Looking for a friend/mentor in the Philippines

[mattflamm]

I'm an American living in the Philippines who has a couple local friends that have worked as beaders (knotters?) in the past, as well as a few local craftsmen that make unique fashion items. With their encouragement I've decided to set up a website that sells some of these things and wanted to make pearls the central product. Unfortunately, I don't know that much about the industry yet, and so don't trust myself.

I'm learning quickly with the help of sites like pearl-guide, but would love to actually know someone who would be willing to help me out with the learning and advice. I live near Greenhills and speak fluent Filipino, so I could possibly be of some small help in return.

Are there any members in the Philippines or who make trips out here that might like to help a guy out?

-Matt

 

[pattye]

I'm giving this a bump. In the past we've had a few forum members from the Philippines, but right now I don't know of anyone. You will certainly get an education in pearls reading here!

 

[pearlescence]

The only advice I can give is don't buy any pearls in Greenhills - there have been many many reports of freshwater Chinese pearls passed off as South Sea pearls and since you don't know what you are doing you could really come unstuck fast.
It might be that a good place to aim to learn about SS pearls would be to aim to go to the september trade show in Hong Kong, which is attended by many pearl people from all round the world (inlcuding me), and you will certainly get the opportunity to handle pearls by the thousand and make contacts
It is, of course, entirely possible, that this is useless advice and I will happily bow to those with more of a clue

 

[Caitlin]

Perlas is a member here though not active for a while. A lovely person! And very helpful to P-G visitors in the past.

You are in an interesting position. Do your local craftsman make the pearl items? Check carefully, because they could be imports from China, just as most of their pearls are. If the pearl pieces are made locally, you are fine.

When you go to Greenhills, assume everything is freshwater pearls and you won't go wrong. They have huge freshwaters that pass for SS, (some photos put up here fooled me just a couple of weeks ago!!) So don't believe you are are looking at the one real ones at Greenhills! The local grown South Sea pearls are far too valuable for most Filipinos to buy and if they had that kind of money, they would not go near GH for the real thing, but to a fine jewelry store.

That being said a fair trade kind of deal that puts Filipino products out into the world is a good thing! Love to see some of those crafts- esp the pearl ones!

 

[Cyril Roger Brossard]

Wendy and Caitlin, GH is not anymore the sole location for FWP, in fact as far as I can recollect FWP are found anywhere, may it be department store carrying jewelry section (well all of them really), or domestic airport outside Luzon, on every beaches bordering a resort with potential foreigner and local client... FWP inundated the local market and are sold as genuine local product, no big news here I know, even member here with pearl business in the RP's acknowledged that they were in fact carrying FWP believing them to be local products.

Valerene Chin aka cookierookie is the founder & Co-owner of Serenity Pearls
I am not sure if she is still in The Philippines but she might as well give some sound advise.

Cheers.

 

[Cees]

When I go to Manila I always visit Greenhills. The fresh water pearl story is of course bull**** but there are a number of muslim ladies/men who have nice pearls in stock but keep tghem in the safe, they buy also in Hong Kong and Kobe.
For golden South Sea you have to be very careful, most are enchanted. But you can find nice Tahitian pearls there at prices lower than on Ebay.
Greenhills is unique and I hope it will be there forever. The transparancy is same as everywhere................ not very clear. But I wished more major cities in the world would have a market like Greenhills.

 

[mattflamm]

Wow, Sorry, I've been gone so long. I watched a few days, Didn't see any activity, and gave up. Now I come back and see some great response.

I've always assumed everything they tell me at GH about "local" pearls is lies, and 80% of everything else is, too. The local craftsmanship comes in the beading, setting, design, etc. Initially the pearls would be coming from GH because of the cost and time of travel, but once I kinda know what I'm doing, I want to try China for myself. I'm also planning to offer other jewelry (i know an amazing silver smith and goldsmith. the best i've ever seen. he made a ruby ring for my wife that is perfect.), locally made accessories (like bags etc) and bespoke clothing. eventually. pearls first.

If there isn't anyone out here or traveling here soon that might like a free lunch in exchange for a chance to chat, what other resources can you guys recommend.

I'm especially interested in learning to identify and grade pearls.

-Matt

 

[Caitlin]

The GIA offers a hands on course in identifying and grading pearls. Others can tell you more, or go to the GIA education section online.

 

[cyndayco]

Matt, I'm a newbie myself and know even less than you. But I do enjoy geeking out on pearls. If you want someone to troll Greenhills and MarketMarket with you, I'm game. Plus I'm in the digital marketing and media business, so I can give you advice on your website.

For what it's worth, the shop people are more transparent than I anticipated, especially in MarketMarket (too bad the merchandise is very limited). I recently spotted what looked to be really good metallic souffles, and the vendor was quick to point out that they were shell pearls.

 

[babydollcollections]

Hello I am from the Philippines. I came to this forum, because I wanted to start a pearl jewelry business, and I was thinking I would find some local suppliers here.

 

[KarinK]

Hi and welcome,

I'm going to bump this thread for you. There are a couple of members here from the Philipines. You won't be finding much in the way of local suppliers, at least now of local pearls since most of what is sold on the Philipines are freshwater pearls from China. Several pearl dealers here on the forum as well go to Hong Kong to buy stock.

- Karin

 

[cyndayco]

Karin, I reached out to babydollcollections via PM.