LaPearlite is derived from the organic shell of the Crassostrea virginica (American Oyster) becoming the Official Louisiana State Gemstone signed into law by Governor Bobby Jindal on August 15, 2011.

From the purist of whites to a gentle flow of golden veils in its final splendor LaPearlite captures the passion of America’s Gulf Coast. A prized new gem, LaPearlite is a symbol of inner beauty, promotes healing, and is believed to arouse passion.

Like many other gemstones LaPearlite is often enhanced to improve durability and appearance. To care for your LaPearlite simply wipe with a soft olive oil dampened cloth. Do not soak, place in mechanical cleaners or allow to come in contact with harsh chemicals. Avoid impacts.

The gemstone LaPearlite is eco-friendly replenishing derivative of an established valuable seafood industry, enhancing the brand and natural beauty of coastal Louisiana.

Learn more at annedale.com

By Times-Picayune Staff
The Times-Picayune

Gov. Bobby Jindal has blessed a plan to create a new state gemstone, the cabochon cut gemstone derived from a special Louisiana-grown oyster — the Crassostrea virginica mollusk.

LaPearlite by Anne Dale

Jindal recently signed into law House Bill 246 by Rep. Scott Simon, R-Abita Springs, dislodging the agate, “as found in Louisiana gravel,” as the official state gemstone and renaming it as the state’s first-ever official mineral.

The new oyster-shell gemstone can be fashioned from a species of mollusk that is bountiful off the Louisiana coast, Simon said. He said the sale of the new gemstone could also be a boost to tourism and the state’s struggling seafood industry. The cut and fashioned shells are considered by gemologists, including those at the Smithsonian Institution, to be gems, not shells, he said.

Jindal’s approval allows the now-official state mineral and gemstone to be displayed on official state documents alongside the insignia of the state. The official status of the two items will not be effective until Aug. 15, when Simon’s law goes on the books.

Senator Jack Donahue with new gemstone

Republican state Sen. Jack Donahue, of Mandeville, holds Monday a box of specialty-cut oyster shells. The Louisiana Senate gave final approval, on a 29-7 vote, to a bill that would make the “cabochon-cut” of the eastern oyster, the variety found off Louisiana’s shore, as the state’s new official gemstone. Agate, the state’s existing gemstone, would become Louisiana’s official mineral should Gov. Bobby Jindal sign House Bill 246 into law. Donahue said the shell can be polished and shaped to use as jewelry.

Source: 2theadvocate > Blogs > Louisiana Politics

Rep. Scott Simon

BATON ROUGE — The Senate on Monday sent Gov. Bobby Jindal legislation to designate a specially cut oyster shell found in Louisiana waters as the state’s official gemstone.

On a 29-7 vote, senators approved House Bill 246 by Rep. Scott Simon, R-Abita Springs, dislodging the agate as the state’s  gemstone.  Simon’s bill names the agate as the state’s official mineral.

Simon’s bill names the ”cabochon-cut gemstone derived from the Crassostrea virginica mollusk” as the state gemstone.

The oyster has a shell that can be polished and shaped make it shine for jewelry, said Sen. Jack Donahue, R-Covington, whio handled Simon’s bill on the Senate floor.

“It is great they are produced right here,” he said.

However, Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton, questioned the legitimacy of the designation.

“When did an oyster shell become a gemstone?” he asked Donahue. “It is an oyster shell.”

Donahue said it is an oyster shell but one that can be shaped, rounded and smoothed to become a gemstone.

He told Adley that the shell has been accepted as a gemstone by gemologists and the Smithsonian Institute.

When Jindal gets the bill, he can sign it into law, veto it or let it become law without taking action on it.

Source:
Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson@timespicayune.com, or 225.342.5810.

The Committee on Senate and Governmental Affairs unanimously approved and sent to the Senate floor House Bill 246 by Rep. Scott Simon, R-Abita Springs.

The bill would designate the cabochon-cut gemstone, made from a species of oysters known as the Crassostrea virginica, as the state’s gemstone, dislodging the agate from that honor.

The bill would re-designate the agate, “as found in Louisiana gravel,” as the state’s mineral. Louisiana now has no official mineral, Simon said.

Simon and professional gemologist Anne Dale of Mandeville passed out samples of rings, necklaces and earrings made from the shell to committee members.

Simon said that more than 50 percent of the oysters that have the shell used in the jewelry are found off the coast of Louisiana.

“It is indigenous to the state … and will lend a lot of support to our seafood industry,” Simon said.

He said that the way the specific shell is cut makes it a gemstone. Dale said the cut is recognized by gemologists around the world as a legitimate gemstone and offered a letter attesting to its legitimacy from the Smithsonian.

“I don’t have a lot of familiarity with gemstones,” joked Sen. Lydia Jackson, D-Shreveport. “I guess that’s a disadvantage of being single.”

The designation of an official gemstone and mineral places the items among the pantheon of state-designated official items, such as the official dog, wildflower, tree, fruit and drink.

It also allows the use of those items “on official documents of the state and with the insignia of the state.”

Ed Anderson can be reached at eanderson@timespicayune.com or 225.342.5810.

Louisiana oyster (Crassostrea virginica) shells may be bumping the agate as the state’s official gemstone.

