[jshepherd]

Originally Posted by Pearlgully

I FOUND IT (Finally)! I knew I read about this somewhere. In the book by Richard Wise, "Secrets of the Gem Trade". In the section on freshwater pearls from China,......."Natural color Chinese freshwater pearls should be stored in a darkened environment in order to preserve the natural pastel color, since they may fade with long exposure to sunlight." (Keywords being "may" & "long".)
Since I am not home now and don't have my copy of the book with me, I am unable to reference the page number at this time, but I googled "the effect of sunlight on pastel colored freshwater pearls" and the Ganoksin website came up with an excerpt from Richard's book.

Gail

Page 151 and 152. It is in the chapter on cultured freshwater pearls.

[Pearl_dreams]

Pages 151-152 in the hardcover (which I happen to have borrowed from the library).

Edit: How did I miss seeing Jeremy's post??

[Pearl_dreams]

My family has just returned from a week's vacation in Florida. For the specific purpose of this trip, I made a "junky" set (necklace, earrings, bracelet) of 6mm multicolored round pearls, choosing flawed pearls only which had white spots on them-- pearls I had sorted out previously as not being good enough to string.

Once they were strung, I was surprised at how nice the strand looked-- the white spots weren't even noticeable unless one looked closely.

I strung them on 49-ply beading wire so getting them wet would not be an issue. I wore them everywhere, even the beach, used a ton of sunscreen without worrying about how it would affect luster, and washed them with mild soap and water at night.

They look as good now as they did before the trip. Over a longer time, perhaps the luster would be affected, but this is how I plan to string all my "summer pearls"-- pearls to wear with sunscreen-- from now on, for easy cleaning.

[Caitlin]

Very good idea, Pearl-Dreams!

I have been thinking for several days that we should devote a thread to using beading wire for bracelets and necklaces.

We need a thread with the tools, tips, and techniques of using wire to bead-with some pictures. <hint hint>

I actually like leftover commercial grade pearls strung on wire for the reasons you stated-they look great on and you don't worry about things you do while wearing them---and you can hang them up when not wearing them.