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maltesemom

By maltesemom,
in Roatan

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TX.Mameow&Papeow

TX.Mameow&Papeow

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We were in Roatan in 2007 and went to the Cameo Castle.There was a person on the pier that took us there and on a tour of the island for about $25. each. I loved the cameos and purchased a ring for $100. cash. It was a little higher if you used your credit card. Each ring was a little different. I wear mine often and it looks great. We are cruising on Voyager on Feb. 7-14 and I hope to go back and buy a broach or necklace. If I remember correctly they started at around $200. and were quite beautiful.

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  • 1 month later...
estoyer

estoyer

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Hello just wondering if anyone here has any information on the Cameo Factory? I heard you can purchase stuff right at the factory. Are there items of good quality? Any help would be very helpful. Thanks

 

Happy Sailing

Earl

Edited by Host Kat >^..^<
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lovevacadays

lovevacadays

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You can purchase directly from them. My friend and I visited there as a part of an private island tour we did. We weren't impressed with the quality or variety but then my friend had been to a cameo factory in Italy and purchased some gorgeous things. I found it a bit boring. However, it is a pretty small place so you should check it out and see what you think. It won't take you long to see what they have.

 

Have a wonderful time in Roatan. It is spectacularly beautiful there!

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  • 3 weeks later...
silvercrikhix

silvercrikhix

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We just returned from Roatan on Friday. You certainly can get better cameo's in Italy I'm sure, but I don't know that I'll ever get there. But, we did get here! I had done a bit of research on this artist and his cameos, so I knew what to expect. IMHO his work is gorgeous.

 

Franco Tammaro is a 4th generation Italian cameo carver. He has work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He is the only Master cameo carver in the Western Hemisphere. He is dedicated to this art and trains students at his Stone Castle Cameo Factory. He is concerned that this art will fade away. While his cameo's are jewelry (and lamps...ooohhh...ahhhh) they are art carved from the natural shell and stone of our earth.

 

He has opened a new store at Mahogany Bay called Gem Carvings. There was some jewelry there and many of the gorgeous lamps. We looked here first and saw some we liked, but wanted to see the Stone Castle showroom. The staff at both locations was friendly and accommodating. I watched one of his apprentices at work for a bit. I looked for quite some time at all the cameos, as they are all different. We ended up purchasing 2 for me :D and one for each of our mothers. Which did of course, net us some discounts! They start at about $50 and go up to $$$$'s for the lamps. I bought one carved of blue agate and one of hammerhead(?) shell. The 2 for our mothers were the traditional type brooch/necklace with 14K settings carved from coral. Beautiful!

 

Because we purchased 4 and I had heard about others having Franco sign the back of them, I asked if he was there and if this would be possible. The clerk said she would check and he was there, but was very distraught and troubled as 2 visiting Italian friends had gone missing 9 days prior and had yet to be found or heard from. She took them back and he signed all of them for us.

 

Knowing he was not "up to par", but realizing I may never get the opportunity again, I asked if we could possibly meet him and tell him how much we enjoy his art. :o She said follow me. We went back to his studio and he was extremely accommodating. He talked to us for probably 15 minutes. He was very gracious and talked to us at length about his life, education, art and his missing friends.

 

He was obviously and understandably in a state of some distress, but kept talking to us, anyway. I mentioned I had read a magazine article about him and he produced a copy of it from a small stack and signed it for me. What a kind gracious man he was. He gave us his email address and said to keep in touch. He then gave my DH a cameo from his work bench with a star fish on it. Sweet!!! What a class act!!!

 

We are praying for the safe return of Franco's 2 friends and hope they will be found very soon.

 

If you go to Roatan, please check out his art at Gem Carvings in Mahogany Bay, the lamps are absolutely beautiful (I hope to return one day and buy one), and for a real treat go to the Stone Castle Cameo Factory. It is IMHO well worth the time and effort. You may even get to meet the Master himself! :)

Edited by silvercrikhix
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lovevacadays

lovevacadays

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Thank you so much for your reply. Wondering though was there many other places to shop? We are not into the water thing. Thank You..

 

Happy Sailing

Earl

 

Not sure what ship you are on. If you dock in Coxen Hole there is shopping right at the pier and then shopping in the town of Coxen Hole and then there is shopping at the West End Village which we preferred. I hear that the new cruise terminal at Mahogany Bay has some shops but don't know anything about it. We were there right before it opened.

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  • 1 month later...
63galaxie

63galaxie

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We just returned from Roatan on Friday. You certainly can get better cameo's in Italy I'm sure, but I don't know that I'll ever get there. But, we did get here! I had done a bit of research on this artist and his cameos, so I knew what to expect. IMHO his work is gorgeous.

