Southsea pearl setting into a ring

EileenK

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 20, 2013
Messages
78
I wish to buy this pearl to set into a ring. The size is 23.7mm in height and diameter is 15.6mm.

I am ok with the diameter.

It is the height that I am not sure of. This is what the pearl looks like:

Southsea pearl.JPG

Is it possible to trim the bottom off so the ring does not look too tall (then it would eally end up looking like a huge golf ball)?

Also, maybe there is a good size for rings. Any advice would be good.

Thank you so much for your help.
 
If you do select this pearl and have the tail cut off do you have a mounting in mind to fit a pearl that large? Also to be considered is the thickness of the band and how balanced it will be with a huge pearl on top. With the wrong selection you will be fighting to keep the pearl upright on the hand. Here are some mounts from Stuller if you are in the USA. Your local independent jeweler more than likely does business with them (not mall stores).
http://www.stuller.com/search/results/?query=south+sea+ring
 
Is it possible to safely cut off the tail without damaging the rest of the pearl? And who do you recommend to do this task? Pardon my ignorance but this is the first time I hear this can be done.
 
I know many people here (Indonesia) are cutting tails of baroque pearls, and then gluing them together to create one monstrous baroque pearl in weird shape. So I think there's a way to cut it cleanly, even though the tail seems thick on this one.
 
EileenK,

What a huge and interesting pearl! Not sure how one would go about removing such a large top; perhaps by grinding down? I would think there is some risk of damaging the pearl. It will be interesting to see how thick the nacre is and what the nucleus looks like.

It certainly will make an amazing ring!
 
do sliced pearls show rings, like trees? Can you tell how old a pearl is by the rings? (kidding, kinda - but now i wonder if you can tell anything similar from nacre layers in a mollusk shell. looks like it's google-time for julie!)

ANYHOW that is just an amazing pearl! surely tails like that are cut off all the time for setting into jewelery - think of the $! you'd probably just finish it the way a mabe pearl is done. let us know what you end up doing with it.
 
Back
Top