The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-18

week, that will employ all her business
| hours for several months to come
There are very few pearl or coral
| stringers in London-probably less than
dozen all told. One needs to be we'll ac-
quainted with his West End to find them
out. 1t is no use searching in the streets
where the finest specimens Of their work
| are bought and sold.
| one may discover, by dilligent search
| an occasional little brass plate engraved
with the words. so and so, Pearlstrng-
ers.' The same in a certain busy street
on the way to Soho. But having found
the best pearl stringers, stranger would
be very much mistaken If he imagined
that ringing the bell is an "open ses-
same" to a study of their work and
methods.
No, the pearl stringers are judiciously
reticent about the trade. A business has
often been passed on from mother to
daughter, even from grandmother to
grandchild, until the original name on
the brass plate is no longer borne by
anybody in the workroom. In old times
the stringing of corals was of much more
Importance than it is today. Drilling and
mounting of pearls is quite different
branch of the industry
Good light Is one of the essential needs
of the pearl stringer. especially when she
is employed in making or repairing seed
be arranged according to their size, and
then separately and most carefully sewn
into place. if the design Is that of a
Hover or a leaf the skill lies in graduating
from the biggest pearl to the one that
touches the extreme point.
Some of these ornaments, by the way
are very old. for if they are carefully
handled there is no reason why they
should not be a joy, If not forever, at
all events for as long as the handsome
antique pendants and pearl studded
medals of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries that one still admires in the
British museum.
Only the finest silk is used for string
ing the finest pearls. Great beads, round
and shiny, unmistakably artificial, and
With no more rear lustre than white
marbles. with the exception of what are
called Roman pearls, manufactured many
years ago, may be allowed to hang to-
gether on catgut, but orients must be
threaded, pearl kissing pearl, on sill1en
strands, worthy of their shape and
skin"
Now the art of the stringer lies in the
apparently simple manner of tying the
Knot that attaches the snap. Sometimes
also she has to make knot between
bead and bead, a method that adds to the
length of the necklace but detracts from
The beauty of the line of pearls. The
knack of making this tiny knot will per-
haps take a girl a year to master; the
perfect hang of the beads, neither too
loose nor too tight. depends on how it is
made.
There is no needle fine enough for
threading small seed pearls so the string
er makes her own out of piece of wire
as thin as a hair. She arranges her
grooved board covered with billiard table
cloth, any other material, such as green
baize being much too coarse When she
is making tassel or loops it is pretty
to watch her hold her work at arms
length every few inmates. measuring it's
size and effect with her we'll trained eye.
1t is hardly necessary to speak of the
strict integrity and unfailing care re-
quired in a pearl stringer She is en-
trusted with great possessions. for the
value of pearls is continually on the in
crease. There are some ladies who never
trust their treasures out of their own
houses, but arrange through a jeweler
for pearl stringer to call so many times
a year to repair ornaments or restring
necklaces.
The work of the pearl stringer is so
little known, so quiet and dainty, that
1t is doubtful If one in a thousand women
who stop to admire and covet as they
lass show windows ever give a thought
to the patient fingers that have threaded
the beautiful beads and tied the almost
invisible cunning knots that link them
to their diamond clasps
The little band of stringers are yerv
simple but businesslike people in their
humble work rooms. devotees of beauty
although they are unconscious of the fact
and true artists in the perfection of their
work.