Pearl Stringing & Antique Seed Pearls w/ Janaya Jordan: Beading A Necklace

So welcome in everyone, I am super excited for this episode today, it's not usual that I get an opportunity to watch an expert at work and I'm super excited. Tell them a little bit about yourself and also where we met and how excited are you to show them uh your trade that you're I am super excited. My name is Jenea Jordan and I have been pearl restraining for 23 years now. Um I met Jason who is fabulous um 10 years ago at a GIA seminar that he was speaking at and doing a great job and I have been in awe of him ever since and I'm so happy that he is inviting me on to show you what I can do. And today's course is just on pearl stringing yes and how she does it, what supplies she uses, why she uses them, some of the tools that she uses and eventually we'll get into gemstone restringing. Now if you wish to contact her she's been so gracious and I'll show them she's been so gracious to supply her information. I will also put it in the description box below so if you want to contact her with some projects that you want her to work on and some vintage pearls that you need restrung she is the one that I would recommend to send them to. And here is her information let me put this on camera and I'll get closer if I need to uh there you go and there is your email address correct? Yes and my cell phone and cell for contact and then um check out the card it's absolutely wonderful so I totally love it and if it is in reverse for any reason I will drop it in the description box below in this incredible video. Make sure he gets it right. Yes yes absolutely so um let's go camera down and then you can show them some of your supplies and what we're going to work on and we are stringing a pearl necklace for my mother. And it's Mother's Day. And it's Mother's Day today and this is her special gift. It is truly so thank you so much I really appreciate it. I'm so glad that you're on with me. All right hold on wait one sec. Okay take it away my friend. Okay so when you're doing um pearl strands the best thread to use is the silk thread. It is also the hardest thread to find um they do a lot of selling of the bead line which is good for some projects but give a fair warning it does have a wax coating on it which makes the knot slip a little bit. Not to interrupt you a little I'll film so you can just put your hands maybe here. Perfect. Okay. Bingo. Thank you. So all you're doing is just threading the pearls on in order right now. Correct. Okay. You do really well if you take them off in order put them on in order that way there's no confusion on what you're doing. Okay and what kind of thread and needle are you using? So I use a flex needle that's extremely thin as you can see. Okay can you move that up just maybe right here and I can yep um perfect. Oh it's very thin it's like a wire. It is. Okay I have very very thin it's extremely thin guys just so you know. All right very good thank you. Put them on slide them down. Okay. So we are going to show you how to get this started. Okay. So on this one here I put a b-tip at the end that way we can attach an extension clasp to it um so we're going to show you this is my bead line knotter it helps me get the knots as tight as possible. You can use the tweezers but it doesn't hold as tight as the bead line and you literally are just like your sewing. You want to get the thread that you're using to be as close to the pearl color that you have as opposed to getting it overpowering. The whole point is the fact that you are going to show off your pearls not the thread. So you just go knot by knot and we all know that you knot the pearls that way if it breaks you don't lose the whole strand you only lose one pearl. We've all seen those classic black and white movies where the pearl strand goes down the stairs because she's broken. It's true. It sounds like me in 1997. So can you show them your progress up close so they can see real quick? Yes. Okay so once you put it through there you're actually putting the thread back through and when you push this down that's when it knots it or pushes the knot closer to the pearl? It pushes it closer to the pearl. Slow motion. Flip it in. Take it. Flip it like that. Slide it as tight as you can. Up. Put it up in the V. And away you go. I see so when you push it it actually pushes the knot closer to the pearl. Look how flexible it still is. Right. You don't want it to be stiff. You want it to move to function with you as a pearl strand as opposed to being extremely stiff and tight. Wow and look how close you got the color of the thread. Right so you don't want it to overpower in any way shape or form. You want it to be just an extension of it. And I don't know this would you use the same thread for gemstone beads or you don't? Yes and no. You have to be careful of those gemstones that you're using on some of them like specifically the black diamonds. Yes. Strands. Those are black diamonds. They're sharp. They're cut sharp. They will cut the thread. Yep. So you have to know the gemstones that you're working with on whether or not you can put them on wire, a fish line that we use, or thread. Got it. You don't want to cut the thread because then you're going to have unhappy customers. Correct. Yep. You gotta experience. How long have you been doing this? How many years? 