Pearls of Tahiti documentary of Patrick Voillot

[Music] in the South Seas where the water meets the sky torrential rains are lost in the vastness of the ocean a legend says that a drop of fresh water fell into this excess and was collected by a shell with time the mollusk turned it into a fascinating gem of a sweet purity perfectly round it had a sheen an exceptional color thus the first black pearl of Tahiti was created [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] since the beginning of time the Pearl has excited the curiosity of man while igniting his admiration a rare gem that does not require the work of an artisan to reveal its beauty the Great's of this world have never failed to wear the most beautiful among them their beauty and rarity made those who wore them exceptional beings a woman Gabrielle Chanel transformed the fashion of her era for her pearls enhanced the beauty of women enhancing their complexion and the brightness of their eyes or punctuating the strict silhouette of a little black dress in discussing the association of these two colors she said the black has it all the white as well there of an absolute beauty it is the perfect match her fondness for pearls never faded she once said I will not go down to the workshops without having them around my neck I want to honor my workers Paris in 1925 was a continual party Pierre gallant a close friend of Mademoiselle Chanel says I remember an evening in the home of Princess Eugenie Mira that evening Chanel wore a necklace of pearls at least 2 meters long everyone was very very gay Chanel suddenly began to dance the Charleston at a frenetic place and suddenly crack Coco Chanel was the living symbol of all the luxury and all the follies of that period following her great spirit of freedom and creativity Mademoiselle put pearls into fashion always very popular with women some of the finest pearls today come from a South Pacific archipelago the main island Tahiti is the largest of the 118 that make up French Polynesia with its capital Pappa T discovered in the 16th century it was not until the 18th century that Europeans marveled at these islands through the stories of Louie Antoine de Bougainville then the English explorer James Cook reinforced the myth of paradise describing the dances of the vanie their beauty the climate of great sweetness and the exuberant nature [Music] the French state provides financial assistance to Polynesia in key areas of the economy such as education research transport agriculture and tourism which is the primary source of local revenues the fishing industry highly underutilized is changing but the true wealth of this paradise is undoubtedly the pearl a booming sector that constitutes a majority of exports [Music] inter-island transport is made by air small pearl farms isolated in the middle of the lagoons are accessible by both it was long believed in ancient times that the Pearl was born from a mixture of heavenly dew and the glare of the Sun and the moon and the stars the Chinese believed that storms fertilized shells to give birth to this gem in the Orient pearls were considered to be the tears of angels and mermaids [Music] [Music] [Music] the pearls are the result of a natural phenomenon a grain of sand or other parasitic element accidentally enters the flesh of the oyster in passing it is responsible for the epithelial cells which developed to form a pearl sac it secretes the pearlescent material around the grain of sand the pearls formed are the result of an accident of nature and are therefore of a great rarity [Applause] let's see you twerk after over a hundred years ago three Japanese men tokichi Nishikawa Tatsu shame Issei and kokichi Mikimoto had the same idea at almost the same time without knowing each other to help nature produce these round pearls only the first two regarded as the true inventors of this technique it was the birth of the modern pearl the man causes a natural phenomenon by introducing a nucleus into the gonad of the oyster the kernel is the support the graft is the secretory pearl material which forms the pearl sack this will produce a cultured pearl in Polynesia the first attempts at pearl culture began in the 1960s the idea was launched and within a few years farms were located throughout the atolls [Music] [Music] [Music] creating pearls requires persistence and patience indeed the young oysters are suspended in a submarine station until they attain the size to be transplanted the pearl oyster in French Polynesia is the pink tada Margaret affero it is known around the world for the quality of the knackers secretion this pearl changes sex during its life she lays all year round and especially during seasonal changes it takes 2 or 3 years for it to happen again when young the shell is the target of many predators feared by feral farmers fragile this oyster requires constant care [Music] [Music] the oysters are brought back to the farm to be cleaned and grafted [Music] pending these operations they are immediately placed in water so that they do not suffer shocks that could lead to abnormal mortality [Music] the cleaning operation is important it is practiced several times a year to eliminate parasites clinging to the shelves these parasites disrupt the normal development of the pearl oyster and therefore contribute to the production of pearls of poor quality [Music] [Applause] [Music] after cleaning the oysters are detached from the rope [Music] the dead oysters are discarded [Applause] for their survival between each step the oysters are placed in water then finally comes the transplantation stage one must open the shell without causing harm but enough for the transplant to work a large number of oysters are prepared and remain open thanks to a plastic wedge placed between the two valves of the shell my name is mana constant and my profession is pearl farmer initially there is what is called harvesting it is the operation in which we collect the spots of pearls then there is the breeding to make them grow and once they have reached a sufficient size that is to say six to eight centimeters in diameter we can start the transplanting it takes about 18 months for the pearl to form there are