Dyed?

I'm glad the folks that frequently handle SSPearls are weighing in!

BTW, does anyone remember the post with the 3 pearls in a row?
 
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lisa c said:
Can you photograph inside the drill holes of the pearls you actually have?

This morning I'm using a magnifying glass with the enlarged setting of my screen, but it's only an iPhone4, so you know how small that is.

Last night I took out some dyed, bead-nucleated pearls to look at. It's a batch of pearls that I was trying to take the dye off of, pale aqua. Anyway, on the pearls I hadn't interfered with, the appearance of the drill holes on each pearl wasn't uniform. One entrance of the drill hole had a ring of dye concentration. The opposite entrance hole of the same pearl could look very clean, no dye concentration ring at all. A caveat with this information is that this was not a good dye run to begin with, the coverage was thin, and dye concentration spots were very pronounced.

Were they sold to you as natural-color? Were they expensive? Is the vendor well regarded here?

eh, I'm an idiot. I just remembered I have some pale,yellow-dyed pearls, so I dug them out. I was hoping to see how the light played around the dyed pearls and then compare it with the play of light in your photos, and peek into the drill holes. I'm still an idiot however, because
1) I cant see into the drill holes clearly enough to describe the layering, and
2) the best description I can come up with is that the light bends differently. It illuminates all the way around my Un-dyed pearls, and the dyed pearls don't show the same way.

so, inexperienced student vote - undyed.
Click to expand...

I'm curious, how do you take dye OFF of pearls? Were you successful?
 
perlinda said:
The more I look at it, the more I think the pearls are dyed. The concentrated orange color in spot and drill hole is the main reason, but also because of the body color. Does the color look like the pictures? Because to me, the color doesn't look like most golden south sea pearls. It looks a bit like this.. https://www.pearl-guide.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1014&p=8945#post8945
Click to expand...

Re that link, that is very light color, not gold, rather light champagne.
IMG_3858.jpg
The picture above is Gold NOT dyed (trust me...).

The price would indicate SS, (considering the size and the blemishes) but again , I am no specialist here...
Darker color on drill hole and blemishes is however a sign...
 
maiakity said:
I'm curious, how do you take dye OFF of pearls? Were you successful?
Click to expand...

Yes, I was. I tried a number of solvents, and had the best results with a series of them, finishing with Clorox. This trip to FL I want to repeat the process on other dyed pearls of the same batches, time it and photograph before-and-afters. FL has great light even in winter. I wouldn't do it on expensive pearls of course.
 
Hi Malaikity,

the drill hole definitely looks suspicious, and from the photos, the lustre looks too bright and bounces right of the surface of the pearls...instead of a inner glow. I would say that they are dyed.
 
Reflection of the strings could cause a 'darkening' so the pearls should have been photographed without the string with the whole facing a slightly tilted angle towards the camera.

I have seen non dyed drilled pearls before and the, especially with yellows/golds, the hole can have a darker tinge, if a black string is used. Like in the picture. Also, even with non dyed pearls, there could be a variation of colour in a single pearl especially in yellow greens.
 
Here's some more pics. The dirty drill hole is my fault...I strung them up on some different wires to see how they would look and wore them around for a while, when I took them off they were grimy! (the drill holes seem rather large on these particular pearls) I wasn't sure how or if to try to clean them out, so I just wiped the pearl and left it. You can see the difference between the top and bottom drill hole as far as the coloration. I also took a pic of what I think will be my finished earrings...I hope they aren't dyed, but if they are I do still like the shape of them.

2012-12-13 14.55.00.jpg
2012-12-13 14.57.09.jpg
2012-12-13 14.58.49.jpg
2012-12-13 15.10.28.jpg
 
Hi Maia, I think they look yummy, and I have a question for you. Can you swish a soft brush or something inside the top drill hole? to see if the dark specs are dirt, and are easy to dislodge, or not. A little water, gentle soap and light friction won't hurt them.

Thanks, and I'm hoping you've got winners, I think you have and that it's just dirt, but I haven't handled thousands like the experts here. Plus I have an iPhone4 only, small screen. I like your design, too.

