Dear Readers & Fellow Pearl Enthusiasts,
Our founder, artist & designer Eve J. Alfillé has set an interesting and varied agenda for this year's meetings. As you will see, some of the dates have not been fully confirmed, pending the speakers travel plans. However, the topics and a time frame for these meetings have been given so you will be able to make your own plans and still attend these exciting sessions. Our first meeting of the year, January 15th meeting, Miracles of refracted light: Pearls and Opals with speaker Robert Shapiro, was a well attended success and the audience enjoyed a bountiful array of both pearls and beautiful boulder opals.
Our schedule of upcoming meetings is below, and we look forward to having you join our adventures:
On April 19 or 24 (exact date to be announced), our first ever encounter with a specialist in keshi pearls will take place. Their unique ways of working will these extremely small pearls, often introducing slivers of other gems, will be a surprise to most attendees.
On May 20, author Renee Newman, whom many of us met during the book signing for her popular “Pearls” book, will return to discuss the many mysteries of “Rare Gems”, her new work. Come see which of these you might be familiar with!
In July (exact date to be announced), we will return for a glimpse into the Great Pearl Rush and its aftermath. Historian George Johnson discovered a trove of detailed photos documenting the muddy and somewhat malodorous life at a Wisconsin “pearl camp”, and Eve Alfille was able to view some of these during a photo shoot at Milwaukee’s Natural History Museum.
On September 22, a panel of jewelry designers will reveal how, in the same way as Cartier with the Peregrina, they face the dilemmas of inheritance: How to redesign unworn pearls for today’s world? What to do with pearls you don’t wear?
And finally, on November 11, our last meeting of 2012 will be a hands-on workshop. Special techniques will be shared to create jewelry with pearls and gems; this will be a partial repeat of the popular workshop Pearl Society founder Eve Alfille will lead in August at the Peninsula School of Arts, in Door County, Wisconsin. Bring any pearls you are thinking of redesigning.
As a special gesture to commemorate the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Eve J. Alfille Gallery, dues paid for the 2011 year will extend through 2012. The Pearl Society, which counts members throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia, was founded in January 1990.
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