I dont quite follow what your trying to do to support the pearl from
a bale or as we call it here in the UK a jump ring.
What I regularly find here is the lack of engineering background to
solving such problems.
If theres a simple way to assemble this small item without using
heat then one should look for it.
For example, drill the pearl say half way through if all you want is
to hang it from say an ear wire.
assemble your bale plus ball plus the wire that is then glued with a
2 part epoxy glue into the hole in the pearl. if the hole is say
3/16th in deep it will never come out in normal use.
Now if you want a bale on both sides of the pearl so you can for
example hang several in a string, youll need to go to a cold
mechanical assembly.
The easiest way to look at the technique is to Google for Talurit,
the swaging way of making loops in wire ropes.
Transferring this technique to your pearl, you drill right through,
assemble the wire as previously described, then make your loop after
you have cut a small length of tube say 1/16th in long that you make
oval so you can push the wire back into it. then with a suitably
modified pair of wire snips just squeeze the oval tube into a
ball/circle and youve made your second bale or jump ring. all cold.
Limiting yourself to just a torch, saw and file isnt the way to go
nowadays.
For another example, when I make gold ended sterling twisted
bracelets or wire bangles i made a 2 part steel die. I made this from
some hardenable angle iron hinged with different sized holes drilled
through then countersunk at 45 degrees, held as usual in my 3rd hand
the indispensible leq vice.
The metal is clamped in the flat part and the punch drives the gold
or other metal into the cone shaped recess crushing it around the
wire, using a flat ended punch. Then a decorated punch with say a
flower motive driven into the flat end. But hey! im a hammer man and
90% of what I make is wrought.
they never come apart, and much quicker than soldering.
Hope this helps.
Ted
Dorset
UK.
