How the heck is this post attached?!

[Eed14]

I would really love to use irregular freshwater pearls as studs for some of my beaded jewelry, and I can’t seem to figure out how to make it happen. I’ve seen a few jewelry brands with designs that use flat-ish pearls as studs, with loops for hanging other beads at the bottom, which would seem to imply that these pearl studs are half drilled on the flat side to accommodate a post — however, they are clearly also fully drilled through the center (as you can tell by the presence of what looks like a head pin at the top of the stud). I can’t work out how this is possible, unless the pearls aren’t half drilled for posts at all, and they’re simply gluing posts on to the back without the posts going into any hole.

How could that be? Isn’t it inadvisable to simply glue a post to the surface of a pearl, especially an irregular surface, and expect it to last? But there’s no way the pearl studs could be both half drilled for a post and fully drilled for a center hole, right? Because wouldn’t the two holes run into each other?

Am I totally overthinking this and missing some very obvious answer? I’ll attach some photos for reference so hopefully you can see what I’m talking about. Thank you, anyone who can help!

 

[Charlotta2.0]

Maybe it's fully drilled in one direction and half drilled in the other. When I got my pearls drill last summer and practiced on some pearls that I don't like, they did end up with some pretty weird drillholes. In all directions. Wendy at Pearlescence probably knows how the earrings are made. I am only guessing.

 

[pearlescence]

Ha Ha, yes Charlotta, I do know. These are all full drilled, so someone has used strands to make earrings - strands of pearls are much cheaper than buying pairs. Then the irregular coins are also half drilled (or less depending on how thick the pearls are) to make the studs. It's extremely unlikely that the stud post will hit the full drill hole.
I have no idea why they have mixed pendant caps and wire wrapping

 

[Charlotta2.0]

I knew that you did know how to make those Wendy.

 

[pearlescence]

Thinking about them again...that is asking a lot of the adhesive fixing a (likely quite short post) into that top pearl. There's a lot of weight.
Sometimes design triumphs over durability (like all those very elegant rings where a huge pearl is set on the shank with just a single peg. Lovely to look at but durable..?)

 

[Eed14]

Thinking about them again...that is asking a lot of the adhesive fixing a (likely quite short post) into that top pearl. There's a lot of weight.
Sometimes design triumphs over durability (like all those very elegant rings where a huge pearl is set on the shank with just a single peg. Lovely to look at but durable..?)

Thank you so much for your reply and explanation! Very helpful. I’m curious about where they would have gotten irregular pearls that are both half drilled and full drilled. I looked around a bit to see if I could find any but I haven’t seen anything like that, at least from the sources where I usually buy my strands. I wonder if it’s something they’ve special ordered.

 

[Eed14]

Thank you so much for your reply and explanation! Very helpful. I’m curious about where they would have gotten irregular pearls that are both half drilled and full drilled. I looked around a bit to see if I could find any but I haven’t seen anything like that, at least from the sources where I usually buy my strands. I wonder if it’s something they’ve special ordered.

 

[jshepherd]

I imagine they drilled the pearls themselves. They wouldn't be able to find pearls drilled this way very easily otherwise.

 

[JerseyPearl]

I would really love to use irregular freshwater pearls as studs for some of my beaded jewelry, and I can’t seem to figure out how to make it happen. I’ve seen a few jewelry brands with designs that use flat-ish pearls as studs, with loops for hanging other beads at the bottom, which would seem to imply that these pearl studs are half drilled on the flat side to accommodate a post — however, they are clearly also fully drilled through the center (as you can tell by the presence of what looks like a head pin at the top of the stud). I can’t work out how this is possible, unless the pearls aren’t half drilled for posts at all, and they’re simply gluing posts on to the back without the posts going into any hole.

How could that be? Isn’t it inadvisable to simply glue a post to the surface of a pearl, especially an irregular surface, and expect it to last? But there’s no way the pearl studs could be both half drilled for a post and fully drilled for a center hole, right? Because wouldn’t the two holes run into each other?

Am I totally overthinking this and missing some very obvious answer? I’ll attach some photos for reference so hopefully you can see what I’m talking about. Thank you, anyone who can help!

It's absolutely possible to cross drill a pearl and have a peg and a wire perpendicular to one another. And I agree with Jeremy, this was likely custom drilled this way. Many suppliers also do pearl drilling, so I would ask yours if they can do this.