Ella Gafter's Tahitian Pearl Trophy special prize-winning Tahiti cultured pearl necklace.		Tahitian Pearl News Ella Gafter, "Queen of Pearls" New York-based, Polish-born, Italian-trained jewelry designer Ella Gafter has earned herself a reputation as the "Queen of Pearls". She "creates elegant, outrageously decadent jewels... for the likes of Manhattan socialites and European nobility...as if recognjtion, glamour and sophistication are her birthright", National Jeweler wrote in 2001, an historic year for Ms. Gafter. That was the year she won a special award from Arte y Joya, a jewelry magazine in Spain, in the first edition of the Tahitian Pearl Trophy, an international jewelry design competition organized by Perles de Tahiti. She won the award for her Tahiti Cultured Pearl necklace set in white gold. It was also the year that one of her creations was chosen for the "Pearls" exhibition, which opened in New York's American Museum of Natural History in October 2001 and moved to Chicago's Field Museum from June 2002 through January 2003. That creation is a floral brooch of 10 South Sea pearls and 8.38 carats of diamonds that is so large that if it were actually worn by a woman, "it would stretch from her collarbone to below her breast "resembling a delicate floral branch" National Jewelry wrote. Operating from the 31st floor of a Fifth Avenue building, Ms. Gafter's salon "looks more like an art studio in Florence or Paris", a recent edition of the European edition of Millionaire Magazine reported. "Her clientele include European aristocracy, Hollywood superstars, top pop singers such as Michael Jackson, American high society, sports stars and super rich celebrities from all walks of life." An article by Barbara Rodriguez for the Internet website Hispanic Online describes Ms. Gafter as "a creative artist with a passion for beauty of intrinsic value"... She "designs jewelry that highlights the natural beauty of the pearl in a way that evokes the work of renaissance artists who served royal courts and merchant princes with exquisitely wrought objects of priceless worth". Ms. Gafter works with her daughter, Talila, who obtained a business Ph.D. from Harvard University and "speaks six different languages without an accent", according to Millionaire Magazine. They are business partners in the New York-based Ellagem Inc. which designs jewelry for wholesale and private clients. "Known for her large, voluptuous South Sea pearl designs and elaborate one-of-a-kind brooches, Ella prefers to work with 18mmm pearls and uses them in a series of rings, brooches and strands of pearls," Ms. Rodrigues wrote.