A few months ago I was approached by a reporter interested in discussing Tennessee pearls and the decline of this industry. She recently finished her article and it is such a great, robust and comprehensive read I wanted to share it on my blog. The original article, by Rhian Sasseen can be found at Aljazeera America. …
Tomorrow is the day the July, 2014 issue of Southern Living hits the newsstands and we are supposed to be in it. As I write this, I think about the long journey of creating a signature jewelry piece for Southern Living and I wonder, after almost a year, if we will be featured in Southern …
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A review of first lady jewelry… this might be the beginning of a long series of blog posts! But, as I land in Washington D.C. to take care of some pearl business and then attend my 20th high school reunion (gasp!), I have presidents on the brain. Or, more importantly, their first ladies! And their …
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Summertime and the diving is easy . Okay, not easy, but certainly easier. Diving for pearls and mussels on the Tennessee River can be tough business. We have discussed the dangers of diving including danger from other people, debris in there water and decompression issues. There are also dams to contend with and times when the …
What is the best place for mussels on the Tennessee River? If Tennessee River pearl divers are spending there time diving for mussels (and pearls!) on the Tennessee River, then they better know the best places to dive. Right? Well, the answer is complicated. Just like a fisherman’s favorite fishing hole, divers do not readily …
There is a danger of pearl diving in the Tennessee River. Truthfully, all types of pearl diving can lead to accidents, panic situations, decompression issues and more. There have been many deaths on the Tennessee River especially during the peak days of pearl and mussel diving. We usually think of divers as having a tank …
Can pearls die? At first, this might seem like a silly question. The mussels, oysters and other mollusks that produce pearls are certainly alive but pearls are not. So how can they die? Maybe instead of asking “can pearls die?” we should ask, “are pearls dead?” There is a phenomena known as dead pearls. This …
Save your pennies because a really big pearl is coming up for auction. You might have noticed I love chatting about how natural pearls are very popular on the auction scene these days. Buyers are loving natural pearls and their prices are staggering. Well, Woolley & Wallis, a British auction house, has announced that a really big …
Why are natural pearls so hard to find? It seems pretty sensible that there would be tons of natural pearls produced each year. Right? If pearls are formed by an irritant, bacteria or other organism invading the soft inner body of a mollusk, well, surely that happens all the time! At least that is what …
Gone With the Wind: Why did I name our All-American pearl jewelry line from characters in Gone With the Wind? First, did you notice? I know names like Dolly and Sue-ellen may be a little more obscure but surely you guessed it with Scarlett, Mammy or even Prissy? You know, I love that we are …
Are natural pearls more expensive than cultured pearls? The answer is yes. Natural pearls are considerably more expensive than cultured pearls. One might argue that the reason we have cultured pearls is because natural pearls are so much more expensive than cultured pearls. When Mikimoto first began farming cultured pearls in the late 1800s, he …
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Brailing is a form of early commercial pearl and mussel harvesting (in the 1930s, 40s and 50s). When brailing, you extend hooks across a bar and pull the bar through the river. The mussels close on the hooks. Why? When a mussel feels the hook on its open shell, it thinks one of two things.. …
