Peruvian Silver Jewelry: Where is it heading?

Peru has been steadily getting important recognition around the world due to many cultural aspects: archeological sites, cuisine, folklore, crafts to name a few. Not going too far in the past; in 2007, Macchu Picchu, Peru's most famous archeological site was considered among the modern 7 World Wonders.

Peruvian jewelry and Peruvian silver jewelry in particular are also following this trend: to be known in the world.

The art of jewelry craftsmanship has been part of Peru's culture for hundreds of years, long before the Incas. Ancient cultures that inhabited what now is Peru not only used precious metals in jewelry but also to practice surgeries. Also, like in most ancient cultures, jewelry denoted status, and The Lord of Sipan, found in Peru, is a sample of it (in its tomb where found around 400 pieces of jewelry)

Today, hundreds of years of history merged with modernity to create modern Peruvian jewelry. Ethnic traditional jewelry is still made, lets not ignore this. In fact, much of this jewelry is bought by tourists that visit Peru to take back home as souvenirs. At Argent Dreams, our focus is on modern Peruvian Silver Jewelry, because it can be used anytime, anywhere. Artisans continue with their ancestor's traditions and make their jewelry by hand. Don't expect to see your neighbor wearing your same piece of jewelry, because this silver jewelry is not mass-produced.

Asian countries dominate the market of "imitation jewelry" or "fake jewelry". Cheap trinkets made by machines in the thousands. Peruvian silver jewelry has its own personality. Lets be sincere here. Not ALL the jewelry will be unique. There will be pieces that resemble a lot to present trends, especially heart-shaped charm bracelets. However, most pieces are different from what is normally seen in the silver jewelry market, which are aimed at niches.

Will Peruvian Silver Jewelry obtain a place in today's markets and gain its well-deserved recognition? Argent Dreams will be working to help achieve this.

Jewelry Directories: How useful they really are?

From time to time, some of us stumble upon a directory during our searches in the web. These directories store a determined number of sites, which in most cases are grouped by industry, genre, topic, etc. However, unlike a phone directory which we DO use sometimes in our lives, how many of us actually uses an internet directory to find a site we are looking for?

Many directories in the web were created for a sole purpose: to make money by cheating the system. Few of us know that links act as votes in the Internet. If a site receives many links from other pages, it becomes popular, and being popular in the Web is good, because you are found easily! Unfortunately, being popular does not necessarily mean quality. A person with skills in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is able to manipulate to some extent the results of his site (cheat the system) and achieve better rankings. This is where directories come into play. People can buy links (buy the right to have a site listed) in these directories to achieve popularity.

How can we distinguish which jewelry directory is actually beneficial to us? I think the answer is pretty simple: using common sense. There are thousands of directories out there that offer no added value to the user, just a huge list of links (also known as link farms). What differences those links from each other? Absolutely nothing. Unless the directory is administrated by a prestigious entity, that uses certain criteria to accept links in its site, there is really nothing that distinguishes a link from the one above or below it.

In Argent Dreams, we decided to create a small directory or resources page, keeping in mind everything said above. For starters, we only have few but relevant categories (silver, gold, diamond, pearl, handmade, gemstone jewelry) and limited the number of links to 20 per category (please note that this is not a "Top 20" ranking as we have no objective way to affirm that the sites listed in our resources page are in fact Top 20 in the Internet). Some of the factors we take into consideration to decide if a site will be listed are:

• Website design
• Product/Service quality
• Store policies (privacy, returns, etc)
  
• Provides valid contact information (address, phone number, e-mail)
  

We have some close competitors listed in our silver jewelry directory; however we understand that some of our visitors may not find what they seek in our store. For this reason, as part of our service, we provide them with other options that may suit them better.

Argent Dreams

925 or 950 silver jewelry?

Over the course of the months, it was brought to my attention that many customers, both in the retail and wholesale business looked for 925 grade silver jewelry, commonly known as Sterling Silver. I looked over the Net to find answers but couldn't find a common factor that determined the reason of their choice.

Lets start explaining the meaning of those numbers 925 and 950. Silver in its pure form (also known as fine silver) has a grade of 999, and is very soft and flexible. In fact, these features make the metal inadequate for jewelry. For this reason, silver is mixed up with other metals (mostly copper) to form an alloy that is strong enough for jewelry crafting.

925 grade silver (or Sterling Silver) is a mix of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper or other metal. This type of silver is commonly used in mass-produced jewelry (that is, machine-made) in order to withstand the treatment machines give to the metal.

950 grade silver (sometimes called French 1st standard or in other cases Mexican silver) is a mix of 95% silver and 5% copper or other metal. This type of silver is more suitable for handcrafted jewelry, because it's more flexible than Sterling silver.

Now that we know the differences, one would assume that a customer would get a better deal for their buck with 950 silver (you get more silver after all) and would opt for the latter. Well, this is not always the case. 925 silver is still sought by many; in my opinion, due to its popularity. Sterling silver has been around for centuries. The name "Sterling" is a brand of itself to many people. However, 950 silver is as beautiful (if not more) as Sterling silver.

If you'd ask me which type I'd choose, I'd say 950. Why? Because behind a 950 silver jewelry piece is a skilled artisan most likely, not a machine, and that adds an extra value to my election.

Our first post!

The Argent Dreams Blog is your space to discuss the various aspects involved in the jewelry world and other interesting topics.

We want to use this blog to get closer with our customers, to know more about their needs, requests, inquiries and doubts. To share ideas, funny moments and interesting stuff.

It is important for us to let our customers know that behind Argent Dreams LLC (from now on, AD) are dedicated professionals, but more important, friends. For this reason, what a better way to start knowing each other by introducing myself. I'm Alfredo Chois (people call me Fred) and I'm AD's Store Manager. I'm 32 and was born in Lima, Peru. I majored in Business Administration at Universidad de Lima (one of Peru's most prestigious business schools).

The idea behind creating AD is to show the world the beauties of Peruvian jewelry. Now, lets be straight here. We are here to make money, that's a given fact. The first thing we are taught in business school is that companies are created to make money. However, the way we want to achieve the latter is the most important matter to us. We don't want to just sell you silver jewelry. We want to share with you a WHOLE experience.

Nowadays, we see the jewelry market flooded by mass-produced cheap silver jewelry. Customers are slowly growing tired of wearing these garnets and are in pursuit of more unique items. This is precisely what we offer in AD: uniqueness; a unique experience.

So jump on board, let us share useful information and, why not, build an AD community!