Pearl Stringing
Tuesday April 10, 2007
I recently had a reader email me with questions about her pearls. Like many people who wear them a lot, she get's them professional restrung and knotted every year. However, she noticed that the woman who knotted them the last time ended up knotting them so tightly that the strands won't lay flat any more. So, what should she do to fix the necklaces? What about getting them wet and then hanging them to dry?First of all, eeekkk! Never get your pearls wet. As I mention in my article, The Power of Pearls, they are porous, so water is a no-no. If you don't want to learn to knot your pearls yourself, then I would find someone else to restring them. Yes, hanging them may eventually get the tention to relax some, but there isn't a lot more you can do other than that because you can damage the pearls.
If you've ever had tension problems when knotting and have found a fix for it after the fact, I'd love to hear it, but I'm afraid the usual answer is cut it up and start over again. For more information on pearls, knotting, and pearl jewelry, see the articles and links available in my Pearls section.
Comments
Tammy,
I knot pearls for a couple of local jewelry stores and teach pearl knotting at my local bead shop (Bead Culture, maybe you’ve heard of us!). Usually, I use silk with knotted pearls. Sometimes something synthetic works better if the piece (which may not always be pearls) has special needs.
If the knots are too tight and strung with silk they can be gently stretched by hanging them on some kind of rounded knob and weighted overnight. I use a stapler to do this. Be careful not to use anything that may cut through the silk or scratch your pearls or beads.
If they are not strung on silk and this technique has not worked, then the strand may need to be rinsed with water first. Water won’t hurt the pearls - remember they come from water. Water is more of an issue for the stringing material and can cause silk to over-stretch. And of course never wear your pearls in a pool or hot tub as the chemicals can damage them.
I don’t post much but thought this information could be helpful. Let me know if you have any questions.
Rebecca
Your stapler idea is brilliant! I realize pearls do come from oyster, thus water, but still, I’ve heard that it isn’t a good idea to get them wet. I guess I’ll need to do more research on this.
I use a Tbls of natural sea salt diluted in distilled water and a soft cloth when I have a strand of pearls that is in desperate need of cleaning. I have never encountered a problem with this method.
I got a new book called Pearls by Fred Ward besides keeping all perfumes, detergents, steamers, and other things like that away from pearls, he does say the following:
“If you feel you must wash them, use a gentle non-detergent soap, and do not rub individual pearls together. Rinse your pearls with nothing hotter than warm water, pat them with a clean cloth, then spead them on a towel to dry.”
So, some water is okay it seem. Just have to be careful. For example, this same reader said she was wearing them in the shower. I think that would not be good since you often use shampoo and soaps in there too.
well i just had to find out what you ARE suppose to clean your pearls with so after searching everywhere and making a few phone calls i found out the following,,,never soak pearls in water,,,a damp cloth works just fine in most cases however plain water washing is ok but very briefly and dried carefully with a soft towel,,and then spread on a towel to dry the stringing material is advised,,however,,the one tip i got most about the tight stringing process was facinating,,,i was told that since restoring your luster to pearls required gentle wiping with OLIVE OIL it was suggested you could apply olive oil to the strings before hanging them with a light weight ,,,it also suggested that the strings used for pearls is tougher than most people think and once the olive oil has been on the string for a few minutes you can pull your pearls gently individually to actually tighten the knot furthor thus making the un-knotted area slightly larger,it says in most cases you would be amazed how a tiny move will losen them sufficiently,,of course many of the people i spoke to said,,,wear them,,body heat and the natural effect of wearing will stretch them just fine in no time at all
It’s amazing what one can find on the internet.
Clean your pearls with a wrung-out, soft terry washcloth as needed. Leave them out to airdry. If they’re really dirty, use that wrung-out terry washcloth with a bit of mild soap, and wipe them off with a clean wrung-out washcloth; leave them out to dry.
Pearls don’t need olive oil for lustre. In fact, olive oil would be an attractant for fibers, hair, skin tissue and all sorts of other matter that would dull them and necessitate thorough cleaning of your pearls, and it would no doubt also necessitate re-stringing them.
Pearls that have been knotted too tightly on silk will eventually stretch to some small extent of their own accord, unless they are so small that they do not weigh enough to do so. On synthetic stringing materials, they are less likely to stretch.
Please save the olive oil for your salad, with a nice balsamic vinegar.
I have been knotting pearls and other beads for years and am used to using bead tip ends. I am presently teaching myself how to use bulk silk instead of Griffin cord. I have found a way to make pearls loosen up and hang right which always works for me. Simply stroke the strand from one end to the other, not too hard, and then the other direction in the same way. I remember how proud I was when a woman brought in a strand of pretty pearls which were not hanging straight and looked terrible. She said she got them that way. I said to her, “why didn’t you return them at once?” She didn’t really have an answer. I did the stroking trick right there, took about 30 seconds and handed them back. “There, I said, all fixed.” She was very grateful.