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| Thursday, 12 September 2002 |
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More foreign buyers at Facets 2002 by Karel Roberts Ratnaweera More foreign buyers than on any occasion in the past are in Sri Lanka for Facets 2002-the 12th Sri Lanka Gem and Jewellery Show launched by the Sri Lanka Gem Traders' Association at the Colombo Hilton from September 9 to 11. The on-going peace process and the prospect of a permanent peace has induced the buyers to come to the island for the gem and jewellery show, said Executive Director Firoze Hassan talking to the Daily News at the Facets Secretariat set up at the Hilton adjacent to the exhibition itself. He said that buyers from the United Kingdom, the US, France, Germany, Jaipur (India), which has an ancient history of gems and fine jewellery-Thailand, Switzerland, Hong Kong, China and of course Japan which has always been one of our best customers, arrived to assess the show and make their purchases. The buyers are mainly people in the trade, Hassan said. It was the largest number of foreign buyers ever to come to Sri Lanka for Facets which now has a well established reputation abroad. Local buyers were also among those viewing the exhibition which also attracted non-buyers who enjoy looking at the gems and jewellery on show from an aesthetic viewpoint. 'One of the objectives of holding this show is to tell the world that Sri Lanka is one of the direct sources of the best gemstones to be found,' Firoze Hassan said. Fifty-five of the known 140 varieties of precious gems are found in Sri Lanka. Also on view was high-quality silver jewellery sponsored by the EDB to popularise this type of jewellery both here and abroad. Mrs. Barbara Edrisinghe, qualified gemmologist of several years standing, said that the final touches when setting gemstones into precious metal are best done by hand. This was in answer to this writer's question where did our traditional goldsmiths and jewellers stand in a world where machine-cut jewellery is in great demand in the sophisticated Western and other markets in the world. Sri Lanka's first woman gemmologist who was one-time Commercial Manager, State Gem Corporation, said that we had some of the best gemstones in the world. A star attraction at Facets was the pearl exhibition of Mrs. Elsie Wimalaratna who is the grand-daughter of the world-famous T. B. Ellies who sailed from the then Ceylon in the mid 1890's for Australia and became synonymous with pearls. The Wimalaratna family is the first Sri Lankan family to settle in Australia. 'Pearls were the first ties that Sri Lanka had with Australia Director, Universal Gems (Pty.) Ltd. Shanthi Wimalaratna and son of Mrs. Elsie Wimalaratna, said.' He said, however, that although the seas off Mannar on the island's West coast was at one time famous for its pearls, in today's changing world where tastes have changed, the oysters in these seas were of a small variety yielding small pearls and in any case, pearling has not been practised there for a very long time. He said that it is highly unlikely that the pearl industry would ever gain ground in Sri Lanka. He said that he uses the historical aspects of Mannar having been famous for its pearls for the company's promotions. Representing Australia at Facets, the Wimalaratnas' said that the continent gets its pearls from the seas of the South Pacific around the island of Tahiti where large oysters yielding large and exotic pearls including black and golden pearls were in very high demand. |
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