How to Care for Pearls and How to determine if they are real

How to care and store pearls

* Silver polish damages pearls. If you string pearls with sterling silver and the silver tarnishes, you'll discolor the pearls if you try to clean the silver. Store the jewelry in a tarnish-resistant pouch.
* Pearls need air to maintain their luster. Take them from their pouches from time to time. Do not store pearls in plastic baggies; they allow no air inside.
* Do not expose pearls to deodorant, perfume, or scented hand or body lotions. Put on makeup and spray scents before putting on your pearls.
* After wearing pearls, wipe them gently with a lint-free cloth before storing.


The fake pearl is very obvious. At the hole in the bead, there is usually an accumulation of pearlized coating. If there is not, there is chipping in the "pearl" color around the hole. This stuff flakes in the cheaply manufactured ones.

Real pearls are valuable and they display the natural beauty of pearls. They are also called “faux”, “costume” or “imitation”. They can be made of glass, plastic, or fish-scale imitations. There is nothing in them that rightly allow them to be called pearls. They are not naturals nor cultured.

Fake pearls are made to look like expensive Akoya or South Sea pearls, with a price range from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars.

Crystal pearls
Crystal pearls are glass pearls formed around a crystal foreign object usually called a “seed.” They simulate the luster of real pearls and are quite lovely as beads. Their advantages include lower cost, a larger hole, and perfect symmetry. Personally, I love crystal pearls but make sure my buyers know these are not real pearls.

Here are some tips on how to distinguish real pearls from fakes:

1. Real pearls have fingerprint-like surface ridges when viewed under magnification. Fake pearls have bubbles or matte patterns on the surface when viewed under magnification.

2. Real pearls have body color enriched by an overtone color. (Some pearls have very strong overtones while some pearls have weak overtones). Fake pearls only have one body color. Their colors look flat and lack depth.

3. Real pearls reflect light beautifully and their luster looks very natural. The luster of fake pearls doesn't look natural. It looks like glass.

4. When viewing real pearl strands under light, you can see a slight difference between each pearl in terms of size, overtones and surface quality. Even top quality cultured pearls with perfect surface have tiny thin layers when looking at them closely.
For fake pearl strands, each pearl looks like the exact copy of another. Their surfaces look perfect.

5. Real pearls are cold when you touch them. You don't feel the coolness when touching fake pearls. They always have the same temperature as the room air.

6. When rubbing pearls across your teeth, real pearls feel gritty while fake pearls feel smooth.

7. Real pearls are heavy in weight. Fake pearls are light in weight.

8. Real pearls show smoothness around drilled holes. Fake pearls show roughness or bump around drilled holes, as if the pearls have been melted during drilling.


Shannon Schow
www.shannonschow.artfire.com
Custom Handmade Jewelry
Plenty of beads in stock to make what your heart desires.
Online Classes available. In house Classes available
Contact me for details
dymnddesign@sbcglobal.net
www.shannonproductions.blogspot.com

Handmade Designer Jewelry by Shannon Schow

SHANNONSCHOW






Designer Jewelry

Cleaning Chain

I thought this would be helpful for my customers or anyone who wants to know how to clean your jewelry fine or costume.

7 Great Tips to Maintain your Chain!



1. Daily Care
When you remove your jewelry, wipe off the chain with a lint-free polishing cloth that has no abrasives. If you have been wearing perfume, rinse the chain with water, pat it dry, then follow with the polishing cloth. This is great for day-to-day maintenance: cleaning off fingerprints, skin oils, scents, and surface dirt.

2. Storage
Yvonne Padilla of Rio Grande recommends that you place your jewelry in an air-tight plastic baggie along with an anti-tarnish strip. These strips are fantastic–completely safe and non-toxic. They absorb moisture and neutralize tarnish-producing gases in the air. They will last up to 6 months or longer if placed in a sealed environment. They work for silver, brass, copper, nickel, bronze, tin, and gold. Copper is the villain when it comes to tarnishing, so any metal that contains copper will tarnish. Clean your chains thoroughly, then store them with anti-tarnish strips and they'll be ready to wear for months.

3. Weekly Maintenance
Use an ultrasonic cleaner and a cleaning solution that is PH-balanced and ammonia-free. This will eliminate surface dirt, oil, lotion, and perfume. If you are cleaning a rope chain or snake chain where dirt might get into the crevices, use a soft toothbrush to get into those hard to reach areas.

4. Let It Soak
Soak your chains in a PH-balanced, ammonia free jewelry solution for stubborn tarnish. If you have chain with stones, make sure that the cleaning solution you are using is gentle enough to use on the particular gemstones or pearls. Don't use the ultrasonic cleaner as the vibration may harm the stones.

Anti-tarnish strips, polishing pads, polishing cloths, and cleaning solution.

5. Tarnish Be Gone
There are some wonderful polishing pads and cloths that are embedded with microabrasives that get rid of tarnish and dirt in a jiffy. Just rub the cloth over the piece and watch it polish to a clean, brilliant shine.
Brass chain cleaned with vinegar and salt solution. Bottom: Tarnished chain.

6. Go Eco
To clean silver, try Jean Campbell’s At-Home Tarnish Busting Remedy. For stubborn spots, use plain toothpaste (no gels or whitening) and a soft toothbrush, then rinse and dry with a soft cloth. I learned this trick from Kate Richbourg of Beaducation: For brass and copper pieces, use hot vinegar mixed with a few tablespoons of salt; let soak, then rinse and dry.


Shannon Schow
www.shannonschow.artfire.com
Custom Handmade Jewelry
Plenty of beads in stock to make what your heart desires.
Online Classes available. In house Classes available
Contact me for details
dymnddesign@sbcglobal.net
www.shannonproductions.blogspot.com

Finally Finished with the Mad Hatter

Here is my Mad Hatter painting. This took me about a month to paint. I didn’t paint every day but spent many many hours if you add it all together. :)

This was a lot of fun to paint. I have some friends on Blogtv.com. I enjoy my friends on Blogtv very much. There are a lot of artists on this site and we all get together and have a monthly challenge. We all do our version of the challenge then post our pictures on the Gallery Page of Blogtv.com

BlogTv is also a site for some comedy and random entertainment. Go check it out and have fun.

Here is the link to the Art Gallery Page

www.blogtv.com/people/ArtGallery

Here is the the link to my page on Blog Tv

I do a show every Saturday at 6 pm Central Time

In my show I am usually working on a painting or just chatting.

www.blogtv.com/people/SweetNSourShannon

www.shannonschow.artfire.com

www.youtube.com/rosebud1971

View Full Album

Almost Finished with the Mad Hatter

More Progress on my New Painting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SnXhoCRMvY



What is wrong with me ? Listen to how I say the word "progress" it just sounds funny to me ... I should just leave my Texan accent in when I say that word lol lol

New Painting

Shannon Schow
www.shannonschow.artfire.com
Custom Handmade Jewelry
Plenty of beads in stock to make what your heart desires.
Online Classes available. In house Classes available
Contact me for details
dymnddesign@sbcglobal.net
www.shannonproductions.blogspot.com

Painters

Shannon Schow
www.shannonschow.artfire.com
Custom Handmade Jewelry
Plenty of beads in stock to make what your heart desires.
Online Classes available. In house Classes available
Contact me for details
dymnddesign@sbcglobal.net
www.shannonproductions.blogspot.com