 Pearls,
because they are a naturally occurring material, have been used in
making jewelry for centuries. There are references to pearls
used in making jewelry both the Bible and in the Quran. Pearl
beads were also used in ancient Hindu civilizations.
Historically, pearl beads were used in making necklaces and less
frequently in earrings. Because pearl beads are a relatively
soft material (hardness of 3 on the Mohs hardness scale), it is
strongly recommended to limit the use of pearl beads to necklaces
and earrings. Rings and bracelets are probably not a good use
for pearls because the abrasion due to wear can damage the pearl.
 There are several techniques for making jewelry using pearl beads. By far the oldest is to use silk thread and string the beads to form a necklace. With silk thread, you must knot the silk between each bead. The reason for these knots is that the silk thread is softer than the pearls and therefore the pearl beads will slowly but surely saw their way through the silk, causing the necklace to break. With the knotting, in the worst case, you will only lose one bead when the strand breads. A well known manufacturer of pearl necklaces says it isn't a question of will the silk break, it is only a question of when. For this reason, this manufacturer recommends that pearl necklaces be restrung every two years. Because of the knots between each pearl bead, you get the visual effect shown above-right of spaces between each pearl bead. Please select the picture shown at right to view our instructions for making necklaces by knotting silk thread. Technology has advanced and in the 21st century a solution was
developed that did not leave us at the point of guessing when a
necklace would break. Now we can string necklaces on stainless
steel bead stringing wire. As with all things there are many
different qualities of bead stringing wire. Please be cautious
in purchasing this product. Some brands aren't as flexible and
as a result, they can suffer metal fatigue and break. The only
brand that we recommend is the Soft Flex Brand. Our personal
preference for all bead stringing projects is the .019 size of Soft
Touch, the premium Soft Flex product. With freshwater pearl
beads you will probably find that the .014 size of Soft Touch will
be required due to the small size of the holes drilled in freshwater
pearl beads.
Given that we now have a bead stringing product that will not
break, how does this impact how we make a necklace? This part
is simple. Tying knots between each bead is very time
consuming and when we know that the necklace is strung on a material
that won't break, it is also unnecessary. For this reason,
when using Soft Flex or Soft Touch, we don't tie a knot between each
bead. In fact, we don't tie a knot at all. Instead we
use crimp beads and crimping pliers to fix the bead stringing wire
on either end to the clasp and in between, we merely string beads.
To give the same visual effect that we get by knotting between each
bead, we replace the knot with a seed bead that is the same size.
If you look closely at the necklace shown at right, you can view
size 6 seed beads between each larger bead. Size 6 is the
larger size of seed beads, by using smaller size 11 seed beads, the
individual seed beads will not be discernable. Please select
the picture above-left to view our instructions on how to make that
three strand necklace.
Select here
for instructions on how to perform the crimping on either end.
Using Soft Touch Bead stringing wire, crimp beads, and crimping
pliers, you should be able to make an 18 or 24"
We have many approaches for making earrings with pearl beads. With almost any earring design on our web site you can replace glass beads with pearl beads to make a nice pair of earrings. The chandelier earrings shown at right are a good example. Please select the picture at right to view our instructions on how to make those earrings.
We hope you like our jewelry making projects using pearl beads. These projects make excellent birthday gifts for someone born in June because pearls are the birthstone for June.
|
