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Over the last 20 years on TV, we are very proud as a family to say that you have grown with us and without your loyal support, we would not have the opportunities to continue chasing our passion of jewelry.  It seems that every year, we start with for lack of a better phrase, a new years resolution.  A statement for us of what we would like to accomplish over the coming year.  As a family, this was a year that we can look back on and know that we laid foundation for many exciting things in 2013, yet we can be very proud of for what we have accomplished together.  That being said, I want to reflect on our year of the dragon and even to what we can look forward to in 2013!

During our Chinese New Year show, I mentioned that the year of the dragon was going to be a fast paced one filled with plenty of excitement, new energy, and opportunity.  Looking back, there is no better way to describe this year!  It has been a year filled with unique challenges for us.  However, as we always say, with challenge comes opportunity.  The opportunities came in the form of being able to bring to life new ideas and concepts and travel even more to begin and continue projects at the farms and with emerging artists.

Looking back on 2012, here are some of my favorite moments from our presentations (in no particular order!):

  1. Launching our dream collection in “Prestige Pearl.” This show gave us the opportunity to open our personal vaults to all of you and bring out some of the pieces we have collected over the years, but also to showcase some of the most unique and exotic pearls in the world. Our vision for this show was to “bottle” the energy that we feel at the farm when a beautiful pearl is found and really show you what care, patience, and time can do at the farms when collecting and remaining dedicated to strong culturing methods.  Prestige also allowed us to bring the story of many of the smaller and even more well known farmers to the forefront.  In this show, we were able to showcase the story of the pure island of Raroia, Robert Wan and his families intense dedication to quality Tahitian pearls through meticulous farm practices, and the Philippine golden South Sea pearl, which showcased their unique collaboration with Nature resulting in the very best quality golden South Sea pearls to you.  The point in this collection is that pearls of all sizes, shapes, and types of pearls are unique, rare, and beautiful!
  2. Bring you the “Edison” freshwater pearl as a Today’s Top Value.  For many years, we have been bringing unique freshwater pearls in different organic shapes and sizes ranging from 2mm- 14mm.  The Edison was a natural progression for the freshwater pearl.  Since 2003, we have brought you nucleated freshwater pearls in coin shapes and large baroques.  However, with the past nucleation processes, we have not seen many round- near- round pearls with intense metallic tones in pink shades.  This is where the Edison fit in for us!  Being able to bring a metallic pink pearl was something very unique, but limited.  At the same time, it was a pearl we knew that you would instantly love!
  3. Showcasing the 11-13mm and 8-10mm Tahitian pearl necklaces.  With all of our presentations, we strive to educate about our gems, their unique story, and how our family selects them- even further differentiating them.  I have always felt like the easiest pearl to purchase visually and understanding wise is the round pearl in white tones.  Seeing the Tahitian pearl take off for the last few years, especially in baroque, semi- baroque, and other non- traditional shapes like circles has been very exciting for us.  As a family, these types of shapes are the pearls that are most often appreciated by pearl lovers in pearl producing regions.  When selected correctly for beautiful luster and color, they can be some of the most beautiful and unique pearls in the world.  The pearl is a story of an organic gem, one which we have very little control over, so why not celebrate the uniqueness of the entire gem?  Personally, you know that I gravitate towards baroque, semi- baroque, and circle pearls because of the character.  It is the same characteristics in the pearls that I select for myself and my family that I wish to share with all of you!  I often feel that appreciation of non- round shapes of pearls is an advanced love of pearls, in that we most often times hear about only round or white pearls, but the reality on the pearl farm is that very few pearls come out in perfect round or even near- round shapes in any size, unless the pearls are cultured for very very short periods of time- resulting in lusterless pearls.
  4. Show another side of our production and design.  This year we were able to bring a new style to our shows with the addition of the dragon spinnel ring.  This ring was not only very intricate in the setting, but it also showcased a level of detail in setting and styling, which we do not get to show as often as we would like.  When I meet with people to discuss my family and jewelry, I often times refer to our color stone and setting work as the “hidden gem” in our jewelry line.  As jewelry craftsmen and manufactures, we pride ourselves on being versatile in what we produce and the styling which we bring you.  Having the opportunity to bring this type of item to you was very exciting in that hopefully we will be able to bring more ornate settings in the near future!
  5. 5.    Continuing to showcase the story of the farmers and the collaboration we have with Nature in our quest to bring you the finest quality pearls.  One of my passions in life is learning.  Weather it is learning more about something new or deepening my level of understanding.  It is very cliché, but every day has something new that can be learned.  I often tell my wife that if I was not doing what I do now, I would have loved to have been a teacher.  I joke with our friends and family that WE went through her masters is education program together.  The reality is that she did all of the hard work, and I edited until my eyes wanted to pop out, but I learned valuable lessons helping her study for exams and in editing her papers.  The point is, being able to bring the stories of our gems and production techniques to you, and in a sense teach about them is something that I embrace and love very much.
  6. 6.    any times in our presentations, I know my inner pearl geek comes out.  However, it is my love of pearls and their special story, which I love to share with all of you.  I feel that many jewelry professionals and even labs and institutes shy away from pearl education because it can be a very tricky and intimidating process with so many different types and the difficulty in accurately quantifying something that is extremely subjective.  The best pearl education is at the farm level, and it is that experience which I love to share with all of you!
  7. 7.    Bringing a full show of carved jade.  Jade will always be very close to my heart.  Aside from the reverence paid to this stone in Chinese culture, but it is more the family history we have with jade.  With rapidly rising prices of jade, this was a show that was very difficult, which it was!  Once again, we opened up the family vaults and used some of the rough, which we have been collecting for nearly 40 years!

It has come time to say goodbye to 2012 and usher in 2013, where we will be celebrating our 20th year on TV!  In all honesty, we could have never done any of the things above without all of you!  Even though we will be moving in to the year of the snake, this upcoming year promises to be very dragon like in that we will have a lot of new and exciting things for you!  Thank you from my family and I to all of you for making this such a wonderful year!