kattitudes

As promised, I said I would find the photo of the pearls I strung and tied during Dragon*con and I did. Not thrilled with the photo, but I am a little stymied over my camera and need to sit down at some point and figure out all the bells and whistles.

I took the picture right there on the table at the bar where I sat, so the table is a little meh, but you can see a little of the detail of the necklace.

The pearls have a *gorgeous* pink nacre, some are banded, but they they have a fantastic glow to them. I am really thrilled with the quality, and you can see the warmth that catches even the littlest bit of light. I individually knotted them on pink silk string with a stereotypical white gold filigree pearl clasp.

Now that I did this as a stereotypical pearl necklace (it is about 19 to 20 inches long), I have decided that these pearls are way too lovely to go the standard route and I want to restring them. Sometimes with jewelry you just have to put something together and eye it to see if it works and this was definitely the case. I thought that I liked all the different colored silk cords available with which to string, but I found that if I use like for like (pink cord to string pink pearls), it actually ended up looking like the pearls were still on the hank to me. I think it is just a personal preference, but there you have it.

Here is a closeup of the pearls so that you can see the lovely colors. It shows the beauty of these pearls, in that some lights they cast a gorgeous clear pink, but in the right tones, you get a nice muted peach. Great color combination to wear with any skin type, and of course, like all good pearls, they glow best right against the skin, bathed in the natural oils of your own body (which, aside from having a high ick factor, is actually the best thing for pearls. Not perfume oils or bath oils or anything along those lines, but the body oils that you produce naturally. Those oils give your pearls a natural glow and polish that will make your pearls literally shine and sparkle. It is the best way to keep your pearls looking good.)

Usually, jewelers do not recommend using toggle clasps unless the piece is heavy enough to hold itself closed (toggles are easy to pop open, and subsequently off your body), but the pearls are just gorgeous and *heavy*, which means they are heavy enough for a chunky white gold toggle I have tucked away. I really lucked out with these. They are about 10mm and heavy and just top quality. I think I’m going to restring them tonight on white. Actually, now that I think of it, I have a nice antique diamond clasp that I have been saving for the right piece and I might just use it with these.

I originally wanted to sell these, but again, this is the downfall of being a jeweler. You end up keeping your toys.

Actually, on further note, you keep your toys, until you decide to clean house to make room for new toys, so eventually these will go. But not for a while.

I will start working on the other photos from the additional pieces I put together that weekend. I have a smashing – absolutely smashing Edwardian reproduction I have been working on. I used a filigree white gold and diamond pin from my collection and used it in conjunction with white pearls to make a collar that is out of this world.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 9th, 2007 at 1:51 pm and is filed under handmade gifts, jewelry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.