Jeweller opens shop to promote local talent

THE House of Gemini Jewellers has opened a shop at The Stanley Hotel and Suites in Port Moresby.
Owner Kathy Johnston said the new shop would promote the products of local artisans. It will sell PNG artefacts and jewellery mainly to tourists.
“We are very supportive of our local industry,” she said.
“With the APEC meeting next year, we want to promote PNG arts and crafts so that everybody who comes can take a bit of PNG back home –whether it be jewellery, pottery, billum or painting.”
Johnston said the challenge for local artisans was the lack of market and urged governors to identify central locations in their provinces where tourists could purchase arts and crafts.
“We have to create that for our artists to sell their products. Many places in the world have that,” she said
The shop was officially opened by Johnston and business partner Sue Darby.
Darby, a collector of PNG arts and crafts, said the country had some of the best jewellers in the world.
“Nobody knows how talented Papua New Guineans are,” she said.
“We always discuss about the works of painters and potters but people rarely talk about jewellers.
“If we can bring this to the western world, I think PNG should hold its head up very high because it has something a lot of countries don’t.”