Cheryl King Couture in Destination Weddings and Honeymoons

Our beautiful hand carved mother of pearl hairpin has been selected by the fashion editors of Destination Weddings and Honeymoons Worldwide Guide for 2011! 

Here is a closeup photo of this beauty, accented with a gorgeous Grade AAA freshwater pearl.

If you love this style, here are some other mother of pearl flower selections that you will adore!

Addison

Heidi

Selena

Shelly

We've also designed some fabulous jewelry to perfectly complement these styles:

BA30B hand knotted Grade AA large pearls

KV26E

KV26N

KV28N

Asian Adventures: Dinner Meeting

So sorry for the delay-luckily we've been swamped and I haven't had time to blog. 

Back on track with the Asian Adventures:  J and I had a meeting with some possible vendors, and we were excited to meet them.  We were picked up in a taxi and whooshed (is that a word?) away!  I was crammed in the back of our tiny cab with 2 others, and our driver thought he was in a Nascar race.  Amid many horrified moments I endured was when the girl next to me decided that she was car sick and needed to vomit.  Those of you who know me understand that I am totally, emphatically and undeniably freaked out by this natural occurrence.  My immediate response was to insist that I be let out of the car immediately.  Well, the driver laughed, while everyone searched for plastic bags, as we were going about Mach 2 in heavy traffic.  I did not care that I had no idea where I was, that I was in the middle of the road with cars hurtling by us on both sides; I only knew that our bodies were practically enmeshed together and I would end up wearing it.  I freaked her out so badly that she managed to contain it!  I think I really impressed them...

Hours later, we wrapped up sketches for casting settings and cubic zirconia cuttings, and they were going to treat us to dinner.  Oh boy!  I was starving.

We walked to the restaurant, a mere few blocks away.  Imagine my surprise to find our dinner options outside the door!  Yummy frogs, snakes, etc. happily wiggling away.

I decided that maybe I wasn't very hungry, after all.  Plain white rice, please!  Our gracious hosts were determined to order a feast, and I had my very own "A Christmas Story" experience.  They brought out a rooster, cooked, head and all-including that little wiggly red part!  I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing.  (Now, I don't mean any disrespect at all-just coming from America these things were outside of my normal existence.)  Everyone looked at me, and I explained to J why I was laughing.  She told them, and again, just like the movie, someone came over and whacked off the head, right there at the table. "Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra, ra, ra..."  kept circling in my warped head!

Then I really, really expressed my professionalism.  I broke down in tears at the table.  Yes, I did.  I was just so outside of my element, and felt so undeniably weak.  I missed my husband and sons terribly, was in a land on the other side of the world where I couldn't speak the language and stomach the food.  I had an all out "Pity Party," right there at the table.  (At least it wasn't wailing, just a stream of tears that I couldn't shut off.)  I just told J to explain to them that I was homesick and excused myself.  

After a few minutes, I pulled myself together and came back to the table.  I guess I just needed a meltdown, because after that, and a few Pearl River Beers, things began looking up!  All in all, I think I did America proud!  (NOT)

Asian Trip, Day 1

Well, after our adventures at the massage parlor and eating in the alley, the first day arrived with a bang.  Or more realistically, a wheeze.  J came to my door that morning with her face gray and wheezing away. She could barely speak, and ran to my bathroom sink to run hot water and try to breathe the steam to help.  Now I find out that she had asthma, but hadn't had an attach in over 10 years.  So....she didn't bring any meds for it.  I was terrified, and explained to her that I didn't know if there was the equivalent of "911" there, and if there was I wouldn't know how to ask for help, as I didn't speak Chinese.  I had visions of her collapsing right there...then what?

So her brilliant conclusion was that we MUST search for snake venom.  Yes, snake venom.  When she lived there she said it cured every ailment that she ever had.  Ok then.  Snake venom.

