About Mignot
ABOUT OUR TAHITIAN PEARLS
TAHITIAN Pearls, Black Pearls, Grey Pearls: magical names that evoke the singularity and the origin of this bijoux des mers . A gift from the god ORO, King of the Firmament, the Tahitian pearl develops its perfect shape and colors in the deep turquoise, waters of French Polynesian lagoons. The secret treasures of coral islands, it was long considered a royal symbol.
A natural substance, it is the fruit of the combination of animal and mineral. Cultivated by man, it is the arbitrator of a constant dialogue between man and nature. Pampered from its earliest age in the womb of the black-lipped oyster, it perfects its beauty and luster over long years. The pearl farmer constantly watches over it, much like a father over his children. Should the weather look stormy, he immerses the mother of pearl, deeper in the lagoon. Should the weather turn too warm, he will move it to a cooler place.
Perfect at birth, it needs no molding or shaping, just the enhancement of its natural beauty with other jewels worthy of it. And so, the Polynesians pearl farmer, could do no less than entrust such a divine object into the hands of Yvan Mignot, who knows how to pay homage to its imperial beauty.
ABOUT YVAN MIGNOT
This December, while I was on holiday with my family in St. Barth, a friend showed up at the house with an elegant Bohemian handsome man carrying a well worn leather bag filled with extraordinary Tahitian pearls! Yvan Mignot.
When Yvan discovered I was a photographer, he asked if I would take some shots of his new collection of pearls . So we gathered up his beautiful children with mine, mixed in a few of our friends and turned it in to one big family art project. In the process of creating these beautiful images for Mignot St. Barth, we discovered that we both come from eccentric, out of the box families and spent the rest of our holiday sharing new adventures as well as our fascinating life stories.
Yvan Mignot is the second of a nomadic tribe of nine siblings who grew up traveling and living in some of the most interesting and exotic places in the world. His unconventional parents were both born in France, but he and his first two siblings were born in North Africa were he spent the first few years of his life before the family went on to live in a variety of different places , and to travel and see the world , Some of it by sailboat.
As a small boy he and his siblings would discover remote beaches with their Mother collecting shells, sea glass and stones. This planted the seed for the eventual passion most of her children shared for the art of jewelry making.
About 10 yrs ago Yvan set sail from Portugal with his beautiful artist wife and four children on an adventure that ultimately ended up in St Barth. He fell in love with the Island and convinced his parents to create a Tahitian pearl shop in Gustavia. Recently he ventured off on his own, creating his personal jewelry line MIGNOT ST BARTH.
Every year Yvan travels to Tahiti with one or more of his children to the remote Tuamotu islands of the French Polynesia where he will carefully hand pick the black pearls. This in itself is an amazing adventure and we were fascinated by Yvan’s stories, which included encounters with sharks, helicopter surfing and much more.
Remaining as close to nature as possible, never creating something that flashes, his collection is organic and luxurious. He uses Tahitian pearls, pebbles from the beach, sea glass, hammered 22 k gold, uncut precious stones and clay beads all strung on amazing hand worked leather to create an individually crafted, elegantly sophisticated ‘bohemian look’. Each subtly dramatic piece seems to uniquely incorporate the marriage of the earth with the sea. Each symbolic of it’s utopian origins, appears even more lovely as it’s worn in and out of the salt water.