Company in Peru - SMP Silver Salon Forums

SM Publications

Silver Salon Forums - The premier site for discussing Silver.

SMP | Silver Salon Forums | SSF - Guidelines | SSF - FAQ | Silver Sales

The Silver Salon Forums
Since 1993
Over 11,793 threads & 64,769 posts !!
Continental / International Silver Forum

Silver Salon internal search
or

How to Post Photos

REGISTER (click here)

SMP Silver Salon Forums
tline

Continental / International Silver
tline3

Company in Peru

profile | register | preferences | faq | search

SSFFriend: Email This Page to Someone!

next newest topic | next oldest topic

Author	Topic: Company in Peru
Dale Posts: 2132 Registered: Nov 2002	posted 05-15-2006 01:40 PM [26-1053] The Contemporary Liturgical Silver thread generated an email from the company that makes the Spanish Colonial pieces. I have asked for permission to share it all with you, and will do so if granted. One piece I feel I should put out now: quote: The items are indeed from Peru, South-America and marked with origin "Peru", company label and "925". The addresses listed are our distribution offices. As our clients are from outside of Peru we thought it is not important to list the Peruvian address in the "Contact" section. I understand now, how it can be wrongly interpreted (masked company) and we will add the Peruvian address in the next days. This is a very interesting letter. And I have urged them to post here directly. As they only have access to the New Members Forum, I have begun the thread here. It appears we don't have any South American silversmiths posting, so this should be a welcome addition to our silver world here at SMP. IP: Logged
Dale Posts: 2132 Registered: Nov 2002	posted 05-15-2006 02:57 PM With permission from the sender, the email: quote: by accident I came across your thread on the Silver Forum regarding "Contemporary Liturgical Silver". I am from Suardo and noticed that you were talking about our items. As I am not allowed to post a reply in this forum (I registered with the name "suardo"), I thought I send you an email directly. Can you give me rights to reply or please forward the answer? Please allow me to clarify some points. Suardo is a relatively young company. It was founded late 2005. The items are indeed from Peru, South-America and marked with origin "Peru", company label and "925". The addresses listed are our distribution offices. As our clients are from outside of Peru we thought it is not important to list the Peruvian address in the "Contact" section. I understand now, how it can be wrongly interpreted (masked company) and we will add the Peruvian address in the next days. The limited edition chalice with the angel is actually not a replica. The item uses styles and themes of the Spanish Colonial time, but to our knowledge never existed. Regarding the INC: Our aim is not to fool experts. Peru has very tight laws regarding exportation of antique items. Every antique item or any item that looks antique needs to get a permission for exportation. Unfortunately it happened now various times that they denied the authorization as they believe the items are original. The case listed on our website is about a silver plaque of Virgin Mary. This silver plaque was a copy of a plaque in copper. We presented them the original copper plaque which is of course more detailed together with the silver copy. In there analysis they came to the opposite conclusion. That the copper plaque is a copy of the silver plaque. Sorry to go into great detail here. To the INCs defense the situation got better now... but it is still very absurd for us. In our experience the Spanish Colonial chalices are more bought by collectors. Polished/ modern designs seem to be more desired for liturgical use. Further feedback/ questions from you or your forum is more than welcome. As we are a new company any help or advice is appreciated. We are also looking for dealers or wholesalers that are interested in our products. If you can recommend some, please let me know. We can also send items for exhibitions/ shows. Is there actually a place on the Internet where silver manufactures can advertise their products? Sorry for the many questions. Maybe you have some time to answer a few of them. Regards, Kai IP: Logged
suardo Posts: 10 Registered: May 2006	posted 05-15-2006 03:06 PM Dear Dale, I was just about to post the email when I saw you already did. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to reply to the thread in the other forum. It is very nice to see that our items receive good feedback from the qualified users of this forum. If you have more questions about our items, how they are made, etc. please feel free to ask either here or email me directly. IP: Logged
