The studio
Carao is a collaborative jewelry brand. Designed in Costa Rica and made in Peru by master silversmiths, we believe jewelry should be beautiful inside and out. Our studio’s objective is to challenge the norms of fast fashion while rescuing our heritage practices and providing steady, dignified jobs to the artisans who have kept our traditions alive.
We focus on creating THE jewelry essentials our customers need while helping them keep them in tip-top shape forever. Be it the pair of handmade hoops that take them from day to night or that hand-braided ring they stack with their favorites, we design each piece to become an essential part of their style, creating synergy and evolving together.
Behind the brand
Hola! We’re Graciela and Daniela, a Costa Rican-Peruvian lawyer and an American-Peruvian Designer who, five years ago, took a leap of faith and joined forces to create Carao. We also happen to be sisters. Way back when in our parent’s garage in San Jose, Carao was born out of epoxy resin and a need for a creative outlet. Now, it provides for eight families in Lima, Peru, including our own.
From sketching our designs, to managing the interfacing with the master silversmiths, answering your messages, and packaging your orders, we run all aspects of this small business. Carao is a mix of everything we are and love... and we hope you love it too!
Our promise
When you shop with us, you are not only getting unique handmade jewelry pieces, you are also supporting a socially responsible small business. We are currently working to become World Fair Trade Certified and will continue to make efforts to align and comply with all 10 Fair Trade principles. We work with our partners daily to help them build stable businesses (from tax regularization to access to equipment and materials) while respecting them as professionals (our partners have autonomy in selecting which designs they work on, and we aim to enhance their areas of expertise through our designs).
We live for crafting jewelry that lasts you a lifetime. Here’s how:
- We create timeless, understatedly cool designs you can come back to time and time again;
- We use high-quality materials like sterling silver and 18k gold to hand-craft your jewels from scratch;
- We guarantee you our designs will be available for you year-round;
- We work with Costa Rican jewelers to ensure your #caraojewels are always in tip-top shape by offering life-extending maintenance services for all our jewelry (cleaning, repair, and gold plating);
- We offer fair pay to our craft crew and accessible pricing to you;
Materials
All Carao jewels are made of 925 sterling silver or are 18-carat gold plated (vermeil). We believe that businesses can employ sustainable practices, we use locally-sourced and repurposed materials whenever possible.
All our gems are lab-created and our diamonds are lab-grown. Our pearls are cultivated in fresh water.