We pounded the streets looking for a pharmacy.  Well, actually she just about slithered, but we finally found one.  Snake venom in hand, back to the hotel!  Interestingly, we noticed no improvement at all as we sat around all morning.  I finally insisted that she find medical help.  We went to the hotel desk and she inquired, yet she kept being asked to wait while others checked in and out.

With visions of a dead J dancing in my head, she was able to get an address for a hospital.  I was to wait in my room until she called me.  Thank God she advised me to pack granola bars, Rice Krispy Treats, etc!  Hours later she phoned me, and eventually came back to the hotel looking much better.  Asthma, plus a lung infection.  The really interesting part was the treatment:  she came back with about 10 I.V. bags and a bagful of various medicines.  Western medicine, at that!  Apparently it is common there for them to send you home with the I.V. bags, and you take them with you daily for treatments in a huge room full of others also being treated.  And she brought back some treats!

So we did the next logical thing:  went in search of goodies!  Yes, meetings with cubic zirconia cutters and places that make the metal castings that get set with the cz's and Swarovski crystals.  I'm sure that being locked in very small rooms hours on end with everyone smoking did wonders for her illnesses...

Asian Trip, Part 1

 The view from my hotel room in China.



Well, I am asked to tell stories from my Asian trip constantly, so I thought I'd blog some of them.  Now, I travel a lot, but this is a very long trip!  And we were heading out into rural areas, so I was a little nervous.  I went and got all of my shots (feeling rather sympathetic towards my dogs, er, fuzzy babies, at the vets.)  My fantastic doctor asked if I was OK flying, and I admitted that although I was married to a pilot it wasn't my favorite thing.  He prescribed Ambien, stating it worked wonders for his wife.

Well, I left early one day and flew to Minneapolis to meet my guide (we'll call her "J".)  Of course, after getting to the local airport a couple of hours early, then flying a few more, I had several hours to *enjoy* the Minneapolis airport.  I was already exhausted by the time we boarded our flight to Narita International Airport in Japan.

We didn't get to sit together, but were a few rows apart.  Of course, we were in the cattle section, gazing longingly at the upstairs first class area.  J suggested cocktails, but I was afraid that I'd wake up dead after taking the Ambien and passed.  Oh, how I regret that...as I never slept for one minute the entire 12-13 (or 98 bazillion it felt like) hour flight!  I believe that the airline was attempting to freeze dry us as we passed over the North Pole, as I've never been so cold in my entire life.  Meanwhile, J began coughing up a lung, or so it seemed.

By the time we landed in Tokyo, J was grey and could hardly breathe.  Lovely.  Please keep in mind that I do not speak a work of Japanese or Chinese at this point, but she was fluent in several dialects so I felt safe.  Huh.  She decided that we should spend our time in the crowded smoking room, while she did her best to inhale between coughs and gags.  After a lovely layover we boarded again for another 5 hour flight to China.

And did I mention that J developed a fear of flying during this trip????

After landing and getting our luggage, I noticed a strong smell.  Hmmm...smells like Bourbon.  Maker's Mark, perhaps?  Luckily my suitcase was dry, so my emergency stash was just fine.  As we walked among the stares and wrinkled noses to customs, J then had to argue with them, stating that she just had allergies.  They finally let us in the country.

Well, it was the middle of the night (imagine that.)  There were not very many cabs, and J insisted on arguing with all of them about the rate to get us to our hotel.  We finally got to the hotel, and as the cabbie opened the trunk for our luggage, he started screaming in Chinese.  Somehow his trunk was full of a 5th of bourbon!  We had to pay him about $50 USD value to get him to stop screaming at us.  Now, where to find a cleaners in the middle of the night, as all my clothes were soaked and glass shard coated????

For the next blog I'll address the run in with the Chinese Mafia at the massage parlor later that night...

Couture Bridal Market April 2010

Here are some photos of our showroom last April in NY at the Essex House for the Couture Bridal Market.  It was so wonderful to see all of our friends!

