Then we were given a buffet lunch, and settled down for the presentation.
Brennan began by talking about himself and his company.
He said he started out with Mikimoto 45 years ago [BWeaves said that Mikimoto only hired Japanese at that time period], and his company produces 10 million tons of pearls a year. They design and create jewelry for Tiffany, Van Cleef, Neiman Marcus and other fancy stores and designers. [you won't substantiate this on the web, and Jeremy hadn't heard of him.]
Then he talked about pearls. According to him, pearl oysters live 100 years, and they are harvested every 6 months, so that is a lot of pearls. To harvest, the shell is wedged open, and each pearl bump is tapped. If the pearl is ready to release it, it does, and the pearl floats to the front of the shell to be harvested. [The people at my table were very impressed with this. "100 years! I never knew that!"] [I was surprised that fairies weren't involved.]
His company is helping to preserve some of the oyster species that are in danger. For example, they obtained some baby Tahitian oysters, took them to Australia, and now those oysters are the size of dinner plates, so they must be thriving.
He said that most pearls are raised in pearl farms, but there are still pearl divers. For example, baroque pearls take 15-20 years to gestate, and they are diver-only pearls. Brennan suspects that gold pearls are rare because the divers pocket them as sort of a retirement plan.
But of all the pearl jobs, stringing them is the hardest. It takes on average 3 months of full day work to get it right. He said that some of the necklaces here today are the first ones these workers get perfect, and even though they aren't the best pearls, he wanted the workers to know that their work was helping to spread pearl love. [how kind.]
Pearls remain popular, and he showed pictures of famous women wearing pearls. He claimed that every First Lady since Martha Washington had their picture taken wearing pearls [I giggled], that his company designed pearl earrings worn by Kate Middleton, and that one of the door prizes was a copy of those.
The reason he was here with us was so that his company could try out new designs, that they have found that this kind of market research was the most valuable, and, for providing that service, we were getting offered this jewelry at a considerable discount.
That was why we cannot buy this online, or come back later and ask to buy something passed over--he can't be seen to compete with his customers like Tiffany's, etc., who do sell online. Also, the Saks and Neiman-Marcus merger and subsequent Chapter 11 bankruptcy means that he has jewelry sitting around in warehouses, and, while he is confident the situation will resolve itself, he likes it going to customers instead of just sitting there. [How thoughtful.]
Finished below.
