Why is it difficult to sell handmade jewelry?
Exceptional handcrafted jewelry is designed and handcrafted by talented jewelers and artisan jewelers from all over the world. While many designers create completely unique designs, others are heavily influenced by the historical cultural and traditional styles of their region.
Jewelry expert Merlly Calisto works closely with hundreds of master artisan designers in her home country of Peru. There, she is the regional director of Novica.com, a global arts website that helps thousands of artisans around the world and showcases each artist's biography and craft collection online.
In the following interview, Calisto discusses handmade jewelry as an art form and the traditional styles and materials of handmade jewelry in Peru. Calisto explains what she looks for when looking for new jewelry designers and collections, who she recommends, and how she became a jewelry expert.
CG: Why does Novica specialize in handmade jewelry instead of machine-made jewelry? What advantages do handmade jewelry offer over mass-produced designs?
MC: Handmade jewelry is more challenging. You feel the soul of the artist in it. For artisans, handmade jewelry provides an opportunity to explore their creativity, give more of themselves, and make it happen, without the artist having to invest thousands of dollars developing their idea. With simple tools, basic raw materials and talented hands, artists can express their feelings and beliefs in this art form and showcase their unique designs and heritage culture. Machine-made jewelry, on the other hand, requires a significant investment in machinery, workers, and many other related costs, while taking away the creative essence of this art.
CG: What are the typical styles of artisan jewelry that a collector will find in Peru today?
MC: Typical styles for Peruvian jewelry collectors are pre-Inca, traditional, colonial and even modern. We are known for our gold and silver mines, which our ancestors exploited with great dedication. Its most popular use was for making beautiful and carefully handcrafted jewelry. Our ancestors recorded their beliefs in their jewelry and the symbols associated with those beliefs. Popularly you will find Peruvian jewelry with real birds, felines, the sun god, etc. Peru is the land of the sun Our colonial jewelry, despite being the result of the conquest of the Americas, shows what our ancestors began to create after meeting a whole new culture. Therefore, our colonial jewelry combines the unique talents of our ancestors with new beginnings and typically has a greater emphasis on flora, rather than the emphasis on fauna that its predecessors preserved. Today, the art of jewelry design is opening up more and more in Peru and is becoming a more attractive field for new jewelers who prefer modern jewelry inspired by our roots, but with more abstract shapes and ideas. This means that the Peruvian artist can still express himself in a way inspired by our culture, but fused again with a new beginning.
CG: Can you describe more details that you can expect in Pre-Inca, Inca and other Peruvian handmade jewelry designs?
MC: Pre-Inca and Inca jewelry share similarities, as the Inca Empire was the result of the conquest of several pre-Inca cultures. Inca jewelry expresses the beliefs and cosmology of the Incas. You will find images of cats, people or birds adorned with snakes or sunbeams expressing royalty, power and loyalty. Some of our pre-Inca cultures used a simple and attractive style to express their beliefs, most of which are still commonly depicted in art today, not just jewelry. Colonial style jewelry is considered an elegant style. A colonial jewelry design, or a modern jewelry design inspired by the colonial era, makes you feel like you are seeing something designed for the Queen. For example, although we don't use diamonds, don't confuse this style with costume jewelry, it will feel like a jewel. Colonial and Inca-style jewelry are often beautiful handcrafted pieces of art, perfect for collectors.
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