So…I’m all about making jewelry these days…

I bought a strand of beautiful silver, freshwater potato pearls at my favorite bead shop (Beads of Splendor) this weekend and couldn’t wait to get them home to see what I could do with them.  I was so excited seeing all the beautiful colors and variations of pearls and other semi-precious stones that I forgot an important thing…unless they are specifically ‘big hole’ pearls you can’t string them on anything but really fine wire or thread.  Typical pearls have teeny tiny holes!  These pearls would look wonderful on silk or wire but I had envisioned them on leather instead. I love that juxtaposition!

Fortunately I’d picked up a neat little tool the last time I was there…a diamond reaming bit for my Dremel.  I say ‘my Dremel’ like I’m on personal terms with it but I’d never, in fact, even turned the thing on…yet.

I considered just stringing the pearls on silk since I had plenty of silk and had just recently taken a class on silk knotting – so that wouldn’t be a bad idea…and that’s what most people do with pearls anyway, right?

But I’m not like most people.  And I really wanted to see how they would look on leather.

I’m happy to say that I gave it a shot and ‘reamed’ five pearls.  It takes a little effort and a fairly steady hand, (wear safety glasses!) but other than that…its really pretty easy!

And I’m now over the fear of the Dremel so there is no telling what I will attempt next!!

The moral of this story…look outside of your box…you never know what you will find!

Image of dremel with flex shaft attachment with diamond reaming bit.

Image of diamond bit package and wooden bead holder (for submerging under water – to cool the bead while drilling)

First draft of necklace…its a work in progress!