Review of Pearls: V&A and Qatar Museums Authority Exhibition

Exhibition open until 19th January 2014 at V&A.

The C&A Pearls Exhibition

I would highly recommend a visit to the latest remarkable exhibition of ‘Pearls’ at the Victoria and Albert Museum. On display is an enormous collection of multi coloured natural pearls including the pink conch pearl; brown, black, blue green abalone pearl and the orange Melo pearl. Any mollusk with a shell can produce a pearl.  

Natural oyster pearls have been fished in the Arabian Gulf from the earliest times until the 1950s using the same methods of diving to a depth of 22 metres. It takes 2000 oysters to produce a suitable pearl for use in a piece of quality jewellery. As you look at the magnificent five row natural Gulf pearl necklace made by Cartier from the 1930s, you can appreciate the time taken to collect the pearls which need to be matched according to scale and lustre.

Grand Jete, gold with diamonds and two cultured baroque pearl

Pearl trading in the Gulf, from Saudi Arabia to Dubai, Bahrain to Qatar, started as early as the 7^th Century where Arab merchants crossed the Indian Ocean to India. Chinese merchants also travelled to India to find highly prized natural pearls from the Gulf. By the early 19th Century the Arabian Gulf was the major global supplier of natural pearls. At their height, the great jewellery houses of Europe sought the best quality ‘oriental’ pearls between 1850 and 1930. Today the natural pearl has become a prized rarity.

Gold hair ornament, Roman, 3rd Century AD

From Roman times to Medieval Europe pearls symbolized wealth and status. Gorgeous Renaissance jewellery examples abound, set with multi coloured gemstones such as garnets and rubies alongside pearls and richly enamelled gold pendants. There are beautiful examples of late Victorian diamond and pearl brooches and Art Nouveau jewellery, some by Lalique and Vever, showing designs of plants and insects, in gold, enamel and horn sculpted into natural forms. There is also a pearl sautoir necklace worn to the waist amid the 1920s fashionable flapper dresses. There are incredible examples of seed pearls beautifully sewn into jackets and dresses, even one worn by Her Majesty the Queen!

Rosebery pearl and diamond tiara dated 1878

The highlight of the exhibition for me personally was the wonderful collection of pearl and

diamond tiaras. In particular, the Rosebery pearl and diamond tiara dated 1878 with natural

bouton and drop shaped pearls, set in silver and gold surrounded by old cut diamonds. There is even jewellery from the Hollywood stars: a pearl necklace worn by Marilyn Monroe and a pearl and diamond ring that once belonged to Elizabeth Taylor!

Kokichi Mikimoto (1858-1954) in Japan developed a patent for making round cultured pearls from Akoya oysters at the turn of the century which heralded the start of industrial production and in the 1950s cultured pearls were at their fashionable peak. There are South Sea cultured pearl necklaces in many colours, the finest produced by Pinctada Maxima oysters farmed in Burma, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Australia. There is a stunning necklace by Yoko, London incorporating these multi coloured cultured pearls from the South seas set in 18 carat white gold with diamonds. This is a beautiful and unusual collection which is open daily and well worth a visit!

Written by FOCUS member Gemma Darlington FGA, Jewellery specialist and gemologist of Gem’s Fine Jewels www.gemsfinejewels.co.uk

 

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Making New Friends in the UK

It’s only my third day living in London and I’m already making plenty of new friends.  I am living in central London in a residence hall called Nido Spitalfields which houses over 1000 students and interns from over 30 different countries around the world.    They gave me plenty of suggestions of places to eat and visit.

The program I am attending is with 30 other Americans, but I am hungry to branch out and make friends with people from other cultures and countries.  I came to London with many goals including becoming friends with some local Londoners. My confidence in my ability was shaky initially because of how different American culture and conversation is compared to Britain’s, but to my pleasant surprise, making new friends in London has begun easily.  Yesterday, once home, I was taking the lift to my floor to try to catch up on my jet lag, when I ran into two local Londoners riding the lift.  After we made swift introductions, the conversation quickly became effortless.

 

Trying to make new friends can be challenging, the very thought of it made me nervous, mostly because of the cultural differences between the US and UK.  It can be intimidating being a foreigner in a new place, especially if you don’t already know anyone in the area.  But, I’ve quickly realised that it is best to just go for it and I have put myself out in the open, rather than hiding behind my room door.  This is what I decided to do when I stepped into the lift last night, and instantly found that you can always find people to relate to and speak with.

I still have a lot to discover about London and its people.  The new friends that I made told me that it is important to make friends and acquaintances and spend time with those that are from places other than just America.  I believe that it is essential to start interacting with locals early in your time abroad--otherwise you might miss out on many wonderful opportunities.  After all, the best advice comes from the locals!

Contributed by Jared O’Neill, Summer Intern at FOCUS

For more information on FOCUS, please visit www.focus-info.org

For more information on Nido Spitalfields, please visit www.nidostudentliving.com

Farewell to the Iron Lady

 

 

 

Farewell to the Iron Lady 

Nearly everyone, anywhere in the world, will know that Margaret Thatcher died in London last week.  Her face has dominated the UK media since that day much as she dominated UK politics from 1979. Since she left office in 1990, having been unseated by her own party, there have been four different Prime Ministers and five leaders of the Conservative party. Why was she such a dominant figure in British politics? And why has her death led to such an outpouring of love and hate?

