Cultured Pearl Association:
THE ODYSSEY CONTINUES
CPAA SELECTS 9 PEARL DESIGNERS FOR DOCUMENTARY

Llyn Strelau was privileged to be one of nine international designers invited to participate as a Steward Designer in the "Journey Continues". This project is the culmination of a documentary series sponsored by the Cultured Pearl Association of America. The Association compiled a six DVD set called "The Journey of the Pearl" which covers all aspects of the world of pearls in stunning video. After tracing the history of pearl culture, visits to pearl farms in the South Seas, Japan and China and the sorting and marketing of pearls, the final stage was giving pearls (donated by nine of the farmers involved in the project) to the nine Steward Designers. We were required to create pieces of finished jewellery with these pearls and document the design and creation with video footage which was then edited and incorporated in the finished documentary DVD.

As in a chef's Black Box scenario, none of the designers knew what pearls they would have to work with until the package arrived! I received two Chinese fresh water pearls. One was a 'Fireball' pearl that, at first glance, was a rather amorphous shape. The second pearl was a bead nucleated pearl that provided the initial impetus for the final design. It looked like a comet and, upon further reflection the Fireball revealed itself to be a wooly mammoth. As in much of my work, I desire to include a narrative in my jewellery. Therefore, I created two brooches that may be worn separately or together. Since one theory of the demise of the mammoth in North America was the destruction wrought by the impact of the Clovis Comet, the first pearl became the comet with the addition of 5 gold tails. Two white gold tails set with white diamonds, one of pink gold and pink diamonds, one of green gold and blue-green diamonds and the last one of yellow gold set with fancy intense yellow diamonds. The wooly mammoth pearl has gigantic white gold tusks set with tiny white diamonds, brown diamond eyes and a trunk, tail and ears crafted in pink gold.

Time as it Once Was...

The original pearl became...		The 'Clovis' Comet		This Pearl became...		The Wooly Mammoth

You can also see a video of the introductions to each of the Designers on YouTube