 

Franco Tammaro is a 4th generation Italian cameo carver. He has work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He is the only Master cameo carver in the Western Hemisphere. He is dedicated to this art and trains students at his Stone Castle Cameo Factory. He is concerned that this art will fade away. While his cameo's are jewelry (and lamps...ooohhh...ahhhh) they are art carved from the natural shell and stone of our earth.

 

He has opened a new store at Mahogany Bay called Gem Carvings. There was some jewelry there and many of the gorgeous lamps. We looked here first and saw some we liked, but wanted to see the Stone Castle showroom. The staff at both locations was friendly and accommodating. I watched one of his apprentices at work for a bit. I looked for quite some time at all the cameos, as they are all different. We ended up purchasing 2 for me :D and one for each of our mothers. Which did of course, net us some discounts! They start at about $50 and go up to $$$$'s for the lamps. I bought one carved of blue agate and one of hammerhead(?) shell. The 2 for our mothers were the traditional type brooch/necklace with 14K settings carved from coral. Beautiful!

 

Because we purchased 4 and I had heard about others having Franco sign the back of them, I asked if he was there and if this would be possible. The clerk said she would check and he was there, but was very distraught and troubled as 2 visiting Italian friends had gone missing 9 days prior and had yet to be found or heard from. She took them back and he signed all of them for us.

 

Knowing he was not "up to par", but realizing I may never get the opportunity again, I asked if we could possibly meet him and tell him how much we enjoy his art. :o She said follow me. We went back to his studio and he was extremely accommodating. He talked to us for probably 15 minutes. He was very gracious and talked to us at length about his life, education, art and his missing friends.

 

He was obviously and understandably in a state of some distress, but kept talking to us, anyway. I mentioned I had read a magazine article about him and he produced a copy of it from a small stack and signed it for me. What a kind gracious man he was. He gave us his email address and said to keep in touch. He then gave my DH a cameo from his work bench with a star fish on it. Sweet!!! What a class act!!!

 

We are praying for the safe return of Franco's 2 friends and hope they will be found very soon.

 

If you go to Roatan, please check out his art at Gem Carvings in Mahogany Bay, the lamps are absolutely beautiful (I hope to return one day and buy one), and for a real treat go to the Stone Castle Cameo Factory. It is IMHO well worth the time and effort. You may even get to meet the Master himself! :)

Whqt a great bit of information. Would you mind sharing how much you paid and what kind of discount you received? I'd love to see pictures too if you have any. Many thanks.

Karen in Kentucky

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silvercrikhix

silvercrikhix

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Whqt a great bit of information. Would you mind sharing how much you paid and what kind of discount you received? I'd love to see pictures too if you have any. Many thanks.

Karen in Kentucky

 

Thank you, Karen. In this photobucket album, on pages 6 & 7, you will find pictures I took of some of the cameos in the cases at the Stone Castle Cameo Factory. They are not the ones we purchased. There were many more than this!

http://s848.photobucket.com/albums/a...0March%202010/

 

As far as pricing, it was not a percentage. There are prices on them, but they discount that price always. Do haggle with them. It was more like, "oh, you want this 2nd one also? How about $x amount". And so on through the 3rd and 4th. The blue agate with the 14K gold setting was the most expensive at about $500-600. The brown (hammerhead shell) with sterling (?) setting was around $300. The two smaller ones of coral with 14K gold settings were around $200 each. We spent close to $1,500 on the 4 pieces. They prefer cash and will discount extra for that.....which we did also. We do plan on taking the two larger pieces to our jeweler and having some more substantial settings made for them. Our mothers truly loved theirs, which was so nice to hear from them! They say that they have had many compliments on them, too :D.

Edited by silvercrikhix
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love2vacation

love2vacation

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Thank you, Karen. In this photobucket album, on pages 6 & 7, you will find pictures I took of some of the cameos in the cases at the Stone Castle Cameo Factory. They are not the ones we purchased. There were many more than this!

http://s848.photobucket.com/albums/a...0March%202010/

 

As far as pricing, it was not a percentage. There are prices on them, but they discount that price always. Do haggle with them. It was more like, "oh, you want this 2nd one also? How about $x amount". And so on through the 3rd and 4th. The blue agate with the 14K gold setting was the most expensive at about $500-600. The brown (hammerhead shell) with sterling (?) setting was around $300. The two smaller ones of coral with 14K gold settings were around $200 each. We spent close to $1,500 on the 4 pieces. They prefer cash and will discount extra for that.....which we did also. We do plan on taking the two larger pieces to our jeweler and having some more substantial settings made for them. Our mothers truly loved theirs, which was so nice to hear from them! They say that they have had many compliments on them, too :D.

 

Thanks for giving me an idea on the prices.

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  • 4 months later...
Sgrgirl20

Sgrgirl20

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My parents and I will be traveling to Roatan in November and are looking at going to the Cameo Factory. We would just be going to look not to purchase. Would you say its worth it to just go look - we were going to go on an excursion through carnival that goes to the west end village and the cameo factory - do they have much in regard to watching them actually working to watch? Or just pretty much a store front?

