Friday, May 14, 2010

Pearl exhibition

It is on at Islamic Art Museum until the 5th of July . You can see a lots of pearls . Natural ones and cultivated ones .Pink , white , cream , golden ,black .From Qatar ,from Panama , from Australia , from the Philippines ,from Japan .The natural ones come in small cups and dishes -the cultivated ones by buckets . The heydays of pearl fishing around here was from 1850 -1940 . The era when the rich Westerner and Indian maharajas all wanted to decorate themselves and their surroundings by pearls . Then the pearl beds were depleted -then came Mikimoto the Japanese inventor with his cultivated pearls . The natural pearls are never as regular in shape as the cultivated ones . You can see a lots of jewels Indian dresses , Coco Chanel 's dress , Indian carpets all decorated by pearls . You can read a lots of interesting things on the pearls . It is rather dark inside the rooms and there is some mysterious music which made my preschooler feel uncomfortable .My bigger kid enjoyed it and found it relaxing .
It was worth the 20 riyal we payed for the tickets - for kids it was free ..

The Building of the museum itself is worth a visit ..but about that I am planning to write another article .

No photos were allowed inside the pearl rooms :(

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