Al Fardan Pearl Collection

"The Al Fardan pearl collection from Qatar . . . " Ahhhhhhh.

From the time I arrived in Doha, I have heard whispers about the legendary Al Fardan pearl collection and it has been my dream to see it. This temporary exhibit will be a dream come true. I can hardly wait for this it to open at the Doha Museum of Islamic Art on January 29th, but meanwhile – this should be a fabulous meeting of the Doha Natural History Club.

Dr. Hubert Bari, curator of gems and jewellery at the Museum of Islamic Art and manager of temporary exhibitions for the Qatar Museums Authority, will give a presentation on the subject of natural pearls, ahead of the major exhibition on pearls scheduled to open at the MIA at the end of this month.

Dr Bari will give the audience a pre-view of some of the treasures gathered from all over the world which will be on show in the exhibition, including the famous Hope Pearl and the Pearl of Asia and, for the first time, the Alfardan collection from Qatar.

More about Al Fardan pearl collection.

Qatar Pearl Exhibit

Qatar pearl exhibit...

The Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) is set to open its second temporary exhibition by the end of January and continues until June 5.

The exhibition on Pearls, will pay homage to the pearl fisheries in the Arabian Gulf and reveal an unknown world full of beauty and wonder, the English daily The Peninsula reported yesterday.

MIA’s temporary exhibition will reopen on January 29 after the closing of the first edition, Beyond Boundaries- Islamic Art across Cultures, on February 22, 2009. Though the 750sqm state-of-the-art Temporary Exhibition Gallery on the ground floor of MIA was supposed to host an exhibition produced by the British Museum, Art and Empire, in April 2009 according to earlier announcements, it did not happen due to technical issues.

The museum has been concentrating on the Doha - Arab Capital of Culture 2010 exhibition. The exhibition wills be a journey into the kingdom of pearls, stressing on its value as a jewel and a beauty of its own.


The pearl monument in the photo I took is very near the museum in Doha.

Giant Sea Snail on Display in Birmingham, England

by BBC NEWS
(Birmingham, London)

What is normal in the South Seas, is rarely seen in England. Now folks are getting a chance to view a giant sea snail in Birmingham.


A sea snail which could produce pearls valued at up to £30,000 is being closely guarded at Birmimgham's Sea Life Centre.

CCTV cameras are watching over the giant zebra snail, or Melo melo.

Curator Graham Burrows said the sea snail was about 20 times the size of its British equivalent.

See photos of the largest pearl (size of a golf ball) ever found in these snails. Ray Chen has recently has this large pearl certified by GIA.

Have you found a Melo pearl?

Read entire article here.

See video here.

Two last links above open up a new windows.

Pearl Qatar

Taking a cue from Dubai, developers in Qatar have become fixated with building the biggest, the tallest, and longest edifices in the world. And in some ways the Pearl is Qatar’s answer to Dubai’s palm-shaped islands.

When finished in 2010, it will create 32km of extra coastline and house up to 41,000 residents on artificial islands designed to resemble a string of pearls. The cost of the development is estimated at $20bn and it is being built by the United Development Company, a Qatari conglomerate.

Yet its construction is taking place as the Gulf still struggles under the impact of the global economic crisis that saw real estate sectors plummet across the region.

In Qatar, property prices fell by as much as 30 per cent in the first half of this year, and many feared Pearl would face a crisis comparable with some of the extravagant schemes in Dubai.

Tiffany's Pearls

by Tiffany
(USA)

Great exhibit in Cincinnati on Tiffany jewelry. Includes a gorgeous pearl and diamond necklace.

Power Dressing Photographs at the Victoria & Albert Museum

by SONIA KOLESNIKOV JESSOP

SINGAPORE — Standing tall in a corseted, flowing white gown with a sweeping train, Viscountess Hayashi was the epitome of Edwardian elegance when her photograph was taken at the Lafayette Studio in London in 1902. Her husband, Hayashi Tadasu, was then Japan’s envoy to Britain and had just negotiated and signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, a diplomatic milestone that ended Britain’s “splendid isolation” of the late 19th century.


The glass-plate negative of this black-and-white photograph is one of thousands, including a shot of Queen Victoria, discovered in a Fleet Street attic in 1968. They are now part of the Victoria and Albert Museum collection in London, and some of their examples of “power dressing,” dating from the late 1800s and early 1900s, are in a show at the Asian Civilisations Museum here until Feb. 1.


