How to age freshwater pearls

[parfaitelumiere]

Hello,

I am working on a special project, movie prop replica, from Indian a Jones movie.
The cross is supposed to be 400 years old, and has 8 pearls, I will use freshwater pearls, button type, as those have no bead inside if I remember.
I want to age them, give them more cream color, and also and them down a bit, like old pearls.
Do you know if there is a way to do it?
Thank a lot for your help!

 

[CortezPearls]

The Sun would be your best friend to make pearls look older.
Place them inside a wide-mouth container (bowl) with a mirror-like surface and place them under the sun for some weeks...you will have to check the pearls daily, since Sun exposure is different everywhere.
Arizona sun: Maybe a week or 2 will suffice!

 

[jeg]

If you have extra on hand and you are ok with experimenting with them… I used to dip dye plastic pearls and fabrics to give them an antique patina for craft projects I was working on. I used such things as tea, coffee and even black Ritz dye. Leave them sitting in the solution until you have the desired color.

 

[pearlescence]

I suspect what you want are some pearls which have some 'pond slime', from your photo. Would have been easy to find a few years ago. Now not so much. Size?