Recent content by A Breaker

Many "Big Box" or mall jewelers will clean any ring for free. In fact, when they first started doing that...they had people standing out front asking to clean rings. It was to get people in the store, but it was nice for my grandmother, because as they cleaned her rings, she would ask them to...

Those Mikimoto pearls are AMAZING! The Flintstone ones just make me laugh...more Pearl-like spheres!

Yes, I think a once a year check is just good service..and they always took a while to clean and inspect it...& pointed out new things and what might go nicely with my rings. But my problem is taking pearls in just for cleaning. Maybe if you just needed them cleaned only once a year, but I tend...

Neki...you can get pearl stringing kits (Etsy USA & other countries) and restring with a better clasp to wear them until you can get analysis. That clasp is just a base metal....which makes me think they might also be chinese freshwater when they were first trying to get a more rounded shape...

BWeaves...I have some woven Rice Pearl Collar necklaces...I think all the weaving is amazing with real gems or pearls!!!!!! BTW my Great Grandmother wove a necklace similar with glass beads...in the 1910-1930's. Such great work!!! So love yours!

So if that were true...even getting a date on the ring & brooch would help. Any one have any idea WHEN they were set in the brooch or ring? Post a photo of the back of the brooch to help date it. Then you would have an idea if further research would be worth the $

Great job on "guessing" they were pearls. I agree with Pearl Dreams and will add. Faux pearls are very uniform. Yours show the variation on each pearl from wrinkles to divits. They also have a nice general roundness...but some are not as round...that helps since Faux are usually exactly the...

I wonder if it is a fossilized egg?

Clasps: some a very standard fishhook type used on pearls for decades...the hook part can be a smaller or bigger one if you need to replace it. But many clasps have unique ways they fit. I broke a box clasp end and I still have not found a replacement after 20 years! (They can be custom...

That makes more sense...Peal-like spheres!

Post photos please! I know I will learn from your experiments!

Thank you!!! these are from '59. But I haven't seen them yet.. I doubt he will sell them...so no hurry there.

Seed beads...(or those tiny Keshi) feel wonderful to wear! I would be buying the shorter all keshi multi-strand!!!!

Just thinking about this and wondering...... How would I tell if 70 years in a bank vault box had ruined these??? Would there be cracks or what???

As someone else on this forum said recently...Pearls are hot! That means that people who have not worn Grandma's pearls are looking to sell them...that also means scammers are out too. I would look at anything local (second hand, antique, auction houses, jewelers, etc.) that you can get too...