This came with pearls I bought on ebay. How do you use it?

[CharmedOne]

I have never seen one of these before. It came with a pearl necklace I bought on ebay. The seller was a man selling them for a friend and he had no idea. How do you use it? I tried to attach it myself but it felt like I was going to break it. I figured I must have been doing something wrong. So I thought i would ask here, I appreciate any help you can give me.

I have a few other questions. I hope you don't mind. I am finally starting to feel better and I want to restring some more of the pearls I purchased but I wanted to ask about the vintage pearls. I cleaned them all but I thought that they all had to be restrung. I have three necklaces that definitely need it but there are several others that were kept in really nice boxes and are in great condition. Should they be restrung too? It's so much easier with metals you can just clean them and go but the string is a different matter. What do you think?

Sorry more questions How do you store your pearls? I know a lot of you have several necklaces and I am wondering how you store them. Right now I have them laying out on my desk so I can see them all but eventually they will have to be moved for other projects. I saw a suggestion on here about satin sacks but I just picture me going through every sack trying to find the one I want. I saw a necklace hanger at the store. Would that be ok to use for pearls? Sorry for all the questions. Thank you all so much, I truly appreciate all of your help. ~d

 

[Pearl Dreams]

If the knots are tight and the silk is clean, likely the strands weren't worn very much, so you don't need to restring yet.

I don't have only one way of storing my pearls. I store my Pearl Paradise pearls in their original boxes in a drawer (each one is labeled); a number of others are in those silk/satin pouches (different colors help me remember which is which), others still are stored flat in drawers in a large jewelry box and still others are hanging in an acrylic necklace holder. Don't hang any necklaces that are strung on silk-- the silk will get stretched out. But necklaces restrung on Power Pro can be hung and will not get stretched.

I haven't seen any clips like the one in your photo-- maybe it's a pearl shortener? But if so it doesn't seem to have much clearance to keep the pearls of the clip from rubbing against the pearls in the strand. Maybe someone else here is familiar with this sort of item.

 

[pearlescence]

The best way to tell if pearls need re-stringing is to look at them, and to try to swoosh them back and forth. If the knots are tight against each side of the pearl all along the necklace and there is no play, then no re-stringing needed. If the pearls can move then the silk is starting to stretch and weakening and time to think about re-stringing (or, of course they were just re-strung by someone not very good - I've seem mm of play in some professional and very expensive bricks and mortar re-strings)
Simple time isn't a great criterion - some people seem to wear out silk really fast while others can go for years and years.

 

[CharmedOne]

Thank you Wendy, I will check them. I need to find some other thread options. I got power pro but the wrong weight and you can't find white in stores.

PD, Thank you so much. I would have never thought of the thread stretching. You really saved me some extra work there. I received a snap closure thing with snaps inside with some of them, so I can definitely label those. I still haven't figured out the shortener thing yet. Thank you all again. ~d

 

[Pearl Dreams]

CharmedOne, you can get Power Pro in 10#, 20# and 30# white from artbeads.com. Get on their email list-- they often have 20% off and 30% off coupon codes. Shipping for orders $10 and over is free.
Also 20#, 50# and 65# can be found on ebay in larger spools.

 

[juliebeth]

i think that's a pearl shortener, however i made one just for kicks, and it works much better as a scarf pin.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Here's a photo of that sort of pearl shortener in use:

http://www.pearloasis.com/cgi-bin/catalognew.cgi?COMMAND=detail&IDNUM=19990309210841

 

[CharmedOne]

Thanks juliebeth, it is kinda small.

PD, You are so nice to find this. Thank you so much. I will give it another try. I can't believe they sell for that much, what a surprise. They gave it to me with the necklace, that was very nice of them. I will play around with it on a longer necklace. The one it came with is only 16 inches. I did sign up for art beads.com and found the thread too. Thanks again PD for all your help! ~d