Hi there

I've been handed someone's unloved jewellery to make something new out of and looking for some advice. The jewellery in question is a set of gold studs in the style of little flowers with pearls inset into them.

So I'm liminited to cold connections and can't use heat. I was thinking along the lines of creating something quite contrasting like an oxidised silver branch that's contemporary looking and adding the flowers to this - the customer likes the idea, but waiting to see if it is possible. My main worry is damaging the pearls. I've never worked with pearls before, so no idea how resilient they are.

So options would be to rivet the studs into the branch but would I be able to do this without breaking the pearls?

or use a tap and die set and turn the earring posts into screws so they can be screwed into the branch?

I've never used a tap and die set so not sure how small you can go - the earring posts are a standard 0.8mm so is that possible?

Any advice, help or suggestions welcome...

Will try and post some photos of the earrings later as I've not got them to hand right now.

Thanks

Evie