[Jewelry making - Article 00281] - Re: [Orchid] Resurrecting old pearls

[Helen Hill]

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>     If you are decided on painting the 'pearls', why bother spraying?
>     I'm sure that when I visited the Majorca Pearl factory, they just
>     dipped the glass beads in a vat of 'paint' - here is a link to a
>     description 

    I am spraying precisely to avoid the problems associated with
    dipping in liquid paint. A pearlised coating has particles that want
    to settle and if you dip in such a paint, as the excess drips off and
    the paint settles, the pearlised particles will sink to the lower
    part of the beads. Spray-painting is good because it goes on in a
    fine mist and dries very quickly without the paint having chance to
    slump or puddle. I'm familiar with the process, having done it before
    so don't experience the same problems that many people have when
    they are too impatient and try to cover in one coat - that's when you
    get the dripping and slumping problems associated with brushing or
    dipping. 

    Also if you read the following method from the website you directed
    me to, you'll notice that it is a multi-stage process, involving
    polishing of each bead after dipping and drying, for every layer put
    on the bead!!! Talk about labour intensive. This project is already
    labour intensive. Have you ever painted anything where the finish
    has to be spot on? If you have you'll know that spray painting is
    easier when it comes to getting a good finish, faster than brush
    painting or dipping, goes onto the surface far more uniformly, dries
    faster, etc, etc. The list of advantages of spraying over brushing
    or dipping is long. 

    Majorica pearls are not formed like regular pearls in mollusks,
    instead they go through a man made process and start off as a solid
    glass ball that is coated with a special paste. 

    1. In starting, the highly trained workers of the Majoirca Pearl
    factory create a nucleus by melting an opaque piece of glass rod over
    a torch. The melted glass flows onto a coated copper wire which is
    electromechanically rotating. From here the workers are able to gage
    the size of the nucleus by the intensity of the flame and the way
    they rotate the wire. They usually get the nucleus to be around 1mm
    thick. 

    2. They get the glass to be the same shape, size and density that of
    a real pearl. 

    3. The new glass nucleus is then dropped into a special pearl liquid
    called hemage. These nuclei are dipped in high quality essence
    d'orient and polished between dippings These nuclei are then dipped
    into a special, pearly liquid called "hemage," an adhesive paste
    made of oil and ground up fish scales or mother-of-pearl for their
    iridescence. The exact formula of this essence is closely guarded. 

    4. After the nucleus has been dipped in the hemage and has been
    coated, then it is dried and polished. This is done by hand to get
    rid of any imperfections that may arise. 

    5. The almost new faux pearl is coated at least 30 times, until there
    is couple of layers. This is also done to help increase the density
    and the uniformity of color. 

    6. After it was coated the pearls are dried in a time and atmosphere
    controlled environment. 

    7. To ensure that the new pearls will last, they are layers that were
    created in the steps above will go through different steps to make
    sure they won't discolor, chip or peel. This is done with the use of
    different gases and solutions. 

    8. Then they are drilled and assembled into necklaces by specially
    trained workers. 

    Note the 30 times!!! No thanks. 

>     Maybe you should visit the factory as a bit of background research
>     - its nice and warm at this time of year....!!! ;-) 

    Now that really would make it an expensive repair!!! ;-) I don't
    think my in-laws would understand that I needed to visit exotic
    locations in order to fix the necklace, but it's a nice thought. 

Helen
UK
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