23 years. And you work with a many area jewelers. I work with about 87 now. 87 jewelers. Okay that's amazing and this is a full-time thing? It is. Yeah. And my son has been helping me um which works out because I actually started this when I was on maternity leave for my son. I had no idea. I taught myself. I had a 30 inch strand and I just kept doing it over and over because I hate being bored. Yeah I don't know the word bored. I've never known it in 52 years. I was gonna say I don't think you do. I don't. I have no idea what that means. I have no clue and when someone says I'm bored I go huh? How? Like how are you bored? This is magnificent. Let's pause. We'll let you continue to work. Okay. And then we'll bring you back on in just a couple minutes. Sounds good. So Jenea is still working on the pearl strand and it's coming along beautifully. However, I got distracted and I went into her hoard and the reason why is it's very organized so it's not necessarily a hoard but I will tell you I have never seen this many half drilled pearls in my life. And you know the lavaliers? You know the antique lavaliers that we love that are always missing one tiny seed pearl that's half drilled? Stay tuned because you won't want to miss this. If you have an antique piece out there or a vintage starburst brooch in 14 karat or 18 karat gold or you have one pearl stud that the pearl fell off of you can always contact her because check this out the variation in color and luster. She has them done by size. These are all half drilled pearls. I cannot believe this. She has them larger. Six and a half millimeter to seven millimeter. Absolutely epic assortment and look she has matched and mated pairs all the way down here. What an amazing array of colors as well. Half drilled yet again and I thought I had a stash. Wait until you see this. This is where I lost my mind. Two millimeter to four millimeter, half drilled. I cannot believe this. You really completely freaked me out. So why I say these are so important. Look how small these half drilled pearls are. These are so rare to find and if you have a lavalier out there and you're struggling to repair it or you have one of the bar brooches from 1910, 1915 the Edwardian time period that's missing one little half pearl with you know sapphire spaced throughout the bar brooch. This is where you need to come. I will again put her information down in the description box below so if you need an antique restoration you can contact her. Is that correct? That is correct. Would you like them to send the actual piece in the mail and then you match up or do you need a millimeter? I can usually do it with a picture and a brief description. If we run into trouble then I would have you send it in and we can match it because we all know it's easier to match. Yes it is in real life. So show them what you did in a matter of seconds. I am at the very end. I wanted you to see I have just two more pearls to go and we just finish it up and his mother is going to have a fabulous necklace. Only the best for Mary. And she is so lovely. Well thank you. Thank you so much for saying that. She adores you. She said are you really going to her house? I said yes I am. So maybe she can come next time. Yeah let's hope so. That'd be epic. So I get it right to the end? Yes. I put an extra knot at it? Yes. I cut it so long enough so I can tie three more knots because we want it as sturdy around the clasp as absolutely possible. Because that is where it's going to be the most I don't know weak or fragile. Yeah it's used so much. You just want to be careful. And what are these little parts called? These little end caps? Those little end caps are called b-tips. Okay. There are two different ways to do a pearl strand. Okay. And it is the b-tip or the french wire. So essentially it's a little cup with a hole in it and then it has an attached hook on it in sterling silver and so when she passes then the thread through and she puts the knot in it the knot goes into the little cup it's kind of sunk down in protected and then. And then after the glue dries then you can cut off the extra and hook it around the clasp which we can show you in a little bit. Okay. So you want to use the hypo cement glue because if you use super glue it'll eat away the thread. And it's very important not to do that. So you put a good amount on your knot at the end. I always go three knots in. One, two, three. And the great news is it has a little tiny spout. Wow it's so little. Look at that. Look how little it is. It's like wow that is so I didn't know how fine it was. Um everything was pearls tiny tiny tiny. How are you doing this without glasses? I will need them soon. Always do three. Like I say at the at the class though you want to give it as much support as possible. Okay let's close there let that dry and then we'll So what we're going to do is I'm going to put on the clasp at the end so you can see it. We've glued it. We've let it dry. We cut off the the extra thread as close as you can without cutting the knot. It's very important not to cut that knot or fray it because you will lose the strand eventually. It will just pop off. So very simple. Can I show them what I stole out of your tray really quick? Yeah. Bam look at these. I had to bring them on. Look at tourmaline slice earrings