My Week, Behind the Scenes

What a busy week we had….

Showing our pearl farm and all that we do to  the Aquaculture Council of Western Australia (ACWA) and holding the Young Jewellers Awards in store.

Mid week we hosted the ACWA board members who travelled from across WA and even from Tasmania!.  The board wanted to get out to the Abrolhos to see firsthand the type of aquaculture happening at the Abrolhos Islands. 

We visited our own Latitude pearl farm and also Abrolhos Aquaculture Australia’s pearl farm and hatchery.

It was actually quite good for us to take a step back from the day to day operations and see what we do with ‘new eyes’, like a ‘helicopter view’. It is  quite interesting actually because we don’t just grow pearls, we also farm different species of Seaweed, Scallops and Penguin Oysters.  The Penguin Oysters and Scallops were produced as babies which we call ‘spat’ in the hatchery located at the Easter Group of the Abrolhos.

We can use the Penguin Oysters for producing pearls and at harvest time we will be able to sell the pearl meat from the shell too for food.  The scallop run we did produced the smaller but brighter coloured scallops, they have the prettiest shells. The challenge here was to see if the technology of the existing hatchery at the Abrolhos was able to produce them – and we successfully did so.  We are now doing a lot of research to check the economics of growing them out at the Abrolhos and how we can make it profitable. 

It’s always exciting starting a new industry – I remember when we first grew a pearl out of the Black Lip Oyster, then pearls out of the Akoya Oyster (similar to those produced in Japan) – it’s actually very rewarding.  And the trip with ACWA was a good chance for me to remember how far we have come.

At the Abrolhos Islands there are quite a few aquaculture sites and not everyone grows pearls – some farm seaweed, live rock, coral and edible oysters too– yes the same ones served at restaurants all over Australia. 

We took the board to visit Abrolhos Island Oysters site located at the Southern Group who are growing edible oysters – a fairly new industry to the Abrolhos and it seems they are nearly ready to also sell their products which is fantastic (we may or may not have also had a little taste….)

We visited another site growing live rock and coral for aquariums around the world– and were able to have a snorkel and view how the process works.  The Board members of ACWA were excited to see all the innovation and hard work going on at the Islands. They also got to experience quite rough weather on the trip the first day, 25-30knot winds and heavy rain. On the second day they were so lucky to experience an oily calm day – it was absolute magic. 

On our return to town they popped into our Latitude Jeweller's showroom and I was really happy to show them what we do with the pearls we grow and the interesting designs we create – I will say they looked very impressed.  It felt like I was able to show them the complete life cycle of our pearls – from hatchery to jewellery.

On a personal level, it was great to be able to connect and showcase our local  industry to the Board members especially out in the field.  When you are involved in Aquaculture there are so many aspects to it – some industries take years to perfect.  We have been pearling now for 24 years and yes I think we have come a long way with a lot of hard work.  We are  now producing the most beautiful colours in our pearls. I am so proud of the Latitude jewellery collections we create, trying to always tell a story through a design – you can see this in our two latest collections Oily Calm and the Seashell Collection.  

And then we stepped straight into  preparing for the Young Jewellers Awards. This is an event we started in 2015 so coming up for 9 years now. We donate pearls to the local High schools who want to participate in the project.  Once they receive the pearls, students are given a theme to work with, then they draft their design on paper, write a description detailing the metal and gems to be used and the inspiration behind the design.  Very similar to how we handle the process for  our customers requesting a custom designed piece of jewellery.

The students makes their pieces at school over 4 months and then the pieces are displayed at our showroom in Geraldton for 2 weeks.  The opening night is where we announce the awards – where the students, parents, teachers and the general public are able to attend.  It’s always hard  when judging for this exhibition – seeing all the effort the students have put in to their piece – we just want to award each and every one of them!  But what inspires me the most with this project is the sense of pride each student feels about their piece, their parents also are genuinely impressed by what their children create and deliver. 

I was super impressed when this year’s winner of ‘Young Jeweller of the Year’ mentioned in her speech that “she is currently doing ATAR and finds that having the freedom to create in the jewellery class really helps her mind rest from the study”  I love that she referenced “freedom to create’ which is one of the phrases we use here at Latitude “having the freedom to create… creates amazing art”  and we consider each piece of jewellery a work of art.

We captured a few great pictures during the evening. It was lovely seeing the students showing their parents their pieces – even hearing the students talk about their piece, with affection and pride. 

I’m pretty sure that when I was at school, never did I think I would have been a pearl farmer and for me, the work has led to so many interesting projects like this one and the Flotsam and Jetsam Art Exhibition. Both of these are so rewarding to me on both a professional and personal level.

As my weeks are pretty full – when I was back in my showroom I was told we needed more pearl earrings in the showroom as we had run out of stock – and picking the pearls for all our jewellery is pretty much done by myself. I really enjoy this part of my job matching pearls and finding what metal suits the colour's of the pearls best.  I put some earrings together and then of course had the opportunity to place a post on facebook – these earrings then sold overnight – pretty great outcome – although it was back to the grading board to make more. 

I really love the diversity in my role at Latitude Jewellers from pearl farmer, to promoter of the arts and designing and creating intriguing jewellery designs at Latitude Jewellers.

I really hope you enjoyed the read - now I need to get back to grading pearls!

Regards

Pia Boschetti

The_Girl_Who_Grows_The_Pearl