Dale Posts: 2132 Registered: Nov 2002	posted 05-15-2006 03:29 PM Suardo, why don't you tell us about yourself, your work and your background? People here are very interested in living silver smiths. Many would really welcome learning about you. A public post would introduce you to silver fanciers on all inhabited continents. This would be so much more effective than emails. Please take the time to do this. And pictures are always welcome. Perhaps photos of your smiths at work, of you and your facility, of your tools and finished products. All of this would open you up to a world wide audience of silver fanciers. IP: Logged
FWG Posts: 845 Registered: Aug 2005	posted 05-15-2006 03:48 PM Estimado suardo, I join Dale in welcoming you to these forums. I have longstanding interests in Latin American silver, and was very pleased to see when Dale found and began posting your company's work. I also second his suggestion that people here would love to see photos of your facilities and work, and to learn more about you, your workers, and the methods you use. -- Fred IP: Logged
suardo Posts: 10 Registered: May 2006	posted 05-16-2006 08:50 PM Dear members, As suggested by some users I will introduce ourselves. Two years ago I came to Peru and was impressed with the variety and quality of the work of local silversmiths. Silver always fascinated me; the way it can be bent and formed to almost any shape. Suardo was founded recently in 2005 by local silversmiths and myself. Our aim is to produce unique silver objects of high quality. Currently we have three different focuses: Spanish Colonial Replicas, Ecclesiastical Silverware and "Silver Labs" Peru has a longstanding tradition in silversmithing. The techniques and styles where brought over by the Spanish during the Colonization of South-America which began in the 16th century. Locals were taught by Spanish silversmiths. Missionaries let them mix native influences with religious art to allow a smooth adaption of the Catholic religion. This and the incredible resources of silver (Silvermines of Potosi) lead to outstanding objects of silver art. We try to manufacture the replicas the same way the silversmiths did in the Colonial time. (One exception in the replica series is a chalice where spinning was applied) Most of the silversmiths (at least in Peru) are not very eager to work the "old way". Additionally hand-hammered silver requires a lot more skills than other techniques. We are privileged to have such a qualified team. The ecclesiastical silverware consists of items for liturgy usage. The design is modern/ timeless. Focus is on the functionality of the items. More modern techniques such as spinning are applied; but still all steps require manual intervention of the silversmith. In our experience clients of these products often request custom modifications. That was the initial idea for offering "Custom Orders". And finally our "Silver Labs" where we experiment with different ideas. As a result the "Silver Colonial" mouse can be seen at the upcoming exhibition "Noche de Arte" of the American embassy in Lima Peru. Currently we are working on a big Lion Incense Burner. If there is interest I will post some images of the original molds together with the final result in the next days. I will also try to post some images of our tools. Further questions or feedback is always welcome. IP: Logged
Dale Posts: 2132 Registered: Nov 2002	posted 05-16-2006 11:39 PM Thank you Kai, I for one would be most interested to see your tools and the smiths using them. Are you also a silversmith? IP: Logged
venus Posts: 282 Registered: Jul 2005	posted 05-17-2006 08:36 AM Kai you are creating objects that will one day reside in some of the great museums of this world while others pass down for years, as cherished objects in families. Yes, please continue to post here. Welcome to the forum. IP: Logged
suardo Posts: 10 Registered: May 2006	posted 05-20-2006 08:06 PM Here you see the Silver Angel Plaque which is listed on our website under "Angels" (see my profile for the URL). The plaque was previously handwrought. Now, it lies on a bed of tar for chasing. On the both sides pf the photo you see the various chasing tools. IP: Logged
suardo Posts: 10 Registered: May 2006	posted 05-20-2006 08:08 PM {img]http://www.suardo.com/chalice_small.jpg[/img] One of our silversmiths chasing the base of a chalice. IP: Logged
suardo Posts: 10 Registered: May 2006	posted 05-20-2006 08:09 PM My mistake. Here is the image. IP: Logged
