Tastevins by Master Silversmith Marcelo Toledo
Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 10:10PM 
We had an opportunity to visit master silversmith Marcelo Toledo at his workshop in Buenos Aires. Think Tiffany's silver line but better and everything made by one guy and two assistants all by hand. There are very few artisans still doing this type of painstaking handwork with silver and Marco is a true genius with his craft. His current exhibition includes paintings of Evita Peron done in silver. He studied with someone here in Illinois and mentioned to me how much he loves Chicago - winter and all. What a guy, right!
The day we visited him, he was working on tastevins or wine tasting cups which can be found around the necks of old school sommeliers. I was never really a fan of these things as they got in the way of my female anatomy and I could never see myself sipping out of them without dripping and drooling and let's face it - laughing.
Nonetheless, Marcelo indicated it takes 6 weeks to make one tastevin as each groove and design is hammered in by hand in an extremely laborious process. If I were to receive a Marcelo Toledo tastevin, it would perhaps be more appropriate to wear it as a piece of jewelry rather than using it as a makeshift wine glass.
In addition to tastevins, Marcelo makes all kinds of things including vases, cutlery, brooches and jewelry including these cuff links which I purchased as a holiday present for Chach. And of course, he loved them.
