An intense trip in the profound Mexico

blue An intense trip in the profound Mexico Jared W. Olen, founder of OlenJewelry.com, made an intense trip and his story is featured in this article. Olen Jewelry is an international retailer of high-quality, sterling silver jewelry. Jared told me a fascinating story about the campaign he will start soon and that will have the name Fair Trade Silver.

An intense trip in the profound Mexico

My idea for Fair Trade Silver came from a trip I took in May of 2006 to Mexico. My best friend, Kim, and I flew into Benito Júarez International Airport in Mexico City. We had worked since that January to plan a trip to see the “real” Mexico, that is, a trip that did not include staying in Americanized hotels and resorts.

While reading Jared story I thought, well, this is a really nice experience, in Mexico, culture and tradition are seen as central to life and society and Mexican people are profound and warm, not at all superficial. But you can’t understand their traditions if you stay in hotel. I continued to read his story…

My main goal for visiting Mexico was to visit Taxco in the Mexican state of Guerrero.

Taxco de Alarcón (Taxco) is a former colonial silver-mining center in the northern part of the Mexican state of Guerrero on the western arm of the Sierra Madre del Sur. It is located 200 km southwest of Mexico City along the old highway to Acapulco at an elevation of 1,800 m (5,900 ft).

…Taxco is known by many as the sterling silver capital of the world for it is home to countless shops that sell beautiful machine- and hand-crafted sterling silver jewelry made from silver mined just outside the town.

Taxco reminds me of quaint European town with its narrow, cobblestone streets and white-washed buildings that are perched on the side of a mountain. When one visits Taxco it is shocking to see how purely “un-Americanized” it really is. There are no Wal-Mart nor are there other corporate giants.

I love corporate giants :) and I would love to see a Wal-Mart in Italy, but this time I really envied Jared for this experience. The Aztecs founded a city they called “Tlacho”… what artistic treasures Jared will find?

…the silver trade in Taxco relies on buyers that travel from around Mexico, the United States, and the rest of the world to Taxco with cash in hand to purchase goods to bring back to their stores. I met many buyers there on their annual buying trips for stores in the United States and Canada. What really struck me, however, was the indigenous population that lives nearby.

Taxco has an “Indian Market” where indigenous people descend from the mountainside every day to display and sell hand-made goods to the citizens and visitors of Taxco. I thought to myself what a great idea it would be to establish a reliable international silver trade network between the silver shops and artisans in Taxco and the rest of the world.

As Olen Jewelry moves into the future, I am exploring the possibility of opening a community crafting center in or around Taxco where local artisans can use the workspace for free to create their jewelry. I will then bring their goods to the United States where they can be sold to the mass-market. All artisans will receive the majority of the proceeds from the sale of their jewelry. In this way, those people who do not have the money to invest in equipment and raw materials can still put themselves to work creating jewelry that truly is an expression of themselves and of Mexico.

This is admirable… well, a good business idea, of course, but also admirable, indeed. And we wish Jared to succeed in this project! We’ll post an update about this in the future.

Related Posts - Highly Relevant Content

Some tips to think about when deciding to have a web site built Judith Palfrey is a professional web site developer for 14 years and has developed some special websites to help small businesses advertise in their local community using the Internet. She is also the President of Shopping Portals, Inc. affiliated with Palfrey Associates. To learn more about her services visit: www.ShopGaithersburg.com,......
The future of Online Shopping We asked Adrian King, the entrepreneur behind the popular online Aboriginal art gift shop, Australia Gift Shop, about the future of online shopping and online retailing. Australia Gift Shop is an online gift and souvenir shop based in Bundaberg in the state of Queensland in Australia. The online shop began......
There is not Bad Weather, Just the Wrong Clothing Jeff Knowlton wrote this exclusive article for us. He is the National Account Manager of 66North.com. 66°NORTH Ltd. is among Iceland’s oldest manufacturing companies. It was established in the year 1926 and has throughout the decades been a leading producer and innovator in the making of working clothes used on......
An exquisite online Art Gallery Today we interview Michael Goldstein, the owner of RockPopGallery.com. Michael, what can you tell us about your Art Gallery? RockPoP Gallery was launched online in December of 2005 to showcase the best graphic art and photographic talent working in all areas of today’s music industry. I had the privilege of......
A True Hero, Founder of $10,000 Diamond Earrings This is a very nice story from JewelryDays.com Blog. Thanks to Sheila Garcia for this! MADISON, Wis. - A garbage truck operator is being hailed as a hero for finding $10,000 worth of diamonds that had accidentally been thrown away. "We got a call from a customer that had some......

Related Websites - Highly Relevant Content

Review: Me and Mr. Darcy by Alexandra Potter Emily Albright is a 29 year old romantic whose first love was Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. This love affair started when she was 12 and no man has ever reached the bar that Mr. Darcy set. Of course if you were to look at her......
Hawaiian Story Time, Feb 2 We are honored to have MaiLe Firehawk share her native Hawaiian culture. She shares tales of Hawaiian values of spirit, mind and body. Aloha, everyone. Story time at Sukelu this week. Stories, legends. This week, The Wind-Ka Makani, and Kilioe. Something about power over life and death in these. voices......
First Two: Karate King Kamille Zeta Gundam, or at least the first two episodes of it, are a karate anime. What slays me is that this was in slow-mo. That is the way of sports and games anime. In Yu-Gi-Oh!, all worldly problems are solved by playing card games. In Saki, presumably by Mahjong. In......
Chinese Antique Jade Antiques -> Asian -> Chinese Chinese antique jade isn't just beautiful in its own right, but carries a deep cultural significance for the Chinese people. Historically, it was used for jewelry, in religious ceremonies, culturally, monetarily, and was believed to hold great mystical and healing powers. Today, it's still an......
Stories Of Life Who doesn’t have stories? Who does something that isn’t play? I think we are stories. We are stories and we are more. We are the shapers of stories. Problem is, we have some serious issues like we believe things are serious. Play is permission to do. When we play as......