suardo Posts: 10 Registered: May 2006	posted 05-20-2006 08:26 PM Thank you venus for your nice response. All this work would not be possible without our team. Dale, I am an admirer of silversmithing. For me it is a form of art. How the metal can be formed and shaped in almost anything is very impressive. My main tasks are the design of new items and the communication with the clients. As I have a different cultural background (I am from Germany and lived a long time in the US), we can create new items which combine for example classic Colonial themes and modern designs. The Spanish Colonial Cover for a computer mouse is a first example. Further comments are of course welcome! IP: Logged
Dale Posts: 2132 Registered: Nov 2002	posted 05-20-2006 11:26 PM Thank you Kai for this information. One thing I am intrigued by is that you work in an historical style, not modern. And what is intriguing about your work is that your shop is a fairly large one with several silversmiths. In the US, as far as I know, most contemporary smiths work on their own pretty much without help. And most work in contemporary styles. Could you explain the design process you go thru for example the angel chalice. How you pick the elements to combine. How you design it, check with the smiths for feasibility and so forth. It seems your operation is one of the last classical silversmithing shops working in the Western world. IP: Logged
suardo Posts: 10 Registered: May 2006	posted 05-24-2006 11:32 PM Hi Dale, thanks for your comment.We started with historical models/ styles, but also have modern pieces in our portfolio. The most exciting area for me is the mixture of old techniques/ elements with new designs. I think that a silversmith or a workshop needs to make unique objects in order to distinguish himself from the mass-produced silver items. That is probably one of the more difficult tasks these days. To design an object like the chalice with the angel requires a lot of research, eg reading in books, visiting local churches and the internet. The idea is to get a general feeling for the item. I would then make various drawings and discuss them with our team regarding feasibility. Sometimes I would use 3D Software to construct the item and to calculate the weight. IP: Logged
outwest Posts: 390 Registered: Nov 2005	posted 05-25-2006 12:33 AM Suardo, Thank you so much for posting the pictures and your responses. I am sure everyone is enjoying reading and seeing your work. Central and South America are fortunate to have such large silver deposits. From what I have seen of your work it is top quality and beautiful. IP: Logged
suardo Posts: 10 Registered: May 2006	posted 05-26-2006 11:51 AM Thanks outwest that is good to hear. I have two more photos of a prototype for an incense burner wich is currently in production. It will be added on our website to the other big incense burner once it is finished. The head of the lion incense burner is made of two molds. They are solderd together with silver. Chasing is applied to the complete item. In the photos I tried to capture the difference between the untouched and chased parts. The prototype is made of bronze which allows us to apply the same techiques and ideas without investing too much in material. The lion is fairly big and will weight around 2-3 kg. The final item will be available in Sterling Silver and probably in silver-plated bronze (as the silver price is very high currently) IP: Logged
suardo Posts: 10 Registered: May 2006	posted 05-26-2006 11:52 AM IP: Logged
suardo Posts: 10 Registered: May 2006	posted 05-26-2006 11:53 AM The ears will be of course added. IP: Logged

All times are ET	next newest topic \| next oldest topic
Administrative Options: Close Topic \| Archive/Move \| Delete Topic
	Hop to:

Ultimate Bulletin Board 5.46a

^1. Public Silver Forums (open Free membership) - anyone with a valid e-mail address may register. Once you have received your Silver Salon Forum password, and then if you abide by the Silver Salon Forum Guidelines, you may start a thread or post a reply in the New Members' Forum. New Members who show a continued willingness to participate, to completely read and abide by the Guidelines will be allowed to post to the Member Public Forums.
Click here to Register for a Free password

^2. Private Silver Salon Forums (invitational or $ donation membership) - The Private Silver Salon Forums require registration and special authorization to view, search, start a thread or to post a reply. Special authorization can be obtained in one of several ways: by Invitation; Annual $ Donation; or via Special Limited Membership. For more details click here (under development).

^3. Administrative/Special Private Forums (special membership required) - These forums are reserved for special subjects or administrative discussion. These forums are not open to the public and require special authorization to view or post.

| Home | Order | The Guide to Evaluating Gold & Silver Objects | The Book of Silver