that she made. Post-infriction back. Unbelievable. And as soon as I looked at her tray I said um can I bring those on to a sale? Guess what we're gonna go. Can we go over to the table? Can you show them? Yes. Are you sure? Absolutely. All right we're gonna show you some of her gemstone creations that are also for sale because you may want to reach out direct to her and I wouldn't mind one bit because wait to see the table that she has set up. I am working very hard. Well thank you for allowing me to take a look at it because I know it's kind of secretive right now. So if you're interested in such beautiful earrings and some of her gemstone creations please reach out to her and I will put that business card back in for all of you. Sorry to interrupt. I couldn't help myself. That's fine. I couldn't help myself. I'm like a squirrel. So you put the clasp on. You pull it in tight. Yes. And then you do a second so it goes all the way down. Okay. Just that simple. Yeah check it out guys. Look at this. Look at what she did. Very very simple and very secure. Great lobster claw and then if you if you wanted to on this end you just put a jump ring on this side close it up. You can also add two inches of chain because a lot of times these pearls will chew up a lot of space in terms of wearability. When you lay this out it's 17 inches but the wearable length is only 16 inches because the thickness of the pearls takes up a little bit of the space. So always remember that if you're going to send her pearls to always remember to adjust the length to more wearable length because again if you run a tape measure from here to here on the inside it's only going to be eight inches times two is 16. When you lay it out this way it's going to be 17 inches. Right. So wearable length as opposed to flat length is totally two different things. So please remember that when you're sending her your vintage necklaces that are sometimes much much smaller than today's sizes. Very true. Was that good advice? That is very good. This is going to be exceptional. So do you want to pause here? Yes. Do you want to go in and take a look? I'll show you my creations. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I absolutely love you for doing this. All right here we go. All right believe your eyes this is an absolute feast of gemstone beaded necklaces. Why don't you tell us a little bit about some of the stones and also some of the styles that you're a little bit more known for. So I like mixing different things, different pendants that we find over time, different glass beads, different people. So we've got turquoise. Oh look at how big these lapis are. Wow incredible. Love love love. Absolutely awesome. So we go into different things like the white agate. Whoa what is that? That is isn't that beautiful? Is it some sort of quartz or something? Yes that is dendrite quartz. Wow can you hold that up to the light again? Yeah right there. Wow I oh my gosh is that beautiful. Absolutely great faceting too. Love the color combination. Great job. So we have a couple others. Yep. Wow it's amazing. I've never seen it before. Just when I thought is that kyanite this one? Yes. Oh my gosh you never see kyanite beads that big. Wow absolutely incredible array. So here we have some opals. Okay oh and you paired it with art glass. Art glass. Look at that. Holy cow extremely well done and I like the touch of copper at the clasp. That's epic. So if they reach out to you you may not have these because you're selling them but if they reach out to you on a specific would you be able to sell someone this if they reach out to you direct? A lot of my stuff is like one-of-a-kind stuff that I have. Right. And my pricing is that because it's stuff that I have that I'm working with. Sure. So but they can still reach out to me and just say you know I'm looking for an opal necklace or I'm looking for a turquoise necklace. I can show you what I have. Great. We can go from there. There's her information if you want to take a screenshot of it or take a moment and write this down for restringing and also her custom designs. There is the information and there is the email and again the card is just awesome. I really really love it. It's it's beautifully done. There is her info and please feel free to reach out. Let's oh what are these? Are those tourmaline? And look at that bead. Oh my gosh look at the inside of that. It's beyond dichroic. It's just amazing and what a great color play to pick up that shape of this bead and the color combination without being too similar. Beautifully done and that one's only 120. I don't understand why because it should be more because just these tourmaline now are crazy expensive. That's a beautiful thing. That's a beautiful piece and of course turquoise. What a staple by the way and I love that you introduced this vintage pendant because you know how I feel about Native American. You know it's just absolutely incredibly done. What a powerhouse. What an absolute powerhouse. So beautiful. So beautiful. Great job and let's take a look down here. What are some of the other stones that you've used? Okay so this here although it doesn't might not look like it but these are mother of pearl. Okay so and then you have an art bead with it. You've got this one. Wow I didn't notice this one before. Look at the faceted plane