Calculate the Cost of A Pearl Repair

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!

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!

Although, I think many of us have all been there... crawling around on a floor looking for jewelry that broke at the most inopportune time. 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. The knotted jewelry will keep you from crawling on the floor. Yet, some pearls simply look better unknotted!

Why? Knots are not meant to bee noticed. They are meant to flow with jewelry. Sometimes, the beads are too small to make knots practical. You end up having a necklace with knots close to the same size as the beads.

And, what about drill hole? The standard size for drill holes is .7mm. But, many large pearls and beads have much larger holes. Some small beads have smaller holes. Imitation pearls tend to have very large holes. Large holes = the need for thicker thread = bigger knots. 

Many times added knots when there were not any before. This makes your bracelet or necklace slightly longer. Or we have taken knots out and simply restrung a piece. This, as you might imagine, shortens your piece.

Imagine this: When we create an 18" necklace with 7mm pearls, we use 16" of unknotted pearls. The clasp and the knots add two inches to the necklace. 

Finally, we can also just keep your piece as-is and redo it exactly as it was done before it stretched out, got dirty or broke. This is what most people choose. Fix it exactly the way it was before. But, even then, if your piece has stretched out, when we reknot it, it will appear to shrink as well.

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. Does our customer want us to redo the necklace as it was, or is she frustrated that it broke into so many pieces? These are the things we like to figure out.

Because, of course, we have even more options... some pieces that are strung have knots every 5, 10 or 20 pearls. This is another great choice! 

As of July, 2021, our prices are as follows:

Restring/Reknot a single strand bracelet up to 9” $50
Restring/Reknot a single strand necklace up to 18” $100
Restring/Reknot a single strand necklace up to 22” $125
Restring/Reknot a single strand necklace up to 25” $150

Extra heavy or very small pearls/beads will be charged an extra $30-$50 dollars

Clean My Jewelry $20 (per piece)

Replace a Pearl in my Ring $50 + (price can increase based on the pearl)

When we add pearls or beads to a existing piece, we prefer to quote this in house. Pearls vary greatly in quality and price, so we will want to see your piece to assess the exact pearls or beads that you need. Thanks!

Re-attach pearls to stud earrings $20 per pair (FREE if they are from The Pearl Girls!)

New Clasp Start at $25 for Sterling Silver and $100 for 14K gold

Rush Fee $25

Not sure what you need? $30/hour for Consultation (billed in ½ hour increments)

$50/hour for Design (billed in ½ hour increments)

Now, lets say our 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! We would have to multiply our bracelet price times 3. Her investment would be $150. This includes silk. All she has to cover is the return shipping cost and any insurance. Not bad, knowing her jewelry is in the hands of the pros at The Pearl Girls! 

The main things to consider if she chooses to make her 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 stringing and any 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 [email protected]. 

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