That's a big honkin' drill hole on the bottom, isn't it!?! You've compensated well with your earring design... Are you using that tiny bead on the napkin to help fill the bottom hole a bit? If so, what is the bead made of? If its metal, may I suggest a tiny glass seed bead, or seed pearl, or ... what else could work without potential discoloration?

P.S. I'm not dissing the iPhone. It's a small screen, but the color is true.
 
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Oh yes, it's definately dirt. The drill holes were clean until I went messing around with them :) And I was surprised at the size of the drill holes! I don't have much experience with unset pearls but I've wired a few pairs of earrings and 3 or 4 pendants and these have the largest drill holes yet! No matter I guess, once they're wired up you can't see them. They did do a lot of spinning during the wiring though which caused me to scratch up the very top of one of the pearls while trying to get the last little "tail" of wire bent in, grrrrrr!
 
Scratching is frustrating, but the good news is probably no one else will ever know it exists. Enjoy!
 
lisa c said:
Hi Maia, I think they look yummy, and I have a question for you. Can you swish a soft brush or something inside the top drill hole? to see if the dark specs are dirt, and are easy to dislodge, or not. A little water, gentle soap and light friction won't hurt them.

Thanks, and I'm hoping you've got winners, I think you have and that it's just dirt, but I haven't handled thousands like the experts here. Plus I have an iPhone4 only, small screen. I like your design, too.

That's a big honkin' drill hole on the bottom, isn't it!?! You've compensated well with your earring design... Are you using that tiny bead on the napkin to help fill the bottom hole a bit? If so, what is the bead made of? If its metal, may I suggest a tiny glass seed bead, or seed pearl, or ... what else could work without potential discoloration?

P.S. I'm not dissing the iPhone. It's a small screen, but the color is true.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I hope they are winners too! The bead on the napkin is actually a bit of the granulation from the headpin that cracked off, I had to use another one :( When the headpin is wired on, you can't see the hole at the bottom at all. The scratching is really minor, and just near the top drill hole where I was fighting with the wire, I'm sure no one else will notice but I know it's there! Any advice on how to get those little tails of wire to tuck in without jacking up the pearls while I'm at it???
 
Ah, yes, I've lost a few headpins. I'm so new at bending wire that sometimes I think all I have to do is look at it funny and it self-destructs. But that could be me...(ya think?)

Lots of wire-y people here, they'll probably chime in soon!

As a matter of fact, I too have a question. I was artfully bending a gold-filled headpin and as I was (ahem) perfecting the graceful angle (yet again) the darn thing snapped. Would heating it in warm water have prevented that, or are there only so many times a GF wire will bend? No really sharp bends, just say half the curve of a 4mm ring (in a shape like a road winding up a mountain).
 
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It depends on what the base metal is? gold will bend repeatedly - it's ductile, which is one of the reasons why it is valued for jewellery.
Sounds like the base metal in your pins is quickly getting over work-hardened. When that happens metal needs to be annealed but you can't anneal filled or plated so you are stuck.
 
Thanks Wendy. So warming wouldn't have made any difference.
 
I've wire a lot but I've never had anthing break on me? Maybe the headpins sense your insecurity? You have to firm and really mean it :D

- Karin
 
When you anneal something you are rearraniing the molecules so that the metal becomes solf and pliable again, after working it jumbles up the molecules and therefore stiffens the metal. That's when it will fracture. But nore it takes a lot more heat to do that what I understand by warm. It is going to be glowing red hot (573K)
You can't anneal plated or filled findings because you will lose the precious metal.
 
maiakity said:
...Any advice on how to get those little tails of wire to tuck in without jacking up the pearls while I'm at it???
Click to expand...

You mean the little tail of wire after you've finished wrapping the wire and have trimmed it?
I use my crimping pliers-- the part of them that is nearest the tip, which is concave on both sides and used to make a crimp bead into a little ball shape (not the other part that is divided). If you position it just right, it makes the wire tail curve tightly against the rest of the wire. I find this easier than using regular chain-nose pliers.

see closeup image:
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=crim...w=137&start=0&ndsp=41&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0,i:98
 
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