CPAA Launches Design Contest

February 23rd, 2010

The Cultured Pearl Association of America has launched the International Pearl Design Competition 2010 – 2011 to heighten interest for pearl jewelry.
JCK Staff — JCK Online, 2/23/2010 10:52:13 AM
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The nonprofit Cultured Pearl Association of America, comprised of manufacturers, wholesalers, dealers, and suppliers of cultured pearls in the U.S., has unveiled the International Pearl Jewelry Design Competition. The announcement was made during the AGTA GemFair Tucson, and the contest aims to drive awareness, interest, demand, and marketability of cultured pearls for retailers and consumers.

Pearl jewelry submissions can be by sketch, drawing, painted or digital image on a DVD or CD in jpeg format only, and should be no larger than 5″ x 11″ (any larger will not be accepted). First entries cost $150 while each subsequent entry is $100; entries are limited to a maximum of five. CPAA members receive a 25 percent discount. The deadline for entries is September 1, 2010, and winners will be announced November 1. Winning entries will be on display during the AGTA GemFair Tucson and JCK Las Vegas shows in 2011. Winners will receive award recognition as well as prestige for being the first recipients of this inaugural competition.

Judges will include a variety of industry professionals, including buyers of pearls and editors.

For more information, click here or call CPAA at (888) 317-3275. Or, to enter, click here.

Oli’s widespread damage

February 12th, 2010

TONG SANG TOURS STORM AFTERMATH IN TUAMOTUS
Some 700 homes damaged across French Polynesia
oli

PAPEÉTE, Tahiti (Tahitipresse, Feb. 9, 2010) – French Polynesia President Gaston Tong Sang was in the Leeward Islands for the second day Tuesday inspecting widespread damage cause by a powerful tropical cyclone over the past five days. Oli’s widespread damage that may reach a couple of billion French Pacific francs.

[PIR editor’s note: Two billion French Pacific francs equals US$22.5 million.]

French Polynesia Vice President Edouard Fritch was in the Tuamotu Archipelago Tuesday, inspecting and evaluating damage. He focused on two atolls—Ahe and Manihi. Both atolls are noted for their Tahitian pearl production, and initial indications are that the pearl farm industry in the Tuamotus suffered badly from Cyclone Oli.

Lady Gaga

February 11th, 2010

Lady Gaga
Huffington Post
Lady Gaga may have outdone herself by doing what possibly no one has ever done before: gluing pearls to her face. And her body. The singer attended the amfAR benefit gala on Wednesday night–in the middle of a blizzard, it should be noted–to kick off New York Fashion Week.

Gaga pearls

CPAA Debuts Educational Tool

February 6th, 2010

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The Cultured Pearl Association of America recently unveiled an instructive new means of helping retail associates to quickly and enjoyably learn about pearls.
JCK Staff — JCK Online, 2/6/2010 4:09:00 PM

During the AGTA GemFair Tucson, the Cultured Pearl Association of America unveiled a set of fun and educational flash cards for retail sales associates to use to boost their pearl knowledge and sales.

CPAA educational flash cards are available for $5 a pack and aim to help sales associates learn more about pearls.
A set of 60 illustrated flash cards containing pearl myths, lore, and key facts aim to make the learning process quick and pleasant. The project was self-funded on behalf of the CPAA, which is making the cards–resembling oversized playing cards in simple and attractive packaging–available to member dealers and store owners for $5 a pack. Questions include ‘What is a Biwa pearl?’, facts like ‘The birthstone for June is the pearl’, and, myths like ‘Pearls are bad luck for brides’.

To order, call the CPAA at (888) 317-3275 or visit them online at www.cpaa.org. Alternatively, if you are present at the AGTA GemFair Tucson through Sunday, visit the CPAA booth in the AGTA Pavilion booth No. 1900.

First day on road

January 29th, 2010

Huge first day on the road, 1,100 total miles . made it thru a snow storm in NYC and traffic in New Jersey. Maryland was beautiful. As we past by Washington DC. it was great thinking that their is the Capitol in front of us just off the mall and wow we have a copy of it in back of the pearl Mobile. Wanted to stop but their was too much traffic. Va was a long Trip down us 81. Will post some pictures in morning. very hard to post from a moving car. Figured out that if we dropped a pearl every 10th of a mile from the capitol we would still have 150,000 left. Just joking. It has been a tough day, but one serious point it did feel weird as we past by all the past presidents homes in the foothills of Va. Will post picture of my copilot Jan Cohen tomorrow. Bo

Pearl Capitol Travels to Tucson

January 25th, 2010

The Pearl Capitol will be traveling to Tucson as the centerpiece of the CPAA’s

Magical Gifts of Nature

A Traveling Exhibition of
Extraordinary and Incredible
Cultured
and Natural Pearls
Follow this epic journey across America as the Capitol make its way from East to West and back again