on that and that internal galaxy. I've never quite seen a bead that epic. That color play and you absolutely pulled it together because then you spaced it with the blue and the green beads. Right. What an eye for design and color. Oh what is that one? This one is a mixture of sunstone and fire opal. Wow now I see why you had it on the bust. Sunstone and fire opal. It's one of my favorites. That is a showpiece. Wow is that absolutely stunning and look at the gradation and color yet again. Really beautifully done and of course classic pearl strands. Absolutely beautiful. Are these, do you think these are natural color because they sure look it. These are freshwater but they are natural. They're natural. I love that variance of that blush and the cream and the champagne. Beautifully done. Great millimeter on those as well. So those are definitely natural but these down here, if you look, these are a dyed. Although fun but they still are dyed. Yep absolutely. Color treated but so fun but I still focus on the classics and what is the, what would you say is the most popular length? 16 or 18 or is it kind of a tie? You know what it has, it was originally when I started in the jewelry industry 16 inches. It has moved to 18. Of course with pearls they're easy enough to restring and make it the length that you need it. So always remember that you with pearls we get it within you know four or five millimeters of where you really want it to be. So it always should be comfortable with you. Look at how I redid what I messed up. Did you see that? My mother always taught me. Wait no she always taught me there was a saying. I forget what the saying was. Oh but she always had a saying about like leaving it the way it was you know. Right. What is this stone? This is pink opal. Okay pink opal. And these are pearl. Absolutely amazing size and look at the luster on those. Very powerful design there. Absolutely love the combination. It took a lot of courage for you to put those together because normally people wouldn't think that they would go together. Correct. Yeah what a stunning, a stunning array there. Beautiful, beautiful stones. Incredibly well selected. Love the dichroic beads. I've always been a fan of these. That actually originally is a washbob. Yes and why would I go to one of the oldest things on the table? I mean it's like instantaneously. I did not see that earlier. Look at this. How much fun is that? That is a fun glass bead. I love it. Oh that is so cool. It's got so much character too. Yeah and I love your combination you know. It's so far beyond predictable because again I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have put it with this. I wouldn't have put it with faceted but I would have put it with these. So what a great, what a great, great courageous combination there as well. I like the artistry you know that you're not afraid to try something new. And then explain these because these are coming back in fashion now. Correct and these are a classic for every wedding. Every woman needs to look absolutely fabulous. So these are the Australian crystals and just crystals. Either way they're still a beautiful piece. Absolutely, absolutely gorgeous. Well I think we'll leave it there. I think we've covered an awful lot of things for today and again this is her contact information so please race on over and send her an email. Email is better correct? Either way. Okay. Works for me. Okay so there's her contact information and please reach out on anything that you saw and we'll pause just for one second. I'll be right back. My favorite part is is there's always something more to discuss in my videos and just as I was going to end she said wait one second we didn't do the pearl earrings so if you are in need of absolutely stunning sterling silver pearl earrings please reach out. She has them in various sizes and slightly different color and then she's got these and look how amazing the luster is. You know that luster is some of the best I've seen because you can actually see you can see the reflection in them. It's not dull it just makes beautiful. Absolutely awesome and then if it couldn't get any cooler look at this. Check this out. This is where I took the tourmaline slice earrings from the watermelon tourmaline and these are the only pairs that she has left. That's it. After those that is it and check those out for post and friction back tourmaline slice earrings and look at the gemstone earrings. The matched pair absolutely outstanding stones there. Love the art glass and again pearl drops and more gemstones. I thought these were fantastic too. Is that jasper? Is it jasper? Yeah so fun absolutely amazing great earth tone goes with everything absolutely outstanding. I have got to thank you so much for having me. I have had such a good time and I really just want to be able to help people make their jewelry wearable. If you don't wear it then it's not worth having. You have to use it. You have to. You have to enjoy it. You have to. Well I'm going to leave it there for the day. Do you have anything else you want to say? Thank you for having me. Absolutely this is not going to be the last time. It's just the first time. Thank you all so much for tuning in today. Again go forth with peace and kindness and you know that it's absolutely true. I simply love you because I do.