But the cream of London’s international society often presented themselves wearing the latest European fashions. Oei Hui Lan, the glamorous daughter of the Javanese sugar tycoon Oei Tiong Ham, and the wife of Wellington Koo, the Chinese envoy to Britain, was photographed in a flapper dress with a long, double-string pearl necklace and an elaborate tiara in her hair.

Read entire article here.

At Victoria and Albert, Jewels Go High Tech

by Suzy Menkes
(iht.com)

LONDON: It could be defined as a new "crystal palace" - and what more fitting place to install it than in another monument to Queen Victoria's era, the edifice dedicated to herself and her husband? The mirage of glass and glitter that is the new jewelry gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum is one of the must-do visits of the summer. There are even lines of eager visitors waiting to enter a space that is both redolent of history and startlingly modern, with its two-tier galleries joined by a glass spiral staircase.

But it is not just the transparent jewel box of an exhibition area, imaginatively designed by the architect Eva Jiricna, that has brought a gust of modernity to jewelry display. Nor is it the gems themselves, although they include, as well as historic pieces dating back 800 years, the work of 140 living designers. Contemporary art from the 20th century includes works made out of acrylic, papier-maché or knitted nylon.

The revolution is in the embrace of multimedia. Screens dotted through the gallery, either with rotating images or as computers on which visitors can search and learn, are an imaginative addition to what is already a splendid display.

Jewelry Exhibits in Seoul, Korea

by Cathy Rose A. Garcia
(staff reporter for The Korean Times)

World-renowned jewelry houses Van Cleef & Arpels and Tiffany & Co. are adding sparkle to Seoul this month, as their dazzling jewels are on display in two separate exhibitions.

Visitors will have the chance to learn about the two companies' long history and appreciate their creative jewelry designs. Among the beautiful jewelry pieces that will fascinate visitors are an exquisite Van Cleef & Arpels tiara worn by Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco, and the huge yellow diamond in Tiffany's stunning ``Bird on a Rock.''

Robert Wan's Pearl Museum

We learned a great deal more about the Tahitian cultured pearl at the Robert Wan Pearl Museum. The exhibit includes displays of a pearl's development from fertilization to full growth three years later. Tahitian pearls are considered among the finest gems in the world, and, although often referred to as Black Pearls, are found in a variety of tones and rainbow of colors. Needless to say, several pearls made it back to New England later in our trip thanks to the assistance of Pierre at the Bora Bora gallery, who gave Stella a personal primer on Tahitian cultured pearls.

Everywhere we toured with Ruth we noticed that many folks were wearing a flower behind their ears, whether they were churchgoers or shopkeepers. Ruth explained the tradition of wearing the flower behind the left ear, the side of the body where the heart is situated, is to signify that their heart is engaged to someone. Tahitians wear a flower behind their right ear if they are "available." Stella and I made sure to wear ours behind our left ears!

Jewelmer's New South Sea Pearl Collection

It is definitely fitting that our country is called the “Pearl of the Orient Seas.” We are known worldwide for our pearls, more so the golden variety of these exquisite, natural gems.

For nearly 30 years, Jewelmer, famous for its champagne-hued South Sea pearls, has been cultivating its pearls in Palawan waters, and transforming them into magnificent pieces of jewelry. The creative team behind the renowned jewelry brand work many sleepless nights producing one-of-a-kind pieces featuring these champagne-colored pearls set in only the best quality gold and precious stones.

London Jewellery Week

by Suzy Menkes
(International Herald Tribune)

LONDON: Don't mention the R-word - unless it is about rich red rubies, royal refinement or rocks that rock. Recession may be looming in Britain, with unemployment up and the economy on the slide, but London Jewellery Week kicked off with spectacular celebrations, from fireworks in the headquarters of the private bank Coutts to the cult architect Zaha Hadid showing a sculpted body piece embedded with Swarovski crystals.

And proving that money hasn't dried up as Prime Minister Gordon Brown reins in the super rich, the auction of Onassis gems, which fetched £6.8 million, or $13.3 million, at Christie's last week, smashed jewelry sale records.

Some of the events were serendipitous. Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia, who had his glamorous aunt by marriage, Princess Michael of Kent, routing for him at his soirée, had no idea that London had launched a jewel season when he brought his hyper-colorful gems from his New York atelier to Partridge in Bond Street.