Margaret Thatcher became leader of the Conservative Party in 1975. She was the first woman to lead a political party in the UK. In 1979 she became Prime Minister – the first female to do so in any Western country. Thatcher took over a country that had just suffered the ‘winter of discontent’, characterised for many voters by images of rubbish piled high on pavements after a long strike by refuse collectors, and which was in economic difficulty with inflation running at over 20% and the major industries and utilities run (badly) by the State. It took, for example, a minimum of six weeks to get a new telephone connected by the state-run telecoms firm and there were similarly long waiting times for installation of basic products such as gas fires and cookers. Thatcher turned this upside down, she put the market rather than the government at the heart of the economy and proceeded to liberalise and privatise the UK economy. In the words of one former Prime Minister, she ‘sold off the family silver’ through an ambitious, and arguably successful, privatisation campaign and liberalised the financial sector, freeing it from regulation,  through the ‘big bang’ which many claim put in place the conditions which allowed for the 2008 financial crisis. 

Many judge her economic policies to have been successful yet they had social consequences which divided the UK in the 1980s and which are still highly visible today. She reduced the power of the unions, most notably through the year-long Miner’s Strike in 1984, which divided communities and saw violent battles between the police and striking miners. Her economic policies, and the subsequent decline in British manufacturing, led to a significant rise in unemployment and social unrest in major cities in the UK. The impact of these policies was felt throughout the country but not evenly – the South and London generally benefitted whereas the rest of the country went through difficult times. A look at recent electoral maps show the long term impact of these changes with the country still divided by a Conservative south and a Labour north. 

Margaret Thatcher’s funeral will be a ceremonial one. Only Winston Churchill has received a higher honour with a State Funeral in 1965. Churchill united the country during the Second World War and was seen, by nearly all, as a great Prime Minister. Margaret Thatcher will, for a large number of Britons, never receive such recognition, yet her lasting impact on the UK is probably just as significant. 

Written by Kate Daubney, 

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A passion for reading

If you saw some children today dressed up in funny or plain clothes , you are probably asking yourself: why are they not in their school uniforms? Is it carnival? Are they on holidays again?  The answer is today WorldBook Day  is celebrated in the UK and many schools encourage their pupils to dress up as their favourite book characters. The children take their favourite books to school and talk about their choices. They also receive National Book Tokens that can be used to pick one of eight exclusive and completely free books or they can use it to get £1 off any book. This is a great initiative to promote reading for children.

Wherever I go, I see Brits reading: on holidays, on the tube, on airplanes, on buses…. They seem to read more than any other nationality. I believe the habit develops because children in the UK are encouraged to read a lot from a very young age. The choice of children's books is incredible and there are certainly many events to boost their passion for reading.

I recently went to a fun event with my 11-year-old son: the Imagine Children’s Festival at the Southbank Centre. The event was an interview, questions and answers session followed by book signing by David Walliams, author of Ratburger. The Queen Elizabeth Hall was completely full! There were kids from a variety of backgrounds, all with a passion to read. During the same festival there were other events with children’s authors, some at the 900 seat and some at the 300 seat auditorium, but all completely sold out events.  It was quite amazing to see all those kids with their books, putting their hands up to ask questions. My son had already been to a similar event with Anthony Horowitz. When my daughter was young we met Angelina Ballerina and her author Katharine Holabird and illustrator Helen Craig and also Felicity Wishes’ author Emma Thomson. My daughter still remember those encounters!

If you want to develop your child’s passion for reading, there are many other events across the UK .  You can find more information on the following websites:

http://www.bookeventsforchildren.co.uk

http://babbleabout.co.uk/events/

by Ana Beatriz Alencar

Visit the FOCUS website: www.focus-info.org 

Grab a Bargain

 London is such an expensive city that you feel really good when you find a good bargain. That is exactly what happened to my colleague and I recently: "Full Day Course in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign for £39 at BKH Academy (89% Off)". We bought the deal from Groupon. Both of us use Adobe Creative Suite, but we are far from being experts. So, we thought that even if the course was not great, at least we would learn a few new shortcuts.

A few days before the course, BHK Academy sent us some instructions on how to get to their studio and the programme for the day. We arrived at the studio and were happy to see that it not only looked very cool but was also very well equipped. The course was very well structured and the three instructors were very knowledgeable.  BHK works also as a graphic design agency and the instructors work daily as graphic designers, so they were able to answer all of the advanced questions that some of us had. While one of them was presenting, the other two were moving around and helping people with their projects and doubts. In the end, we learned much more than just a few shortcuts and if I had more time I would definitely do their full graphic design course. 

Groupon and other daily deal websites manage to offer discounts as the services and products are sold in bulk. I had already had a great experience with a dinner at L'autre Pied.  Asking around, my colleagues have also gotten some excellent deals: dinners (read our blog about a deal at Inamo), canvas pictures, laser hair removal, bean bags, exhibitions...  There are other websites where you can secure good deals: Wahanda (for health and beauty), Wowcher and LivingSocial . So, why not grab a bargain now?

by Ana Beatriz Alencar

Visit the Focus website: www.focus-info.org