Half-drilled pearls

[lisa c]

I broke a post in just that fashion trying to remove a pearl. It's called IMPATIENCE ().

Pearl and metals heat at different rates. The post breaks like that when you try to twist the pearl off with force before it has warmed enough to expand away from the post all the way around.

The metal closer to the outside has warmed, the metal deepest in the pearl hasn't caught up temperature-wise, and the twisted groove on the post is a point of vulnerability, thinner. The hotter, closer to the surface, softer metal sheared off where the metal of the post was cooler and harder.

The jeweler should've slowed down after the first post was broken.

 

[jshepherd]

I've been poking around trying to figure out where to ask my question ... this seems as good a place as any ...

I've been looking at pearl pendants. Some of them are half-drilled, with the bail at the top, and some of them are full-drilled, where you see the bail at the top and the pin at the bottom.u

I find the half-drilled to be more visually appealing, so I'm wondering why other pendants would be full-drilled. Are they more secure? Is it a sign of a more valuable pearl? It did cross my mind that someone dismantled a necklace to make pendants ...

Any opinions welcome. Thank you!

The full drilled come from a strand. The pin at the bottom isn't connected to the top portion. It's just made to look that way.

 

[ennui]

The full drilled come from a strand. The pin at the bottom isn't connected to the top portion. It's just made to look that way.

Ah! Thank you!

 

[jshepherd]

It's typically a lot less expensive to buy strands of pearls instead of loose pearls and half-drill pearls. This is especially the case in freshwater and akoya. We do the "head pin in the bottom trick" too when someone buys a strand of pearls and wants it just a bit shorter. The customer will have a few pearls left over, so we can set a matched pair in earrings and then attach the head pin to make it look like it was designed that way.

 

[pattye]

Lowly beaders like me also do wire wrapping with the headpin completely through the pearl to attach to earrings or necklaces. It is perhaps a more artisan and rustic look, yet very elegant when done with 18k findings.