two steps in fact in the ground first the selection and preparation of the graft then the incision itself to choose the graft we open a few oysters slightly and a small mirror is placed inside you try to see the color of the walls of the shell if the walls have beautiful colors then you will sacrifice that I start to take a sample of the coat to make a graph one can find shells with yellow highlights shells with green reflections it's in relation to this that we choose the colors for a sacrifice in Akina no collaboration agree for second sister the preparation of the graft consists in choosing a pearl from which we will take a piece of the coat and this coat will be prepared in a particular way and this is the piece of tissue where we'll cut a small piece of flesh to become the graph I agree for in fact it is this graph that will give the layer of the pearls [Music] [Music] craft preparation is performed like a surgical operation the instruments are disinfected at each stage so as not to contaminate the oysters an individual can infect an entire colony which would be a disaster for the pearl farmer [Music] then there's the incision the incision is made in the gonad of the pearl once the incision is made a nucleus is placed and on the nucleus a small graft issue cynically someo see a degree for the cells of the graft will develop to form the pearl sack which secretes a material constituted of pearl aragonite the nucleus will be the basis of the pearl it will give a round shape to the Pearl the graft will grow slowly around and form what is called the pearl sac and it is this pearl sac that gives the layer of pearl and it will form around the nucleus the nucleus is of natural origins in fact it came from mollusk shell the shell was originally from Mississippi I think there are also other sources so it's a freshwater mussel and its shell is used to carve out the nucleus 18 months later we harvest raw pearls and if the pearls are beautiful you can then perform a regress re graft means that will use a nucleus the size of the Pearl which was extracted and we'll put it back in the gonad in the Pearl sack and the oyster can be reused to give another pearl after a year or 18 months as well Ilana can we keep our duner not repel we don't know anything [Music] once the graft is completed the oysters are placed in baskets to protect them and put back into the water [Music] [Music] in fact we begin when it started to get difficult we never knew the good old days of pearl farming apparently there were too many pearls on the market buyers would even turn pearls down we graft about 60,000 pearls a year big farms can do millions a year so we're a small farm if there's an epidemic or a cyclone we can lose our entire production it would be a catastrophe because we'd be left with absolutely nothing harassing people to 1010 catastrophically wrong merciful [Music] [Music] this lure is made with polished mother-of-pearl inside some exists with pearls that replace the eyes in the head certain exist awake Dipel hero+ leisure [Music] [Music] okay kimochi dr. a shark ate a piece of this sashimi when we fished near the reefs there are quite a few sharks and often they'll eat our fish [Music] my great-grandfather was Captain of a schooner he went through the islands and picked up pearls pearl shells at the time he could pick about fifteen or twenty thousand oysters and out of all of them find one single little fine gem there must be a foreign body a grain of sand or something like that that got into the pearl it's a defensive reaction in fact it covers the foreign body and makes it into a pearl it's like what we do with the graph [Music] who knows your we would swim both in the early morning and late at night it happened that sharks would come and rip away our flippers we did have a few scares and we had to protect ourselves with strings of oysters to keep them away sharks and the lagoons are not man-eaters but it leaves you with particular memories after all these years this adventure of the Pearl started in the late 70s and it started simply I think because at the time the Pearl had a future pearl farming was in its infancy when we started and we were the fifth pearl farm in all of Polynesia I told myself this is a small product that has a good value and it'll bring happiness to all women who love jewelry around the world and also it's a product that could easily be exported on account of its small size because we're far from all major markets worldwide it's more out of a sense of challenge and out of a will to do something in this country but did not exist before that I threw myself into this adventure of the Pearl and that's gone well since the company still exists and my sister took over a few years ago Pazhani my name is dora for card and i own a pearl farm on the island of erotica in the to mu-2 archipelago in French Polynesia in the entire industry from the time we introduced a nucleus into an oyster and the time when we harvest the pearl we've lost more than half of the oysters of all the pearls we harvest 10% go in the trash they're called rejects and our pearls that really do not deserve to be called by that name only 10% can be used in fine jewelry or jewelry illu arrest the facilities and the rest is readily usable for all kinds of slightly cheaper jewelry Tahitian pearls come in all colors they start with white but white is rare in Tahiti when you see a white pearl in a lot of pearls it reflects it stands out so it goes from white and it goes to dark gray almost black and in fact when we talk about a black pearl it's not really black and then between the white and dark grey which is still the basic color that we find here there are all different colors goes from pink to green to blue to yellow to caramel all sorts of colors to go to eradicate it's still far as it's more than four hundred kilometers from Tahiti we often take a boat which takes a good full day and often we take a plane yes it could be a bit dangerous here there are several people I know personally who are no longer here today because the distances are so huge and the islands are so small it is easy just a small pilot error or mechanical accident and then it's over we have