the second generation pearls that spontaneously form in existing pearl sacs. The higher luster is usually the result of them not getting the growth hormone implants and the flat shapes come from the fact that the pearl sacs are already quite large. If these are left in the water for more than two years, the pearl shapes become larger and more plump.

Zeide
 
Hi Ana,

There is only one way of finding out how good a deal the seller's keshis are and that is to buy one and judge for yourself.

Zeide
 
Thanks for answering my questions Zeide. Your explanation helps me to understand why the keishi have the potential to have superior lustre and orient compared to the baroque but don't always because of other factors in the culturing process.

Pearls on steriods (growth hormones), I find that mildly humorous. I think I spend too much time alone in my studio.

Doug
 
It took a while to find an example of at least intriguing FW baroque pearls on the cheap on Ebay (bar that clasp!). HERE Not much to loose...
 
Hi Kheri,

My first choice of pearl is one that has orient (rainbow color play), translucency (water), and reflectivity (mirror). In strands, the pearls should be harmoniously composed. Shape and surface perfection are secondary features and in strands are always judged by the overall impression they create. A pearl without orient is not a pearl to me except for calcareous concretions like conch pearls that by their very nature do not have orient. Although such pearls can be attractive and very costly, they are only something I would accept as a gift but not buy for myself.

Zeide
 
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