Name the Pearl!

[jshepherd]

Dear Pearl Enthusiast,

The CPAA is embarking on a mission and seeks yourhelp!

THE GOAL: unify the pearl producers? of bead nucleated fresh water cultured pearls; unanimous agreement to officially designate one name for this new category.
WHY? Our belief is one name will allow for a deeper understanding, perception, and continuity to this classification/category.
BACKGROUND:
The pearl producers are using different trade names to market bead nucleated freshwater cultured pearls; CPAA members feel it?s very confusing for everyone. All pearl buyers, including consumers would benefit if this classification/category, the bead nucleated freshwater cultured pearl, had one concise name.

HOW DO WE ACHIEVE THIS GOAL?

To start - Hold a NAMING contest!

Please send in your suggested name for the bead nucleated fresh water cultured pearl. Entries will be accepted until March 1, 2015. The selected name will be announced March 12, 2015.

A panel of industry professionals will make the selection. A prize of 50 raffle tickets ($500.00 worth) for the CPAA's "Trip to Fiji" an all expense paid trip for two to J. Hunter's pearl farm and a stay at Jean-Michel Cousteau's Fiji Island Resort.

The winning name will be researched and registered after which made available to all producers of bead nucleated freshwater cultured pearls. We feel that this solution to end the confusion in the marketplace.

Make a name for yourself and name this new type of freshwater pearl.

---

The CPAA is a 59 year old non-profit education organization which supports the pearl industry.

 

[Jacques]

I thought they already had a name that had been widely accepted - 'Edisons'?

 

[BAS]

(I've always hated that name -- makes me think of a lightbulb.). Then there's "ripple", "smooth ripple", "Ming" -- it's a mess out there!

 

[kelluvpearls]

So colourful, metallic and shiny, will they get even better?
Caitlin has a three part series on freshwater pearls, I haven't seen a link on the forum yet.

 

[KAC]

I thought they already had a name that had been widely accepted - 'Edisons'?

well technically "Edison" was coined by Grace Pearl Company and should really only be used for bead nucleated pearls from Grace, although it is used to describe bead nuked FWP from other suppliers as well. The other term tossed around is "Ming" which is used for generic bead nucleated FW pearls.

I think at this point either Edison or Ming should be adopted, to try and market a new name now seems a little late to the party -- a bit like trying to put the tooth paste back in the tube.

 

[pattye]

Umm, not finding any info on the CPAA website about this contest. I could have missed it, though. Anybody?

 

[CathyKeshi]

I got this email yesterday. I'm not a member, but did buy a rather large pack of tickets to dreamland just before Christmas

 

[Cees]

might this help? http://us8.campaign-archive2.com/?u=0a8a1c3ee50defc397793adb8&id=48c85963e6&e=06d4b2662f

 

[pearlescence]

Edison and Ming are brands. Well, Edison is a proper brand, Ming is a sort of brand. Ripple is a sub-category
Edison may even have a trade mark registration in which case it could not be used. Ming is usually used for high end pearls - or pearls a seller wants to make sound high end. (thinking of one tv marketplace seller particularly here)
Yes, bead nucleated freshwater cultured is a long winded mouthful but not sure a contest will get the world to change. Names emerge - look at ripple, which is understood worldwide pretty much now. And Grace will want to stick to Edison as their brand
The contest is a big swirl of woosh - the price is actually nothing if you don't win the raffle!

 

[JerseyPearl]

Wendy, just an fyi...I purchased a really great Ming strand from QVC...here they are side by side with my Edison strand from PP. The Mings were about $400.

 

[lisa c]

Oooooo, gorgeous colors, any more pics?

 

[pearlescence]

Edison is a proprietary Brand name, while Ming was coined by wholesalers who were selling bead nucleated pearls which hadn't come from Grace Pearl (which grows Edison pearls.) But they wanted the pearls to have a less cumbersome and more attractive name than BNFP.
So the name Ming tends to be used to better quality BNFP.
I've never come across ripples being called Ming though. Ripples are different. Is anyone else surprised to hear of ripples being called Mings? If the seller is the one I am thinking of, I've heard him repeat the grain of sand nonsense several times <sigh>
(They are great ripples though, Jersey)

 

[jshepherd]

Edison is a name Grace came up with for their round, bead-nucleated, intense-color pearls. The name sucks. Edison pearls are also expensive - really expensive. They're the best of the best of what is produced - round with fine surface and color.

Just like with tissue-nuked pearls in China, low-end production outweighs the fine and and other names are used like Ming, Genusis etc., and mostly sold on shopping channels here in the US. Ripples also fit that category for at least a half decade until the Chinese firms realized that some people were loving them and paying a lot for them and now even Grace has super-ripple strands in the $1500 to $2000 range.