a small private strip next to the farm that's about 750 meters every week or so we go to get pearls every week during the right season [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so outside [Music] [Music] there are crafters that come from Japan others from China some from Australia and of course we have native Tahitian grafters that are taking over more and more I think all the grafters we use here at Pacific pearl are good professionals and we evaluate their performance according to several criteria first the retention rate that's to say the number of nuclei that are released within two or three months after the transplant the last nucleus are rejected the better the transplant but then it also happens at harvest we know exactly who did what and we want to get statistics for each grafters so that they can try to improve their performance a good grafter is one with a retention rate of 80% or more the menu will appear for performance and behavior and to the control the omec at rollercoaster symmetries [Music] [Music] in the lagoons pearl farms place collectors in the water on which the young oysters affixed themselves that is to say the small oysters cling to them and continue to grow once they reach one to three centimeters they're removed and placed in Nets where they're maintained into adulthood [Music] [Applause] to get to this size it takes two plus years they Klingon thanks to the current they Klingon the flux smiles on us [Music] lagoons are saltwater Lakes shallow and located between the land and a coral reef the tide penetrates through the gaps in the reef these natural aquariums the refuge of a multi-coloured aquatic wildlife our favorite places for pearl farming because the waters are calm and the temperatures are conducive [Music] [Music] [Music] separation from your doll so this is the production of how much time this is the production for the week 20 just pack them and now they need to be taken back to the office and sorted because we have all different shapes and all different qualities everything is mixed together it's a rough harvest every week there's a plane every week there's a plane that picks up the pearls okay here we go [Music] [Music] this is an auction which is intended only for professionals we sell ninety eight thousand six hundred and four pearls that we will auction it's a secret sale that goes on for four days buyers come into this room and see the pearls that we're putting up sourcing buyers control the quality of the pearls of various lots of interest to determine the maximum price they will offer at auction hello and if you come in there are different criteria that allow us to assess the value of pearls there's the quality of the Pearl itself that's to say the pics little dots on the top then there's the size the color and the shape where's user I'm a jeweler by trade and the purpose here is to find the rarest pearl that's the real gem a perfect pair out of 86 thousand pieces it has brightness color the shape is perfect in fact it's priceless [Music] [Music] lot number two is priced at three million eight hundred thousand francs [Music] [Music] and it's a tribute Amelia we stock a try women from lockup a nice Evita perón Bravo mercy number one those two company for 1 million eight hundred eighty eight thousand Pacific friends I am Martin Carroll CEO of gie Pelle de Tahiti it's an economic interest group that brings together the pearl farmers of French Polynesia and also the government of French Polynesia so we're specifically responsible for promoting the pearls of Tahiti around the world international sales are held here in poverty three times a year there are also sales in Japan and Hong Kong there also three other sales so they're about six international sales of Tahitian pearls in the world production started in the earliest experiments in the 1960s all say it's starting in the 80s and 90s that the growth has been phenomenal there's been a real boom in the pearl industry a rush for pearls coming from the Tuamotu Islands and it's from the 90s until today that the market is stabilized in terms of production [Music] production but due to an unfavorable economic climate in the past two years the territory of French Polynesia and the Pearl farmers have organized themselves and have structured this sector and especially they've established quality standards that are much higher than they were before two-storied estado de Cali T beaucoup preserve a copper agua to facilitate exports to foreign buyers the custom service is now present at the time of the sale [Music] [Music] [Music] unlike in many countries the insecurity and stress associated with people working in the world of gems are not present here my name is Loic VM and I'm a black pearl merchant I created my company three years ago my job is largely to collect pearls I have many associations and contracts with producers from who i buy all the harvests be they good or bad can be harvest of 200 pearls or twenty to thirty thousand pearls we also have another way of buying pearls which is at auctions so once you've bought these pearls for sale or at auction directly from the producer our first job in the office here is to thoroughly check the quantities so we count these pearls and sort them to count and sort we use different counters some are a hundred five hundred this is usually a large platter with 500 holes that we fill up until there are no more moles available after it's emptied we know that there are 500 pearls in the counter [Music] [Applause] [Music] there's something else it's also very specific to the pearl and that is screening the screening consists of calibrating all the pearls we screen with different grids the pearls are passed repeatedly through the sieve with different grids this way we can define the size of the beads whether they're eight millimeters nine millimeters ten millimeters or up to the very very exceptional and rare twenty millimeter pearl that is still very rare some of these stones are intended for resale in wholesale and another portion of these pearls are treated here which is to say that they're prepared and place in clamps and are in fact semi finished product semi finished products are generally