Our Products
Mexican Sterling Silver
Located in the hills between Acapulco and about 100 miles Southwest of Mexico City, Taxco in the state of Guerrero is one of the oldest mining sites located in the Americas. By the end of the century, silver from Taxco had spread across Europe, and remote Taxco was renowned for its wealth of silver. It had become Spain's primary source in the New World of precious metals and had become a busy mining area.
In the late 1920's increasing foreign interest motivated the community artisans to create designs and rediscover the craft of silver smithing. Over time many of these artisans opened workshops and the great beauty and craftsmanship coming out of Taxco earned worldwide recognition and fame once again for Mexico. The Secret Garden Ltd. has had a long relationship with Taxco and its artisans and our pieces of Mexican Sterling Silver are personally selected and regularly updated to keep up with modern trends.
Baltic Amber
Amber is any natural resin which oozed its way out of a tree and eventually fossilized at any time from recent times to some 300 million years ago. The stone must be at least 1 million years old to be classified as amber.
Baltic amber is a specific subset of amber that is found only in northern Europe and has been used since antiquity in the manufacture of jewellery. Our amber jewelry is individually handcrafted and because each piece of Amber is unique, no two pieces of amber jewelry are ever the same.
Masterpieces by polish amber artists were considered to be the most precious diplomatic souvenirs for popes, tsars, sultans, caliphs, and the most powerful rulers of Europe. Amber gems became the true hallmark of the city. All our Amber pieces were individually crafted by talented artisans and are selected to meet Secret Garden standards of taste and design.
Murano Glass
The Secret Garden is run by a family of Italian expatriates – so Murano glass is a product with which we are intimately acquainted. The small island of Murano, North West of the city of Venice, is the longest running centre for glass making in history. The first historical documents describing the art of glass blowing go back to the 11th century.
In 1291 the Venetian Government realizing that the glassblowers’ techniques were prestigious and highly sought after, decreed that all glass blowing furnaces be moved from Venice to the island of Murano in order to better manage its monopoly over the industry. To insure that the artisan’s techniques were never revealed they were also forbidden from working abroad. By artificially concentrating the entire glass blowing industry on a small island, it inadvertently intensified the level of competition between maestri; as a result the quality of glass was dramatically refined, and new techniques and ideas rapidly disseminated throughout the island.
Some of the most important brands of glass in the world today are still produced in the historical glass factories on Murano and the artisans have continuously innovated their designs. The Murano jewellery on this website represents one of this historic industry’s latest innovations and some of SG’s personal favourites.
Milly 925
Milena Gervasoni, founder of The Secret Garden (see “Our shop”), has been crafting jewellery using semi precious stones to great acclaim.
Trollbeads, Storm Watches, Nomination Links, John Rocha Jewellery, Nicole Barr and Nikki Lissoni.