This naming contest isn't just about these pearls though. They are about bead-nucleated freshwater pearls. In China, all pearls with a bead are referred to as "nuclear pearl," which is some strange iteration of pearl with a nucleus. To the Chinese, it's a completely different type of pearl. It's the pearl that puts Chinese freshwater pearls on a level similar to saltwater. They are proud of it and want a name that encompasses all freshwater beaded production.

One of my closest friends in Hong Kong is also the president of the Hong Kong Pearl Association. He told me that during his tenure the biggest thing he wanted to accomplish is finding a name for beaded freshwaters made sense, was easy to understand and not owned by a company.

If someone comes up with a really good name that is accepted in Hong Kong, it will get promoted and pushed. It would be a pretty cool mark to leave on the pearl industry.

 

[BAS]

I think of ripples as Edisons "gone wrong". Though I personally love metallic ripples. I wonder if ripple producers started out trying to produce round pearls, and then, perhaps to their astonishment, the ripples became popular? Despite the ability to produce glorious round lustrous bead nucleated pearls -- there's a real market for ripples, which are also improving rapidly -- look at the HG ripples a few on this forum own!

Jeremy -- can you give us the history of bead nucleated freshwater pearls, or point us to an article about their history? I'm interested in the Edison/Ming and ripple connection.

 

[jshepherd]

I've never come across ripples being called Ming though. Ripples are different. Is anyone else surprised to hear of ripples being called Mings? If the seller is the one I am thinking of, I've heard him repeat the grain of sand nonsense several times <sigh>
(They are great ripples though, Jersey)

Have you ever come across ripples being referred to as "ripples" in Hong Kong or anywhere off the Internet? I haven't. The term ripple was invented on the internet by CC of Australia I believe, and still lives on the internet as far as I know.

Honora is probably the biggest seller of what we would call ripples or commercial grade beaded rounds in the United States and they call them all Mings, the name Tian Di Run uses for all of their beaded production.

 

[jshepherd]

I think of ripples as Edisons "gone wrong". Though I personally love metallic ripples. I wonder if ripple producers started out trying to produce round pearls, and then, perhaps to their astonishment, the ripples became popular? Despite the ability to produce glorious round lustrous bead nucleated pearls -- there's a real market for ripples, which are also improving rapidly -- look at the HG ripples a few on this forum own!

Jeremy -- can you give us the history of bead nucleated freshwater pearls, or point us to an article about their history? I'm interested in the Edison/Ming and ripple connection.

That is exactly what they were - Edisons gone wrong or pre-Edisons, if you will. The first strand I ever saw was one that Fuji Voll brought to the Tucson show in February of 2008. It was one of the first "in-body bead-nucleated" strands produced. Before this, all Chinese freshwater, even beaded production, was grown Chinese-style in the mantle and not Japanese-style in the body.

Latest Article FW In-Body Nucleation - Modern Jeweler

NUCLEATED FRESHWATER PEARLS by David Federman Fuji Voll has been waiting a long time to buy pearls like those pictured on the previous page. Some of you familiar with freshwater pearls may wonder why the Mill Valley, California, importer has been keeping vigil since they look, at first...

www.pearl-guide.com

Here is an article a few years later:
http://www.ssef.ch/uploads/media/20...-_A_new_type_of_cultured_pearl_from_China.pdf

Chinese producers were trying to grow large rounds. Ripples are not what they were trying to grow, and I agree that they were "surprised" when they suddenly became somewhat popular. They weren't even bringing them to the shows.

It's sort of the like blue baroque akoya. Most people in the states didn't even know they existed until just a few years ago because the producers didn't know anyone would want them. They weren't white or round.

 

[pearlescence]

Agree, Jeremy. If only because BNFP is just a mouthful to say or type. The name will have to be an organic success though - winning the competition won't be enough on its own. A good name will spread, like ripples or souffle, without any decision. but a bad name could win the contest then disappear'
Also agree that Edison is a terrible brand name! The reasoning was sound (ish) but the end result was not good.

 

[cmd2014]

Would "cultured freshwater pearl" be confusing because there are bead nucleated and regularly produced ones (what are the non-bead nucleated ones called?). The term cultured pearl for saltwater pearls implies a bead nucleus, right?

 

[jshepherd]

The regularly produced ones are already called cultured freshwater pearls. Cultured just means farmed, not that the pearl has a bead.

 

[GemGeek]

I put in an entry. I would tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.