Are you interested in using The Pearl Girls ® Reknot and Repair Service to repair you broken pearl or beaded jewelry? Do you want to know the cost of a pearl repair before you get started? I understand! It is important to know how much you will be investing in your beautiful gems. Although we will happily give you a quote before we start our work, if you want to know the cost of a repair before you mail your jewelry to us, here are some easy tips to consider!
Let’s start with the inspiration for this post, an image a Pearl Girl sent me this evening:
I love it when y’all send me images because it tells me alot! So, looking at this broken three strand bracelet is important because look at all of the loose pearls in the bag. When this piece broke… pearls went everywhere! What a bummer! I think we have all been there… crawling around on a floor looking for jewelry that broke at the most inopportune time. In fact just this week I met a woman who wants us to recreate one of her favorite pearl bracelets that she bought from another company. She told me, “That bracelet broke in the airport and I am 80 years old! I did not want to crawl around the floor of the airport looking for all of those loose pearls!” Imagine it… sweet Southern Jackie! I couldn’t picture her crawling around on the airport floor either.
So, here at The Pearl Girls, we make two distinctions… between jewelry that is knotted between each bead and jewelry that is NOT knotted between each bead. If the pearls or beads are knotted we simply call them knotted and if they are not knotted, we call them strung. So most people hire us to either reknot a piece of jewelry (with knots) or to restring a piece of jewelry (no knots). Many of you have no idea! Which is totally fine! We typically encourage our clients to redo a piece exactly like it was originally done unless they request otherwise. This way it will look the same when you receive it back!
Now, the reason the above picture is important is because with all these loose pearls, it is apparent to me that this piece is simply strung without knots. And our customer is going to want to know this because the labor price is different depending on the knots.
As of Sept. 2018, our prices are $3 per inch for beads or pearls larger than 5mm if they are knotted between each pearl. The investment is $0.75 per knot for pearls or beads 5mm or smaller. And, no matter what the size of the pearl or bead, the investment will be $1.50 per inch for pearls or beads that need to be strung without knots.
So, this bracelet is 8″ long and it has three strands. So, I would multiply the 8″ by 3 and get a total of 24″. 24 times $1.50 is $36. We will add a $8 fee for the silk and there will be the return shipping cost ($5) and a handling fee ($10). All together, her investment will be less than $60.
Now, lets say she was truly tired of picking up all these pearls and she wants to take this bracelet and have knots added to it. We can do it! Again, I would multiply the 8″ by 3 and get a total of 24″. 24 times $3 is $72. We will add a $8 fee for the silk and there will be a return shipping cost ($5) and a handling fee ($10). All together, her investment will be $95.
The main things to consider if choosing to make a strung (not knotted) piece of jewelry into a knotted piece of jewelry is the knots will lengthen the piece. So, this 8″ bracelet could end up being closer to 8.5″ or 9″ if we do not take out some pearls. So, if this customer asks to knot her bracelet, I will ask her how long she wants her bracelet to be and we will take out the appropriate number of pearls.
Now, the opposite can happen, too! Many of our clients may choose to add pearls or beads to a necklace or bracelet to lengthen it. This typically leads us to use either new or vintage pearls to lengthen a piece to a more wearable length. How much is this? Good question! Vintage pearls can range in price from $2 to $10, sometimes more depending on the quality, size and availability. So sometimes we ask our clients to go ahead and get the piece to us so we can find the right match. In this case, having a photo does not always work. Once we match the pearls we can give you a quote based on the pearls, the price to reknot or restring, silk and return shipping and handling.
I hope this helps you calculate the cost of a pearl repair. If you have any questions, please email us at info@thepearlgirls.com. If you are ready to get started on a repair job, here is the link to get a return kit or to let us know you are mailing your gems directly to us! CLICK HERE!
Thank you for trusting us with your pearls or gems! We are so thrilled to do this work for you!
Best,
India, Founder of ThePearlGirls.com
I am a modern day treasure hunter who travels the world for gorgeous pearls and amazing adventures. I own a pearl jewelry and jewelry repair business, ThePearlGirls.com, with a cute retail store in Athens, GA. I also have a Pearl Travel business and travel blog at TheWorldofPearl.com.