necklaces so that they all match we have a few necklaces here they're done either in solid colors or multicolored here we have three necklaces around necklace and a necklace of secular brutal we have multicolored necklaces and single color necklaces once we sorted all our pearls we group all of our lots and when everything is ready we present this to our customers so our customers move in large part and they come from Hong Kong and Japan so they come to Tahiti one week they're presented with the pearls and we negotiate based on the quality and different criteria we bought about two tons of pearls last year I think we purchase about two tons of pearls last year I was probably among the biggest buyers in Tahiti they deal with the production our work is to make necklaces and market them and find as many markets as possible in as many market as possible when the sale is made we still have one last step which is also very important before exporting the pearls have to go through an agency which is the Tahitian service of the cultured pearl this service verifies that all the classifications are in accordance with the laws in force in Polynesia and they also check the layers of the pearl that is to say that a pearl must have a minimum of 1.8 millimeters of Makris layers below this thickness it cannot be exported and is confiscated my name is Nina Topher and I am head of the Pearl Department and we're in the Agriculture Department our function is essentially to ensure strict compliance of Pearl regulations including quality control and regulating the occupation of public maritime domain quality control of cultured pearls from Tahiti is mainly to verify that they meet the criteria for classification enacted by the territory so there are several qualities a B C and D the Pearl farmers wishing to export his pearls has to go through the service of the Pearl industry a Quality Control Department where the beads are first counted then weighed and checked visually you check to see if the surface has no serious flaws such as deep pits or important stains then they're placed in a tray that will allow them to go through an x-ray machine [Music] l so sweet means you have led to at this time we'll check to see if they have macros layers of 0.8 millimeters around the nucleus told you new clues then they are recounted and re weighed and sealed for export we check up to 70,000 to 80,000 pearls per day all cultured pearls from Tahiti are controlled by the pearl service before export you like this [Music] an exceptional pearl is unique above all in its brilliance what's called the Orient this is an exceptional gem it's a shape and also the fact that there's only a single one amongst a considerable amount of the pearl is exceptional and that's it it's the fact that it's rare that it's difficult to find and that there are so few in Polynesia there are a few of us that do this kind of jewelry there are two or three craftsmen who know their profession and who work at a very good level and the market is not so much centered on this type of jewelry but outside of Polynesia yes on the international market there are great jewelers who make outstanding pieces with Tahitian pearls I think there's a real sensuality in Tahitian pearls much more than with other stones I think there's something very feminine there's something very sensual in the pearl in general and particularly in the black pearl and with all the colors that it offers and the shapes that we offer I think it's a very feminine piece of jewelry when one has worked with pearls it's very difficult to go back to something else pearls are almost alive they have a roundness that it's something that I touched that it's like a stone is cold except for the diamond the diamond is perfect anyway I like to combine this sensuality this femininity to the perfection of the diamond it's like when you meet someone with whom it goes extremely well or unable to explain it but it's the same way for me the pearl is female but I could not say how the relationship was created joy is more oddly enough would interest me the most is primarily to make a balanced work to create something of beauty above all from you this is Sophia logic boy the the critical question is this technique I want to propose here the I can't think of personalities when I'm creating a jewel maybe it's pretentious or ambitious but I often think of well-known personalities when I imagine a jewel I think the woman who will wear the jewelry when I create something it's always initially a pearl that I will dress up we will highlight it it's the starting point when I draw the base of the drawing is first and foremost the pearl which is the trigger of what will happen next there's a rule of proportions that I've not overused in fashioning this gems I wanted to do that and then while fashioning it I realized that it would weigh a certain weight particularly on the ear I asked myself whether it was going to be wearable and then we did a photo shoot with a model and I left her there for the pose I left for about 45 minutes to an hour with the earrings and at the end when I come on it to come back to take my jewel she didn't want that give them back so I was really reassured that it was not too heavy [Music] from the ends of the earth these pearls arrived in the workshops of the greatest jewelers around these favorite themes Mademoiselle Chanel jewelry imagines and realizes all of these creations the pearls selected among the finest and rarest are strung one after the other giving rise to this fair necklace [Music] eternally like a subtle perfume the spirit of Mademoiselle Chanel lives on in the place vandal the elders surely had a reason to believe that pearls make one immortal [Music]

Channel: Voillot Patrick

Views: 126,098

Keywords: documentary, gemmologist, gemstone, precious stones, gemmology, patrick voillot, pierre précieuse, pierres précieuses, jewelry, stone, movie, tv, frenchtv, jeweler, prices, million dollars, expedition, mine, mining, Place Vendôme, lagoons, ocean, South Pacific, pearl, perliculturists, animal-mineral, underwater, Chanel

Id: Urko3lx2Jj4

Length: 52min 0sec (3120 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 13 2019