Date: Thursday, Feb. 7
Cost: Free
Time: 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
Seminar title: Beyond the Pearl: Global Warming, Climate Change and the Consequences for Cultured Pearls and the Culture of Pearl Communities
Location: Graham Room
Presenter: Betty Sue King, King’s Ransom
In the last century we have harnessed and refined techniques of cultivating pearls in freshwater and marine environments. In the last 50 years, though, global warming, climate change, and its consequences for all living organisms have also become a reality. Come learn about what it means to support pearling communities and their importance in global ecosystems, better understand ocean acidification and other elements affecting oysters and mussels, and discover how oysters can benefit many beyond the beautiful pearls they produce.
Date: Thursday, Feb. 7
Cost: Free
Time: 1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m.
Seminar title: Sustainable Natural Pearls from Around the Globe
Location: Mohave Room
Presenter: Gina Latendresse, American Pearl Company®, Inc.
Discover a variety of natural pearls from around the world as well as the exotic species of mollusks from which they originate. Understand nacreous versus non-nacreous, marine gastropods, scallops, and our own domestic natural pearls from the Tennessee and Mississippi River Valleys.
Date: Friday, Feb. 8
Cost: Free
Time: 9:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
Seminar title: Freshwater Pearls of the World
Location: Greenlee Room
Presenter: Elisabeth Strack, Gemmologisches Institut Hamburg, Germany
Pearl-producing freshwater mussels occur in a wide geographical distribution in the Northern Hemisphere and are responsible for producing natural and cultured pearls in Europe, North America, and East Asia. Strack’s talk illustrates the diversity of both natural and cultured freshwater pearls and explores quality characteristics and methods of distinction—think pearls from Margaritifera margaritifera that occur from northern Spain to northwestern Russia to the Hyriopsis species in Lake Biwa in Japan to more than 300 mussel species in the Mississippi basin in North America.
####
CPAA is a nonprofit founded in 1957. The group comprises the finest manufacturers, wholesalers, dealers, and suppliers of cultured pearls in the United States, and its goals are to improve retail marketability of pearls and cultivate demand among consumers. Through promotion, education, public relations, and unwavering commitment to the category, CPAA aims to inspire an authentic passion for all cultured pearl varieties. For more information about becoming a certified pearl expert, please visit PearlsAsOne.org. To learn more about the Cultured Pearl Association of America, please visit CPAA.org.