Financial Times, June 1,2017

[JerseyPearl]

I am a day late in my reading, but yesterday's Financial Times had a wonderful article on pearls, "Lustre for Life"...featured in the article a reference to Justin Hunter with a photo of his wonderful pearls. It's worth a read: https://www.ft.com/content/71bf7030-1954-11e7-9c35-0dd2cb31823a

 

[amti]

What was the gist of the article about? I could not read the article without subscribing.

 

[Sanippy]

Me neither!

 

[Pareltje]

I will have to subscribe to read the article.

 

[mrsadm]

If you go to news.google.com and type in the search box for "pearl industry", you'll see a link for the article. Click on that link, and the site will show you a box with a survey question. Answer the question and you'll be able to read the article.
Linda

 

[JerseyPearl]

Ah, sorry guys, I didn't realize you need a subscription...the gist of the article is that pearls are coming back into vogue. There is also quite a commentary regarding freshwater pearls by Russell Thor, who is an industry analyst at the GIA. He calls them "a cheap alternative" and makes a not so lovely reference to their origin. The article does speak about fashion trend, and mentions Mrs. Obama's pearls. She wore them in a hip way (thanks to PP and that fantastic ombre strand, although not mentioned in the article). Like I said, a good read...and a strong statement being made by the salt water pearling industry about climate change and the impacts of ocean acidification.

 

[jshepherd]

I can't say I really liked this article. It seemed like the author was a bit passive aggressive toward the pearl industry. It did have some good parts though.

Finally, I had to laugh at this part quoting a jeweler in (I believe) the UK.

Ms Ducas finds golden pearls from Iloilo in the Philippines, where they are cultivated with minimal intervention. She buys them directly from the farmer, not “by the bucketload” from wholesale dealers and harvests 8,000 a year, numbering each one in her collection.

As far as I know, there are no farms near Iloilo. Jacques B. said all farms in the Philippines are now on Palawan. And "minimal human intervention" at a pearl farm?! How could the writer not realize, after all this research, that entire quote was a load of BS.

 

[JerseyPearl]

I can't say I really liked this article. It seemed like the author was a bit passive aggressive toward the pearl industry. It did have some good parts though.

Finally, I had to laugh at this part quoting a jeweler in (I believe) the UK.



As far as I know, there are no farms near Iloilo. Jacques B. said all farms in the Philippines are now on Palawan. And "minimal human intervention" at a pearl farm?! How could the writer not realize, after all this research, that entire quote was a load of BS.

Haha, yes indeed. And I also did not think the snobbery toward freshwater pearls was appropriate. But they did feature Justin's pearls well.

 

[Katbran]

I thought the article was a bit negative regarding Freshwaters ... the quote from the GIA fellow was a bit rough. And while the Ducas quote was possibly a bit of advertising spin. you have to consider the source. She's very successful and very high end and everything needs to be 'special ' to justify those prices lol
That said, JP is right in that they did a nice feature of Justin's beautiful pearls.

 

[pattye]

Thank you, JP, for alerting us to this article. Def worth the read.

 

[Sanippy]

If you go to news.google.com and type in the search box for "pearl industry", you'll see a link for the article. Click on that link, and the site will show you a box with a survey question. Answer the question and you'll be able to read the article.
Linda

Thanks Linda! It worked

 

[pearlescence]

Is this a re-hash of a piece done by the FT a couple of years ago?

 

[JerseyPearl]

Not sure, but this article appeared in Thursday's (June 1) printed edition.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

Is this a re-hash of a piece done by the FT a couple of years ago?

No, it's a different article. It does have a rather negative tone IMO.

 

[pearlescence]

from what I can recall, the previous one had a very snotty opinion of freshwaters. Clearly the writers have been talking to those 'pure' pearl people who haven't encountered a freshwater since the rice krispie days.
To swerve the thread a bit - I went to meet some wss wholesalers in HK. Their pearls -they had plenty - were expensive, small and not as fabulous as you might have expected from the price and reputation. I'd just got some white 10mm very metallic fw pairs which were in my bag and asked them why my clients would pay twice as much for a wss from them as a fw. Got the spiel about better, exclusive all that. Then I showed the FWs Their jaws literally dropped.

 

[amti]

I'd just got some white 10mm very metallic fw pairs which were in my bag and asked them why my clients would pay twice as much for a wss from them as a fw. Got the spiel about better, exclusive all that. Then I showed the FWs Their jaws literally dropped.

BN's amazing edison strand comes to mind... I would love to see them side by side to a nice ssp strand.

 

[MSC]

Can someone copy and paste the article's written contents here, for posterity?

 

[mrsadm]

Can someone copy and paste the article's written contents here, for posterity?

That would be a copyright violation.

 

[lisa c]

Oh Wendy, you can't resist all the time, can you. Were you feeling feisty, or cranky, ? Pshwar, Girl (lol), someone's got to do it, right? Keep them from getting too complacent.

It was delightful to come back after a while, and for the first thing - see you on the job, goosing somebody! The Best...