Click Here

Creating Demand for Cultured Pearls

January 22nd, 2010


Creating Demand for Cultured Pearls
Peter Bazar, Imperial Deltah for CPAA (Maricopa room)
Basic – Intermediate. What does it takes to be a player and winner as a retailer in the very exciting arena of cultured pearls?
This session describes today’s landscape with regard to distribution of cultured pearls, sales of cultured pearls, including profit margins,
classifications of cultured pearls being successfully sold at retail, and tips for consumer profiling to develop further cultured pearl sales in your store

Come to Tucson and and catch the seminar

Bahrain restores pearls of its heritage

January 11th, 2010

Bahrain restores pearls of its heritage
By Digby Lidstone

Published: December 21 2009 17:24 | Last updated: December 21 2009 17:24

Natural pearls from Bahrain once fetched the highest prices among western jewellers, prompting the likes of Jacques Cartier to visit the small Gulf state to procure them. In its heyday in the early 1900s, the pearl industry employed an estimated 17,500 people and was the lynchpin of the Bahraini economy.

These days, pearling is all-but extinct in the Gulf. The arrival of cultivated pearls from Asia punctured the market in the 1930s, coincidentally just as prospectors struck oil, turning Bahrain into the first Arab oil state. Yet the government is now trying to preserve what remains of its pearling heritage, in the hope of luring well-heeled visitors back to the islands.

The focus of the programme is the island of Muharraq, former capital of Bahrain, where 17 historic houses are being restored, many of them once owned by pearl merchants, or connected with the trade.

“Our aim is to create a journey through the historical sites,” says Sheikha Mai bint Mohammed al-Khalifa, minister for culture and tourism, who has led the project. “Our goal is to have everything ready by 2011, when there is a heritage meeting in Bahrain.”

The meeting will be the first regional summit in 12 years of the world heritage arm of Unesco, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, which recently chose Bahrain as its headquarters for the Arab world.

Sheikha Mai has been courting the agency since her days as a junior official, and succeeded in having Qal’at al-Bahrain, a 16th-century fort built over a bronze age settlement, listed as a world heritage site in 2007. Two similar applications are pending at Unesco, relating to fields of neolithic burial mounds as well as the pearling project.

“The region has suffered from a lack of conventions protecting historical monuments, and our proposal for establishing a regional centre was intended to encourage greater awareness in Arab countries,” says Karim Hendili, cultural adviser to Unesco. “Bahrain has been particularly active in protecting its heritage, so it was a natural choice.”

Ironically, many historical sites have been saved by the comparatively slow pace of urban development in Bahrain, which saw its oil reserves dwindle as its neighbours struck lucky. Both Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates had thriving pearling industries early last century, yet few traces remain.

Shaikha Mai began the restoration programme in 2003 after her grandfather’s house on Muharraq was demolished.

Ten houses have been restored so far and opened as museums, many of them funded by the private sector, including locally based banks, such as Arcapita, Investcorp, Kuwait Finance House and BBK.

Raising private capital in the current business climate has not proved easy, says Sheikha Mai. Yet local bankers say there are mutual benefits from association with such schemes.

“When you’re in a tax-free environment there’s something of an obligation to pay your dues, but there are considerable benefits in terms of branding,” says a European financier based in Manama.

The houses, many of them 19th-century structures built of palm, timber and mud-brick, line a 3km route that ends at one of Muharraq’s few remaining natural bays. Three surviving oyster beds have been identified off the north of Bahrain to be included in the heritage listing.

Tourism is a valuable industry for the kingdom, generating about 10 per cent of gross domestic product. If Bahrain can crack the lucrative niche market of heritage tourism, its pearling industry may not be so defunct after all.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009. Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.

Cultured pearls sale verdict on way

December 7th, 2009

By NOOR TOORANI, Posted on » Monday, June 08, 2009

A COUPLE who allegedly broke Bahraini law by selling cultured pearls should learn their fate this week.

The Chinese couple, aged in their 20s, are standing trial at the Lower Criminal Court for allegedly selling the pearls in the local market.

They arrived in Bahrain from Qatar, but were arrested on Wednesday after authorities were tipped-off that the pearls they were selling were cultured.

The sale of cultured pearls is a criminal offence in Bahrain and a verdict is due to be passed by the court on Wednesday.

The couple appeared before the court for the first time yesterday to plead not guilty.

However, court documents state that after their arrest they led police to a “stash of pearls”, which was hidden in a pick-up parked near Bab Al Bahrain, in Manama.

Police are said to have confiscated over 8kg of cultured pearls, as well as rings, earrings and necklaces.

Huge, brain-shaped pearl being auctioned in US

November 30th, 2009

LONDON — The second-largest pearl ever found is up for auction next month where it is expected to fetch up to 250,000 pounds, auctioneers Bonhams said in London Friday.

The 2.25-kilogramme pearl, which measures 15 centimetres across and looks like a human brain, will go on sale in Los Angeles on December 6.

“This is an once in a lifetime look at one of nature’s most unique treasures,” said Mitch Jacubovic, the director of gemologists at the European Gem Laboratories USA in New York.

“A pearl this size is not only one of the largest ones we’ve ever seen, it is among the largest pearls ever seen anywhere.”

The pearl, which was found in waters off the Philippines, will be sold at auction at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles alongside the lower half of the giant clam shell where it formed