OCR Text |
Show Versatile Oyster Keeping Busy Culturing Pearls The versatile oyster is most obliging it will produce cultured cul-tured pearls to suit the varying color preferences of the fair ladies of dozens of different countries. It is impossible to predict beforehand be-forehand where in the wide spectrum spec-trum of colors and shadings the pearl from one particular oyster will fall, the Cultured Pearl Association As-sociation of America and Japan explained. The possibilities range from silver-blue to creamy white to blue-green to light rose. Many of the shades are seldom seen in America simply because they are not greatly prized. In other countries, the light-to-pink range, which is most in demand in the United States, attracts little lit-tle interest. Among the many, crazy mixed-up mixed-up colors available, the senoras and senoritas of Spain, Portugal and Latin America favor the yellow-to-gold shades the darker the better. Further around the world, the maharani of India also prefers creamy golden pearls. The French like cream-rose creamy pearls with a pinkish cast. But their Belgian cousins favor a more iridescent rainbow effect. Italians want a high pinkish pink-ish luster. A taste for white, light rose and silvery tones, like silver-blue, silver-blue, is evident in Scandinavian countries. While the Japanese, who produce these fine cultured pearls for the world, tend to keep the silver-green and blue-gray blue-gray for themselves. The pearl cultivators of Japan produce more than $100-million worth (retail value) of cultured pearls each year. Although they cannot determine beforehand the colors of their pearls, they can predict the popularity of specific colors, according to the Association. Associ-ation. Color preferences are not completely com-pletely exclusive, the Association notes, particularly in countries like the United States where there are people of many national origins. Despite a general American Amer-ican taste for the light-to-pink hues, the fair-skinned blondes of Scandinavian background in the Midwest are more partial to pearls of light rose shades. And, just as the darker golden pearl tones are appealing to those in the warmer climes of Italy and Spain, so they are preferred by Americans of those origins. |