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LostAgain

LostAgain

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We were at the cameo factory last month. It is a store where employees will be working on their craft. There will be a table outside where several people will be sorting sea shells and portions of sea shells. Then there is a table inside where one or two men will be working. My daughter bought a cameo charm for her charm bracelet for $25. She haggled with them (she is better at that than I am). At that point, they invited us into the inner sanctum. That's not what they called it, but they said we were VIP's and this was a rare opportunity to see more of the artist's work. I would recommend a stop here. We were fascinated, and thought it was beautiful. The cameos are very intricate. If you get the employees chatting, they will be happy to share their work with you and give you a nice tour. But if you go thinking that you will see a large factory with an organized tour, you may be disappointed.

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catzcrazy

catzcrazy

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We walked to the Cameo factory from the Grand in early December, enjoying the children and their families along the way. Once there we did look through the inventory and watched several apprentices hard at work creating on-of-a kind cameo pieces. I don't know what people expect for prices, but a genuine cameo carved from shell is a painstaking work of art - unlike the plastic imitations that you can find in a lot of costume jewelry. We though many of the items in the store were fairly priced; the staff was also willing to negotiate.

 

After looking through the cases in the front of the store we met the owner, Franco, who is 4th generation and the only Cameo artist this side of Italy. He invited us back to his studio where we saw his amazing collection - some of which are priceless and not for sale. Yes, we did purchase one nice piece and are looking forward to getting it once the setting has been completed.

 

The Cameo Castle is neither a souvenir shop nor a "Diamonds International" of cameos, but is an artist's studio where you can select unique pieces in much the same manner as you would fine art that you hang on the wall. If you go with that expectation, you will not be disappointed.

 

Well said. I make my own jewelry to sell at Arts and Craft Shows and it is hard to sell something that is a part of me and every piece I design is just that. I am sure some people will think his cameos high, but they are hand carved and it is hard to put a price on the real value of that.

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catzcrazy

catzcrazy

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We were at the cameo factory last month. It is a store where employees will be working on their craft. There will be a table outside where several people will be sorting sea shells and portions of sea shells. Then there is a table inside where one or two men will be working. My daughter bought a cameo charm for her charm bracelet for $25. She haggled with them (she is better at that than I am). At that point, they invited us into the inner sanctum. That's not what they called it, but they said we were VIP's and this was a rare opportunity to see more of the artist's work. I would recommend a stop here. We were fascinated, and thought it was beautiful. The cameos are very intricate. If you get the employees chatting, they will be happy to share their work with you and give you a nice tour. But if you go thinking that you will see a large factory with an organized tour, you may be disappointed.

 

How was the stock on unset pieces?

 

Thanks.

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lovevacadays

lovevacadays

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Posted
My parents and I will be traveling to Roatan in November and are looking at going to the Cameo Factory. We would just be going to look not to purchase. Would you say its worth it to just go look - we were going to go on an excursion through carnival that goes to the west end village and the cameo factory - do they have much in regard to watching them actually working to watch? Or just pretty much a store front?

 

I kind of disagree with the other poster. We loved, loved, loved Roatan and our private tour with Victor Bodden but weren't all that impressed with the Cameo Factory. You may see them working on some cameos and you may not. It pretty much is a store and small one that you walk through and look at the cameos in cases. There are a few sales people located throughout the store as well. We were here for a short time so it was fine but I certainly wouldn't let this stop interfere with seeing this island. Not sure how long your tour through Carnival would stop here

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  • 4 weeks later...
cougar

cougar

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I have been to Roatan and have a friend going in January. I would love to have her bring me back one of the larger shells that have a scene carved into it, I think it was from the stonecastle factory. Does anyone know how much these are priced at? would like to give her some money to cover the cost. Thanks

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silvercrikhix

silvercrikhix

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I have been to Roatan and have a friend going in January. I would love to have her bring me back one of the larger shells that have a scene carved into it, I think it was from the stonecastle factory. Does anyone know how much these are priced at I would like to give her some money to cover the cost. Thanks

 

Hi, Cougar:

 

The large shells with the scenes carved into them had a light inside them. They started at around $500 and ALL the way up from there. They are very beautiful and I will get one the next time I visit Roatan. Try googling Franco Tammaro, the master carver, and Honduras magazine...there were some photos of one that was presented to the President or Mayor in it a few years ago. I'll see if I can find it and post a link for you.

 

Here is one link: just a story about Franco...... http://www.bayislandsvoice.com/island%20living.htm

 

If you click on my photo link below, I do have some pictures of the cameo pendants....I don't think I have any of the large lamp ones, though. They are on pages 6 & 7.

 

 

Dreaming of Floating...............................................

Edited by silvercrikhix
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