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Bead Reaming Made Easy

By on April 3, 2015
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Wire Jewelry Tip April 4, 2015

Pearls and Bead Reaming Made Easy

On a recent trip to Las Vegas, I purchased a lovely new ring – Sterling Silver with a set Pearl and inlaid Koa Wood from Hawaii.

My husband and I were window shopping as we wandered through massive casino after casino and around one corner we can upon a cute little shop where you could pick your own oyster and retrieve the pearl from within.

Being a sucker for these kinds of things, I decided to take my chances and picked the ugliest and most barnacle laden oyster in the bucket. I then told the lovely young sales lady to crack it open and see what we would find!

To my delight and surprise, out came a beautiful light pink pearl – almost 7mm! With pearl in hand. I then went on the hunt for a setting! Would I get a pendant or ring? Having a personal affinity for Hawaii and all things tropical, I was drawn to a new line of Sterling Silver jewelry with inlaid Koa wood in a number of different styles.

After looking at a few settings, the lovely young lady behind the counter brought out a matching pair of men’s and women’s rings and as you can see from the photo below, those were the ones decided on. My husband was in need of a new ring as well, so it didn’t take much talking to convince him that we needed both!

As I chatted with the lovely young lady behind the counter, I mentioned that I worked with jewelry and was very interested in seeing how she drilled the hole for the setting and polished and set the pearl. She was very accommodating and let me watch her every move as she cleaned it with salt and water, then she showed me the drill and I watched as she drilled the perfect hole. We talked about some of the sizes of pearls which had come from her location – the largest was almost 9mm… so I felt pretty good about the one that I had purchased!

As we chatted, she finished polishing and setting the pearl and placed it in a ring box (alongside the new ring for my husband) and I went on my way with my new pearl! I love it and wear it almost every day!

Reaming your own Beads and Pearls:

As I watched this young lady drill out my pearl my thoughts were drawn to our blog. I thought I would share this simple video on how to do basic bead reaming. This seems to be a basic jewelry making skill that is so important to know, but is overlooked by many.

If you are creating with Pearls and Beads that need a little larger hole – this video will help give you a bit of guidance!

Pearls, Pearls and more Pearls!

If you are looking to create something this Spring with pearls, we have an outstanding selection of on our site – here are a few options!

Don’t forget: We now Large-Hole Pearls that can accommodate up to 18-gauge wire – I’ve put a few of them below for you to see!

Have a wonderful time creating with Pearls and Beads!

Happy Wrapping!

3 Comments

  1. avatar

    Susan

    April 3, 2015 at 6:50 am

    Very informative video

  2. avatar

    Carol Praissman

    April 3, 2015 at 9:24 am

    I love working with pearls & have tried to drill larger holes. It’s taken forever! Now that I know the reamer I have is the wrong one, I’ll buy one that is better suited & work under water.
    Thank you for such an wonderful video!

  3. avatar

    Faith

    April 16, 2015 at 6:39 pm

    I really enjoyed watching this informative video. I am new and using a reamer is new to me. This video was so simple and very clearly made with great instruction. I look forward to working with pearls and a hand reamer to begin with. Thank you for putting out these videos.
    Sincerely;
    Faith