But all would not be lost for agate found in Louisiana gravel, a legislative committee decided Wednesday. It would be the state’s newly designated official mineral.

The House Judiciary Committee approved House Bill 246 by Rep. Scott Simon, R-Abita Springs, sending it forward for more debate.

State Representative Scott Simon, Anne Dale with Louisiana Seafood and Marketing Board Director Ewell Smith

The agate would be replaced as the official gemstone by the cabochon-cut gemstone, which Simon said is derived from the shell of a species of oyster found off the Louisiana coast.

Simon’s bill originally sought to designate LaPearlite as the state gemstone, but he said that is a trademarked name and cannot be used. He amended the bill to designate the specific mollusk shell — from the species of Crassostrea virginica — for the honor.

Anne Dale, a gemologist who lives in the Mandeville portion of Simon’s district, said that she was impressed by the beauty of the oyster shell as a material to make jewelry.

“This could be a big positive for our seafood industry” at a time when the industry is still hurting nationally, Simon said. He pointed out that during the past decade, “the seafood industry has suffered from the perfect storm,” including several hurricanes, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and river water being diverted from the Bonnet Carre and Morganza spillways to relieve Mississippi River flooding.

Designation of an official gemstone and mineral allows state officials to use them on official state documents.

The panel also approved House Bill 139 by Rep. Karen Gaudet St. Germain, D-Pierre Part, to designate the “Honor and Remember Flag” as an official emblem of military service.

St. Germain said the multicolored flag honors the families of those who have lost loved ones in military combat. The measure authorizes the flag to be displayed at the State Capitol on Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

A bill is working its way through the Louisiana legislature to change the state’s official gemstone from agate to a newly discovered gem material derived from Louisiana oyster shells, called LaPearlite.

State representative Scott Simon of Abita Springs, La., says the new gemstone would bring favorable attention to Louisiana’s oyster industry that is struggling to rebound after the April 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

LaPearlite was discovered by Louisiana jeweler and gemologist Anne Dale who saw how the unique facets and beauty of the inside of oyster shells glistened in sunlight.

Working with her husband, Michael, a skilled jewelry craftsman, they cut and polished and discovered a new technique for making cabochon-cut stones from oyster shells. In other words, they discovered a new gemstone material derived from the organic shell of the Crassostrea virginica (American Oyster), the most important consumer mollusk in the United States. The species is predominantly found in the waters of coastal Louisiana.

While a few skeptics have criticized LaPearlite as being too commercial, Anne Dale points out that she is sharing the expertise they have learned with leading gemology associations, and the raw materials are abundant along coastal Louisiana.

At her jewelry design shop in Mandeville, La. — near New Orleans — Dale says LaPearlite is “the most beautiful pearlescent gemstone I’ve ever seen,” and its textured quality reflects the uniqueness and diversity of the Gulf coast.

A vote in the Louisiana House on the new gemstone is expected in June.

On Saturday, April 16th, in Mandeville was the official launch party for a new gemstone LaPearlite.

On hand at Anne Dale Jeweller to celebrate LaPearlite’s debut were friends, family, clients, public figures as well as Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Broad director’s Ewell Smith, Louisiana Secretary of State Tom Schedler, Louisiana Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain, and Louisiana State Representative Scott Simon.

Anne Dale has a reputation for being a social minded and cause related jewelry designer, but it was obvious she also has a strong gemological background and real passion for gemstones.

Dale has developed a method to cut and polish a unique cabochon gemstone from the shell and plans to make it available to jewelry designers and retailers across the country.

“When I first thought about cutting the stone it was more of a curiosity but after seeing the beauty and luster of LaPearlite… I realized that I had discovered something that was much bigger than my Mandeville store, a gift to be shared.” said Dale.

Already one national jewelry manufacture is on board and Dale is talking with others while preparing to keep up with the demand for the new find.

An organic, eco-friendly gemstone, LaPearlite has a bright sparkling future as it join a list gems that have strong geographical associations (like Tanzanite, Black Tahitian Pearls, Colombian Emeralds and others) with a message about the beauty, romance, and spender of Louisiana.

The cabochon cut stone will be marketed under the trademark LaPearlite™ and will be available to manufactures, jewelers, and designers.  Dale will unveil LaPearlite™ to the public at an event in New Orleans on April 16, 2011, along with a new collection of jewelry designs featuring the gemstone.

Dale was inspired by the scenic beauty of the Gulf Coast, people’s love of the seafood, and the unique way-of-life in the communities throughout the coast.

Ken Scarratt, GIA Thailand, Bangkok

Confirming her discovery at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, LaPearlite underwent the scrutiny of some of the world’s foremost gem experts. Dale approached  Ken Scarratt (Director of South East Asia GIA Laboratory Bangkok) and Alan Hodgkinson (Scottish Gemmological Association). Scarratt was very familiar with the Crassostrea virginica species, having written extensively about it in a 2006 Gem and Gemology Journal, “This is exciting… it never occurred to me to cut it in this way…”

Alan Hodgkinson – President of the Scottish Gemmological Association

Hodgkinson was so intrigued with LaPearlite, that he asked Dale if he could use it for a recent gem conference in Scotland. Hodgkinson is doing an analytical study of the gemstone and has recorded some of the basic physical and optical properties of the shell gemstone.