June 2010 Destination Weddings and Honeymoons features Cheryl King Couture designs

Here are a few of the editorials featuring Cheryl King Couture for this month.  We hope that you enjoy them!

From the fabulous Destination Weddings and Honeymoons May/June, 2010 issue:

Pearl Luster, Overtone and Matching

LUSTER

Luster is the brightness and clarity of the reflection of the light through the many layers of the nacre of the pearl.  If layers are applied uniformly by the mollusk, with few impurities or disruptions to the layering pattern, light can reach more deeply into the pearl and reflect back outwards in a brighter, more coherent (clear) reflection.  The more impurities or broken  layers, the fuzzier the reflection will be.  This is, by most gemologists' standards, the most critical point in judging the beauty, rarity and value of a pearl.

OVERTONE

Overtone is the secondary color of a pearl.  A pearl may have a neutral or silver overtone, as seen in the pearl in the middle in the photo, but oftentimes pearls will have hints of either pink or green, as shown to either side of the neutral pearl.

MATCHING

Matching is a direct indicator of how much time, care and effort was invested in creating a fine piece of jewelry.  Even for simple stud earrings, "true twins" are very rare, simply because between two pearls even slight differences are more visible!

COLOR

SIZE

SHAPE

LUSTER

OVERTONE

SURFACE QUALITY

ORIENT

MATCH FACTORS

Pearl Sizes and Colors

SIZES

Pearls are measured in diameter in units of millimeters.  Freshwater pearls usually measure between 4.0 mm - 10.0 mm, as seen on the left.  All else equal (luster, surface quality, shape, etc.), large pearls do command a much higher value than small pearls.  The large pearl as seen on the bottom took 6 years to create.  Good roundness is contingent on the mollusk itself repeatedly making consistent and uniform coatings over the same pearl for however long the farmer nucleates.  It's a great risk to let the nucleation continue for so many years, as one bad storm could destroy an entire crop in a matter of hours.  For the pearl farmer, there is also considerable financial investment involved in waiting longer to harvest the pearls and take them to market. COLORS Surprisingly, pearls naturally occur in a grand variety of bright and beautiful colors. The majority of any given harvest is either white or cream, however, often found are peach, lavender, purple, and, to a lesser degree, pink. The rarer colors include blue, green, and gold. The rarest "color" we have ever found we have named "true mirror", as the body color is overtaken by the highest degree of luster we have ever seen in the world, to the extent that we honestly cannot tell what color it would have been had it been an average pearl. Out of the millions of pearls which have passed before our eyes, we have found only two "true mirror" pearls.  courtesy Kiyojo

Freshwater Pearl Creation

CREATION

In tissue-nucleated freshwater pearl culturing, the creation of a pearl requires two mollusks, a donor and a host. A small piece of mantle tissue, taken from the donor mollusk, is inserted into the host mollusk. As well known in urban legend, the introduction of a foreign object stimulates the production of nacre, or pearl essence, from the host mollusk. The nacre is emited in platelets which bond over the surface of the object, forming a series of crystalline layers, as can be seen in the photo to the right.

Discovery of Pearl Culturing

The art of "culturing" a pearl was discovered in 1893 by a Japanese named Kokichi Mikimoto. He began selling his cultured pearls in 1899 in the world-famous shopping district of Ginza, Edo(modern-day Tokyo). Cultured pearls were an innovation which took many long years full of scientific challenges and cultural barriers to their acceptance as authentic. By the early 1900's, Mikimoto's long labor was eventually recognized for it's genius and his pearl cultuing techniques are now utilized all over the world(but mainly within Asia) to generate over 98% of the world's pearl supply.

courtesy Kiyojo

We've arrived!

Finally, we've entered the world of blogging! Although a bit intimidating, we hope to be able to provide more detailed information than we do on our Facebook and Twitter accounts. We'll delve into choosing the best headpiece and veil for different body types and formalities, as well as some interesting details on freshwater pearls, etc. Enjoy!