How do you color-fast brigh-color freshwater pearls?

[miss emma]

Hi again!
Thanks to everyone for their comments on my previous thread (QUESTION ABOUT FRESHWATER PEARLS), it has been most helpful!!

So, i am now aware of how to check if the pearls AREN'T colour-fastened, but does anyone know HOW to color-fasten them>?

If not, does anyone know of a reputable supplier/s that 'guarantees' that their products are colour fastened?


Thanks in advance!
Miss Emma

[miss emma]

Oh, and the some or the colours i am using are bright red, pink, purple, yellow and brown!

[knotty panda]

I did a search on the internet to discover how to do it before I replied to last thread and was unsuccessful. Of course, I didn't spend a lot of time on it. So my suggestion is to search the internet. My other suggestion would be to do what we do with eggs at Easter. Put them in a solution of water and white vinegar.

[barbie biggs]

Okay, I really can't leave this one alone. DO NOT put water and vinegar on your pearls and soak. Vinegar ruins pearls.
Just in case anybody new out there is reading and doesn't know this yet.

barbie

PS Like biology? Get a jar with a lid. Put a cup of vinegar and an egg (in the shell) in it. Put the whole thing in the fridge for a week. Every day take the jar out and gently use a spoon to remove the egg. Use a piece of string to measure the widest part of the egg.
By the end of the week the egg should feel like a jelly and the measurement will have changed a lot. The size will change due to osmosis.
The vinegar will demineralize even an eggshell.

[knotty panda]

I just saw this response. I wasn't suggesting that she put the pearls in vinegar for a week. A few moments will do to solidify the color. Good experiment though. I might try it to see if they are really colorfast. The only other thing I have seen to make them colorfast is a varnish coating. Now that I think might not be good for pearls.

[Yikai]

Hi again!
Thanks to everyone for their comments on my previous thread (QUESTION ABOUT FRESHWATER PEARLS), it has been most helpful!!

So, i am now aware of how to check if the pearls AREN'T colour-fastened, but does anyone know HOW to color-fasten them>?

If not, does anyone know of a reputable supplier/s that 'guarantees' that their products are colour fastened?


Thanks in advance!
Miss Emma

I want to help you, but I have no idea of how to color-fasten pearls.

[Caitlin]

Hi Yikai
Some of the colors in Chinese cultured pearls get on the thread, especially when wet. It either has excess dye or the pearls are not colorfast and the dye comes off.

Can you find out which pearl colors do not do this? Or which dyes are known to come off?

We have had problems with dye runoff before.

[pearlescence]

vinegar is an acid...like Cleopatra and the wine/pearl thing. (I keep meaning to do that, has anyone tried it?)

[Yikai]

Hi Yikai
Some of the colors in Chinese cultured pearls get on the thread, especially when wet. It either has excess dye or the pearls are not colorfast and the dye comes off.

Can you find out which pearl colors do not do this? Or which dyes are known to come off?

We have had problems with dye runoff before.

Hi Caitlin,

Personally speaking, I don't like dyed pearls. I think they are eroding the fame of CFWP industry on some level. Yet, we have a few but huge dyed pearls since some wholesalers from Russia order them. My dad said the dye hardly comes off with their method, especially dying the pearls after the luster treatment.

We only dye some "not good" pearls to black, golden and grey ones, and you can easily tell them that they are dyed pearls.

These are some dyed pearls in the factory.