Alright, let me tell you about my “brandy pearl age” experiment. It’s kinda funny how it started. I was just messing around, trying to see if I could age some cheap pearls in brandy. Why? Honestly, I was bored and saw a bottle of brandy sitting there. Plus, I’d read some crazy stuff online about people using alcohol to treat pearls, so I figured, “Why not?”.
First things first, the setup. I grabbed a handful of those cheapie freshwater pearls I had lying around – you know, the kind you get in those craft kits. Then, I poured some decent brandy into a small glass jar. Nothing fancy, just something I wouldn’t mind sacrificing for science (or, you know, weirdness). I tossed the pearls in, making sure they were all submerged. Then I screwed the lid on and stuck it in a dark corner of my closet. Completely forgot about it for a solid month.
The first check-in was… underwhelming. I pulled the jar out, unscrewed the lid (smelled pretty good, actually!), and took a look. Honestly? They looked pretty much the same. Maybe a tiny bit darker, but that could have been my imagination. I fished them out, rinsed them off, and examined them under a magnifying glass. Still looked like cheap pearls. I figured a month wasn’t long enough, so I put them back in the brandy and tucked them away again.
Round two, two months later. This time, I was actually kinda excited. I mean, three months soaking in brandy, something had to have happened, right? Well… sort of. The pearls were definitely darker now, a sort of creamy, off-white color. They also felt a little bit softer, almost like they had a slight film on them. I rinsed them off again and took another look. Still not exactly “vintage” or “antique,” but definitely different. I started to think maybe there’s something to this whole thing.
The final reveal, after six months. Okay, after half a year swimming in booze, these pearls were changed. They were significantly darker, a sort of warm, ivory color. The surface was definitely softer, and some of the pearls even had a slight “bloom” to them, like a very faint powdery coating. They looked… old. Not “valuable antique” old, but definitely like they’d been sitting around for a while. I strung a few of them onto a cheap necklace and wore it out. No one complimented me on my “vintage” pearls, but I knew the truth. They were brandy-aged!
What did I learn?
- Brandy does seem to affect the color and texture of pearls, at least cheap freshwater ones.
- It takes a long time to see noticeable results.
- This is probably not a good way to try and fake antique pearls for profit.
- It is a fun experiment if you’re bored and have some pearls and brandy to spare.
Would I do it again? Probably not. It’s a lot of waiting for a pretty subtle effect. But hey, at least I can say I aged pearls in brandy. Makes for a good story, right? Next up, maybe I’ll try aging cheese in whisky or something… who knows!
