My first floating Tahitian pendant, and "how" I made it.

StarryPearl

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Last night I finally finished making this floating pendant. Reaming a hole to this big demanded more patience than I had thought. Believe it or not, it took me several nights just to enlarge the hole. Picture first and let me tell the story after.

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So, it's the simplest, most basic floating pearl pendant. However, the pearl is... kind of special, in a not very good way. It has the most beautiful color, surface, and luster on one side, which is shown in the photo above, while the other side is nearly jet black, with 6 very obvious blemishes if not 7 - that's still tolerable. What bothered me more was, after reaming 10 minutes from one side of the hole, I suddenly noticed that instead of being perpendicular, the reamer was at an angle with the pearl! After some careful examination, I figured that this pearl had been drilled from two sides to the center (which is good and common), but it had got an "angle" inside, instead of a straight hole. Although I bought this pearl from a reputable seller, it was already too late to return. So I sucked it up and tried reaming from the other side, and that was not the end yet...

The night before last night, I was reaming and reaming and suddenly the fingers holding the pearl had a very weird feel from inside the pearl, and it moved with the direction how I twisted the reamer. I sweated and petrified as I never expected anything "moving" so forcefully INSIDE a pearl... (I do have a pearl whose nucleus fell though, but it makes a little noise when I shake it.) After calming down a little, I believed I had just dislodged or at least loosened up the nucleus from the nacre. Then I was rather terrified that the movement of the nucleus would break the nacre and ruin the pearl. After a short petrification, I cautiously twisted the reamer slightly to make sure it wasn't my illusion, and the fingers felt the same thing - something was moving with the reamer under the surface layer of the pearl. (Actually I asked myself, nuclei are perfectly round, how could I possibly feel anything even if it rotated? But then I thought, could it be the poor drilling that made the hole's pathway off-center therefore I could feel the movement?)

Anyways, "I got a pendant to make. I want a floating necklace. Just be very careful. It's gonna be okay." I told myself. So I kept reaming, but only twisting back and forth with tiny distances, which made the process extremely slow of course. And once I could see a straight hole of decent thickness for the chain, I gave up the reamer and switched to my bur bits to enlarge just the outer layer for the gold parts - I never thought they would one day be used on a pearl! I pinched the bits with fingers and manually did the rest of "reaming", from which I learned nacre is more solid and much harder than I thought.

Before gluing, I was very curious how thick the nacre was (because from my fingers' feel, I felt the nacre was probably quite thin) and how the nucleus-nacre boundary looked if I had dislodged the shell bead, so I took a peek inside the hole, and here is a picture to share:

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I was fairly excited and delighted to see this. The nacre seemed thick - I measured it and it was about 2mm, and the boundary seemed normal (I guess) to me.

It's still a myth to me whether the nucleus is still in its right position (meaning no rotation after everything, no matter whether it was rotated back or never moved from the beginning) and whether there is no space left somewhere between the nucleus and nacre whilst somewhere else the nacre gets more pressure from nucleus than it normally should. I guess it might remain a myth to me for the rest of its life, unless one day in future I can get a chance to X-ray it.

All in all, I made my first floating Tahitian pendant. It's with 18k solid gold. I like it, and I will find it a chain. :p
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Thanks for looking, and thanks for your patience reading such a long post for such a simple piece of pearl jewelry.
 
Good morning StarryPearl :D
Seems like Easter holiday season is in effect...there are times when we get less people everywhere due to the slowing down of activities...I love your story...the photos are great, the pearl's "good side" is indeed superb...great luster, color and overtones. The drill hole image is amazing...I mean, this is "text-book" quality and you can see a thick nacre coating on that baby!

And yes! Many more here on the forum will tell you that the beads can move...it is not the most common thing, but those that drill and work very often with pearls (like pattye ) can tell you it happens. I personally would say that it is much more common in baroque pearls and very commmon with "gas pearls".

And Tahitian nacre is very hard, I haven't got the tools to perform an experiment to compare nacre hardness but I believe it might be the hardest nacre of all, some here in the forum such as pearlescence may tell you about it.

Anyway, I thank you for the time you took to share this story and those great photos with us! :D
 
Good morning CortezPearls! So glad to see your reply. I was puzzled if my new post was again awaiting approval and nobody could see it. Phew!

Thank you for your compliments on the pearl and the photos. The moment I saw the inside of drill hole, I knew I should take a picture and share it. ;)
 
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It's so pretty, from this side anyway. And you have an amazing patience. I usually reams my fingers. Last time I tried reaming out a knot that got stuck, I reamed myself first and the broke the reamer inside. Well, it's still stuck. I have since bought a new reamer and luckily that was not one of my favorite pearls, an 8mm circled tahitian one, quite pretty but I can live without it.
 
