I am curious if anyone has experimented or has knowledge of certain
pearl color treatment techniques. I plan to play around with some of
the treatments below but would appreciate any insight into any
processing techniques including proper dilutions, wavelengths, etc.
Freshwater pearl bleaching: Most FWP, as they are harvested, are
brownish orange. They are then soaked in a bleach bath under intense
flouresent lights for a period of time.
Freshwater pearl irradiation: Apparently, irradiating pearls
essentially burns the inner nacreous layers of a pearl to form a
brownish color. This appears as a grey to peacock color on the
surface.
Pearl dyeing: I have read that pearls are dyed with a silver salt
(silver nitrate, silver chloride, etc) and silver is deposited on
the surface of the pearl creating a gray to black color.
If anyone is familiar with any of these processes, I would
appreciate any specific you have–or even methods that
don’t work.
people - this is in response to the ‘pearl dying’ segment of
william’s post and it’s based on gleaned from many
sellers from whom i have bought many kilos of freshwater pearls h
fwp are produced on ‘farms’, pearl farmers used to dye fwp after
harvesting until cleaning bills from irate women who debunked orson
welles’ statement that women don’t sweat’ when the dye stained
clothes.
pearls are made by bivalves - filter feeders - they take in
water, filter out the nutrients and exhaust the water - so fwp
farmers started adding the dyes to the tanks, etc., and the bivalves
ingested them, thereby adding color to the nacre deposited on their
pearls. this has proven helpful with my pearl pieces -
i’ve never received a cleaning bill (or complaint) from any customer.
good luck - ive it is better to be recognized as an
’enjoyable/enjoyed’ person than seen as a strident ‘i am always
right’ lost soul.
