Quote Originally Posted by medusa View Post
Has anyone tried this method?

http://barbarasfernald.com/2010/02/0...y-pearl-holes/

I need to string around 50 pearls onto 1mm griffin silk cord and the thought of drilling them individually fills me with horror, not due to laziness but more because my hands are currently really hurting and even if they weren't I'm pretty sure I'd end up breaking pearls.

That said, I don't want to end up with a bunch of wrecked pearls which might shatter.

What do you guys think?
I do this all the time as I put pearls on 0.8 or 1.00mm wires. I use an old ice cream box with a little piece of wood at the bottom and shallow water, and my flex shaft with a pearl drill bit in it. I hold them firmly in my fingers and go slow - don't do too many at a time as that is when you get tired and miss and scratch your finger. If you really don't want to do this you can thread them onto an old saw blade and then onto your jewellers saw and rub the pearls against the blade - it might be enough. Watch out for the pearl dust though -that is why it is useful to keep them under water.