drilling pearls

I told you how DH spoils me by taking me to the place where you can buy an oyster that's guaranteed to have a pearl? These places are all over, and I have acquired a mess of pearls over the years. It costs $10 -$15 each to have someone else pierce them, if you can find anyon who will do it. The places that sell the oysters make their income by marking up the pretty settings and charging you to make jewelry from your pretty pearls. Some of my pearls are worth upwards of $80 and we paid only $13 for them. But then, the pearl place wants to sell you a $50 pendant and a $30 gold chain and son of a gun, you have paid right through the nose for your $13 pearl.

So DH set me up with a Dremel tool (a little drill) and a press to fit it in, and a set of little bits, and I visited my friends Julie and Jerry who are lapidarists and who taught me how to drill my own pearls.



Here is the set-up, ready to go. See that nifty rectangle with windows in it? DH built me a pearl-drilling jig! This way I can drill halfway through, turn it over and drill the other half, meeting precisely in the middle, producing a neat, straight hole. If you start at one end and drill straight through, you risk blowing the nacre off the back. It's heart-breaking when you do that. I have cursed and bellowed my rage and frustration over this more than once.



The jig has a pair of cavities with holes precisely in the middle of each. There are two jigs in my fixture, and each is a two-part device. One half is moveable, and one half is not.







Put the pearl in the bottom half.




(Black pearls are my favorite! They have the most fascinating lusters to them - green or chocolate or cinnamon or purple!)



Then put the second half of the jig down on top ot the pearl, catching it firmly between the two little cavities.






Drill halfway down from the top, flip it over, and drill halfway down from the bottom. Voila, another pearl for my eccentric string!

This jig is just the coolest thing ever and he is the cleverest, kindest, most thoughtful and indulgent man in the world for making it for me.

You can't rush this, because the pearls can overheat and fracture if you go too fast. ( Did that once. Had to go outside because the cussing was upsetting the cats). It takes about fifteen minutes per pearl, and I still haven't perfected my system. It would go a lot easier if I had three hands . . .


So I spent much of yesterday drilling, and now I am re-stringing. You want to tie a knot between each pearl. If, God forbid, the string ever breaks, the knots keep them from all slipping off and running away all over the street or the ballroom or wherever. And of course you want to get the knots tight up agains the previous pearl so there aren't gaps of naked silk thread to get grubby with wear. So this takes time. There's also the thrilling problem of arranging all these colors and sizes in a way that suits me. Pre-planning is essential. But, if I wind up unhappy with my results, I know I'll be adding to the collection next year. Every year it's a whole new necklace.