Very pretty floating pendant Starrypearl! Good job reaming, I tried once but gave up pretty soon. I know what you mean about one side of pearl absolutely beautiful and the other only so-so, but at least the good side here has truly amazing luster, we can see your reflection there pretty clearly! Will make a great floating necklace, those are one of my favorites!
 
It turned out great!

I have a necklace of Vietnamese, incredibly blue baroque akoyas. I restrung them, and vowed I'd try to never restring them again. Most of the nuclei are loose, and it takes some poking around with my beading needle to get the hole in the nucleus lined up with the hole in the nacre. My mother had a baroque SS necklace that had a similar problem. Anyway, thank goodness for really thick nacre. I think the pearls would have disintegrated if the nacre wasn't so thick, because some of the nuclei were shattered.
 
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It's so pretty, from this side anyway. And you have an amazing patience. I usually reams my fingers. Last time I tried reaming out a knot that got stuck, I reamed myself first and the broke the reamer inside. Well, it's still stuck. I have since bought a new reamer and luckily that was not one of my favorite pearls, an 8mm circled tahitian one, quite pretty but I can live without it.

Thank you, Charlotta. I am sorry to hear you broke a reamer in your pearl. Despite not usable on jewelry, I am sure it has other ways to show off its beauty. I bought my reamers from Wen and it came in 3/pk. Now I know why. :p
 
Very pretty floating pendant Starrypearl! Good job reaming, I tried once but gave up pretty soon. I know what you mean about one side of pearl absolutely beautiful and the other only so-so, but at least the good side here has truly amazing luster, we can see your reflection there pretty clearly! Will make a great floating necklace, those are one of my favorites!

Thanks, eolian! The luster is indeed good on this side. I just took another two photos that showed better reflection - evening light is weird now - and it looked even better in person. The photos don't do it justice. I love floating necklaces, too! :D

(pics removed for privacy : )

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It turned out great!

I have a necklace of Vietnamese, incredibly blue baroque akoyas. I restrung them, and vowed I'd try to never restring them again. Most of the nuclei are loose, and it takes some poking around with my beading needle to get the hole in the nucleus lined up with the hold in the nacre. My mother had a baroque SS necklace that had a similar problem. Anyway, thank goodness for really thick nacre. I think the pearls would have disintegrated if the nacre wasn't so thick, because some of the nuclei were shattered.

Thank you, BWeaves, for sharing your story! I can't imagine a necklace with "most of the nuclei" being loose, much less akoya, whose nacre is thinnest among all kinds. It must have been frustrating to string. I only strung one pearl like that once and that was a big Tahitian and it took me minutes to get the needle through the hole. Have to say you got great patience, too! :cool:
 
I have some big tahitians that have loose nuclei as well. I know just which ones so I try to remove the tread at the same time as I put the needle in. Sometimes it works.
 
Wow, what a lot of effort, Starry Pearl!:eek: The result turned out wonderfully, but geez...
 
That floating pearl is like a magic mirror. Great reflection and color.
 
That is a stunning pearl .. on that side I know :D Well done. It can be a real trial and often the slight difference in the drill holes meeting up at an angle isn't an issue when stringing. More so when you are trying to push something solid through - like a reamer. This is where my little Dremel drill comes in handy . Safety Goggles and a little Dremel... no more reaming.
 
Thanks, Katbran! I do have a rotary drill, bought it 12 years ago from FireMountainGems. I used to use it a lot, but its steadiness is a off. Say if I use a needle thin drill bit, when the drill is on, the drill bit doesn't stay where it is, instead its end moves in a small round area. Not sure if I explained clearly. For this reason I wouldn't dare to use it on a pearl. Much less my tools are still packed and not accessible yet. :D I've heard of Dremel plenty of times - unfortunately not early enough to prevent me from buying the one I bought - is it very steady?
 
Wow, exciting & brave. Glad it worked out. The pearl is beautiful & a thick nacre! Excellent job.
 
This is very well done. I can't imagine myself being able to make something so cool with my own hands. You probably spent a lot of time practicing, to achieve this level of mastery. I am a big lover of jewellery, and I always enjoy how people make such beautiful things.
 
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Welcome to our forum Shanalotte :)
And you can if you want! Lots of experienced friends/forum members have shared their experiences here on the forum...you might enjoy visiting the "Lowly Beaders Club" thread where you can find many interesting and fun projects :)
 
What a gorgeous pearl and pendant! Thank you for sharing your process with us!
 
Thank you for that wonderful story, StarryPearl, your writing style is hysterical, I love it! I felt like I was right next to you as I read it, and what a fabulous picture! As Douglas said, text-book worthy photograph.

Job well-done, beautiful!

Welcome Shanalotte!
 
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