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Nancy Morgan elected 1st Tahitian Pearl Ambassadress

 

(Tahitipresse) - Nineteen-year-old Nancy Morgan has been elected the first Tahitian Pearl Ambassadress and will spend the next year officially representing Tahiti's gem in promotional operations worldwide.

The two runners-up in the election held Thursday night at Intercontinental Resort Tahiti were Loanah Chong, 22, and Heirautini Krainer, 20. They were among 13 young ladies competing for the title.

Ms. Morgan won a check for 300,000 French Pacific francs (US$3,297/ 2,514), a sash covered with 1,000 Tahitian cultured pearls, a piece of jewelry with a value of 300,000 French Pacific francs. Glen Tehaamatai, the general manager of Tahiti Pearl Market, a Papeete store that sells loose Tahitian pearls, organized the Tahitian Pearl Ambassadress election with the support of the French Polynesia Sea Ministry and Perles de Tahiti, the Papeete-based trade organization that promotes Tahiti's gem worldwide.

"The fact that I usually speak English had to play in my favor," said Ms. Morgan. "This title is an amazing chance since I was unemployed." She will receive a monthly salary of 300,000 French Pacific francs during her one-year contract.

"The ambassadress will make appearances at promotional events locally and overseas on behalf of the Tahitian cultured pearl," said Jean-François Dilhan, who handles communications for Tahiti Pearl Market. "We took the initiative of organizing this event because it's been several years that we have regretted that it has not been done by other organizations."

 

Perles de Tahiti Names New Chairman

Perles de Tahiti, the trade association in French Polynesia that promotes Tahitian cultured pearls, named Alfred Martin chairman during a recent board meeting at the association's headquarters.

Martin is chairman and general manager of Poe Rava Nui, one of the cultured pearl producer groups representing small and medium-sized pearl farmers in French Polynesia. He succeeds Robert Wan of Tahiti Perles.

Now that additional pearl producer groups have joined Perles de Tahiti, the association plans to appoint a new chairman every two years beginning with the recent appointment. The two new groups are Poe o Tahiti Nui (POTN) and the Association of Small and Medium Size Producers in French Polynesia (known by its French initials, SPMPPF). Like Poe Rava Nui, the two new groups also represent small and medium-sized pearl producers.

British princess' auction raises $25 million

 

 

Jewelry sells for a hundred times its value

 

Auctioneer Francois Curiel started the bidding for Lot One - a ruby and cultured pearl necklace estimated to fetch about £1,200 - at a modest £500. Within seconds, prices took off like a runaway car. After half a minute it had hit £6,000; then it peaked at £23,000.

 

Trinkets that were expected to fetch only £40 or £50 commanded prices in the thousands. Once-treasured items valued in mere hundreds of pounds suddenly soared into five figure bids.

 

The clearest indication of how much the public cherished Princess Margaret's memory (or perhaps of its collective ability to spot a bargain) came with some of the more modest items in the catalogue. Two small ivory bracelets, for example, - little different from those you might buy for a child in a holiday souvenir shop - sold for £3,360. The original estimate was between £200 and £300.

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Education

It is our belief an enhanced knowledge of the cultured pearl product category results in greater sales and an increased passion for pearls.

 

Scallop pearls

The newest type of natural pearl available to collectors is the scallop pearl. It is found in a marine bivalve scallop that is native to the coast of Baja California, and is just beginning to be harvested. Highly variable in size and shape, they have mosaic-like patterns and cream to salmon or mauve colors with a semi-metallic to chatoyant sheen

Lion's Paw pearls are natural pearls from the scallop "Nodipecten subnodosus ".They are calcareous concretions that are created by a bivalve organism whose shell resembles a lion's paw, hence their native name Mano de Leon or "hand of the lion".Lion's Paw pearls are found off the coast of Baja California and until the year 2000 no one in the gem industry had ever seen a natural pearl from this scallop.These natural pearls that are found within the organism are mostly symmetrical.There are buttons, rounds, drops, and ovals and they are in sizes from seed to 40 carats.Some of the shapes are baroque and quite interesting.These pearls are byproducts of harvesting scallops in the wild and they are very rare.

 Lion's Paw pearls range in colors from white to deep royal purple with varying shades of oranges, pinks and plums.They are non-nacreous pearls with a mosaic pattern with a flash effect similar to the flame-like pattern on a conch (strombus gigas) and melo melo (melo amphora) pearl.However, unlike the conch and melo melo, which are univalves, the scallop is a bivalve filter feeder much like an oyster.The mosaic pattern that covers the entire surface of the pearls has a sheen-like or metallic three-dimensional effect when viewed in light.

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Japan Pearl Farmers Struggle

 

Low sea temperatures in winter and high summer temperatures have virtually ruined the

pearl cultivation industry.  Nearly 50 percent of pearl oysters are believed to have died this year.

 

 

Pearls from dead oysters.

 

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