River Bloom

This is an Akoya pearl bracelet.
The design is one of my personal favorites, and it is also a popular item at Flower Jem.

For a while, I could not create this bracelet because I was unable to source 3.5–4.0 mm natural blue pearls. Recently, I finally managed to obtain a small lot of blue baroque pearls, so I immediately made this bracelet again.

There is a small story behind this design.

I previously worked for about ten years at a pearl company.
One of the first tasks I was assigned after joining the company was to rebuild the corporate website. I began researching several web design firms and narrowed it down to five companies. I met each of them in person and discussed my impressions with the company president who interviewed them with me.

Both the president and I agreed that the presentation from the largest and most established firm was the most trustworthy. His presentation was almost perfect.

We agreed to choose that firm.

The following day, I brought up a concern to the president.

“Yesterday we agreed on that large web company, but there’s one more firm I can’t stop thinking about. It’s ●● Company.”

He replied, “Actually, I feel the same way.”

The representative from ●● Company was a young woman named A. Her presentation wasn’t the smoothest, but her passion was the strongest. All the other companies were represented by men.

Pearl jewelry is mostly used by women rather than men.
The executive from the large company gave us a flawless presentation, but neither the president nor I felt any true passion behind it.

After one night passed, the perfect presentation from the large firm faded slightly in our minds, and A’s passionate presentation became the one we remembered most vividly.

For that reason, we decided to work with A’s company to build the new website.

Together, we uncovered the more-than-100-year history of the pearl company and wrote all of it for the website. We also prepared pages about the brand story and how to care for pearls.

For product photography, we invited a team of professional photographers.
They confidently said, “We’ve never shot pearls before, but it will be fine. We’ll finish by noon.”

The shoot ended at 10 p.m.
Photographing pearls turned out to be extremely challenging even for professionals.
They left saying, “We had no idea pearl photography was this difficult. We need to study from scratch.”

During that long, exhausting shoot, A and I worked together the entire time.

For nearly five years after that, A and I stayed closely connected as web partners, constantly improving and updating the site together. I also managed the company’s Twitter account, and she checked every post. She always told me, “Your tweets are so funny and really educational about pearls.”
That Twitter account featured a slightly cynical, detached mascot who handled pearl PR.

One day, she contacted me and said, “I’m getting married and will be leaving the company.”

I was deeply shocked.
The clean, elegant website she created brought many new customers.
In Kobe, many pearl companies still had outdated websites, so the modern, refined site she built was highly praised.

To express my gratitude and celebrate her marriage, I gave her a bracelet of this design as a gift.

Every time I see this bracelet, I remember her.
And I remember the days when I had just joined the pearl company.

As Flower Jem, I hope to always keep this bracelet design available.

Here is the making process.
Both a short version and a full version are available.

A short version

A full version

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