I’ve had this this vintage pearl rope for years and when we where taking pictures for my 20s hat pattern I noticed that there were three places that were damaged. Here is how I fixed the rope.
I took me some time to figure this out because even when one bead goes missing the others seem to fill in the space. After trying to align each section, before and after the damage part. I could tell that there was one bead missing in two places and two in one place.
With the beads alined I could see a bit of the broken thread and a space large enough for a bead. Also I could see that the holes in the pearls ran in a straight line on the diagonal.
In order to support the necklace on either side of the missing pearl, I made three parallel stitches. I threaded a fine needle leaving a long tail and a large knot in some nylon thread. First going thru the row next to the row with the missing pearl then down thru the row with the pearl adding a pearl in the right place and then up thru the row on the other side. I knotted the thread and buried the thread. Then I threaded the tail on the other end and buried that thread inside the core.
This is the repaired rope of pearls, I was lucky that I had in my stash a broken pearl bracelet with some off white pearls (not quite as dark) and not quite the same size but close. At this point I can’t even tell you where the repairs are.