Navajo Pearls and Polishing Equipment

We definitely got a big blow through our area around the dinner time and on into the night. It was a very fast-moving storm front, with lots of tornado warnings and even a few tornado watches in place. All we got from it was a stiff wind for a few hours, some growling thunder, and our lights flickered a couple of times. I consider us lucky - high winds can be horrible and we dodged a bullet on this one. I'm quite sure someone got hit with more than a pass-through, but thank goodness, we were just fine. I'll have to wait until the sun is up to see what, if any, damage was done to our trees and back yard. 

Navajo Pearls can come in many different sizes, shapes, 
and finishes. Here (l-r) are round, rondel with a stamped 
design, uniform rounds, and antiqued lentils. 

My Friday will be spent polishing several strands of "Navajo Pearls" that DH found in our inventory at the shop, Basically, Navajo Pearls is a strand of round or shaped handmade silver beads, generally not super large, that hang anywhere from 18" to 30" in length. Since each of the beads are handmade, they are lovely examples of the smith's craftsmanship. 

Here is a lovely strand of stamped, graduated 
Navajo Pearls. I really love Navajo Pearls, like 
I love basic Heishi. Both are necklaces that 
are extremely versatile, wearable in many 
different situations. 

Ideally these should be polished on my buffer - a machine that holds two different fluffy buffing wheels which are loaded with an appropriate polishing compound. The only way to safely place the necklaces against buffing wheels is to have them wrapped around a holder of some type, and for these, that will have to be fairly large in diameter. The necklaces are strung on hand-made chains which will break if the curvature is too tight. 

We have a buffing machine similar to this one. A 
two-spindle motor set into an air vacuum that 
pulls away the dust and collects it on filters 
inside the cabinet. The motor on the actual 
buffer is quite powerful. Used incorrectly, 
serious injuries can occur. The wheel 
diameter these can accept is around 6 inches. 

I had a box of buffing wheels and appropriate polishing compounds which I kept next to the buffer when we still had it at the shop. Of course, the machine is now at home along with most of my jewelry supplies, and that box is MIA. I'll have to "suggest" that DH take a hunt for it today because I'll need it for these necklaces. I'll also suggest that he pull an appropriately sized piece of cut wood from our woodshed to use as a holding vehicle for the pearls themselves. If he can find my buffing wheels and compounds, my life will be a lot easier. He wants two of these available for sale on Saturday. I can polish them on Friday, but I need the materials. Polishing a necklace on the buffer without a holder is extremely dangerous. 

Larger production locations have industrial polishing 
and buffing machines. Here, you see two men buffing 
items on these large wheels. The're wearing aprons because 
it's dirty work, and they're also wearing face shields. Care 
has to be taken - you can lose fingers in these machines. 

There's lots more on my mind that I could chat about, but I really think it's time to wrap this up and continue with my day. I hope your day is wonderful and filled with joy. I'll be back tomorrow.