Pearl Treatments

Jewelry Discussion
1

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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

Thanks,
William

2

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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

Thanks,
William