The Street of Incomparable Pearl

(Click on the title link for the podcast.)

This week, Lavaculture visited Chandni Chowk's famous silver street, Dariba Kalan. Dariba Kalan translates to "street of incomparable pearl". During the Mughal period this street was the central jewelry market and was most famous for its precious gems. Today, Dariba Kalan is most popular for its silver jewelry. Lavaculture had the opportunity to interview one of the nearby shop owners who shared a little something about the silver industry. Here are some of the most important tips that Lavaculture learned about purchasing silver, as relayed by Mr. Shiv Kumar Mittal, owner of the jewelry store, Mittal Associates. Not only that, but in Mr. Mittal we have also found a reliable contact for future ventures.

The first thing we learned was that India
imports silver from different parts of the world. It was quite astonishing to discover that India's main suppliers of raw silver are the United States, Mexico, and China. It is then processed and refined in India, but at a much cheaper rates.  Lavaculture also learned about the cost of silver. Mr. Mittal began the conversation with a one kilogram piece of raw silver in his hand. It was beautiful, heavy, and pricey. The cost of this chunk of silver was over $1600 US, but of course, normally, one doesn't buy silver in kilograms.
 
The average consumer purchases silver in grams. If you enter any Indian jewelry store you usually choose your item, have it weighed on a scale, and then multiply that weight by the current silver rate. 72rs, or $1.60 is the current price per gram for the highest quality of silver available. One can of course find slightly cheaper rates.

But, how does one know if it is real silver? If the silver is pure? Mr. Mittal shared with us a few ways to understand this, although it can get quite complicated. The first two ways of understanding if silver is pure is by running several tests such as a volumetric test, or a gravity test. If you are interested in learning more about these processes you can click on the following site which explains the details more clearly:
www.sellgoldhq.com

If you are shopping for silver jewelry as a regular retail customer, there are a few simple ways to test if it is real silver. Firstly, if you are looking at raw silver, its' texture usually has streaks and pores and is very heavy. If you are not necessarily looking at raw silver,  you can tell if it is real, if it is substantially heavy, and compact. If it is too light and flimsy, it might not be real.
Another way to tell is by hearing how it rings when you hit it. If it has a clear high-pitched sound that lasts, it is real silver. Otherwise it can be an alloy of various metals or silver-plated metallic material.
We hope you have enjoyed our little adventure and a brief introduction into the world of silver. Join us next time for yet another adventure to a silver jewelry store.

Lavaculture's Indian Bazaar Series

For the past few weeks, Lavaculture has been exploring the Indian market place. Beginning with the layout of the market places in Delhi, Lavaculture has gained sufficient knowledge of, as well as developed a deep interest in, the goods that India has to offer. 

There is much more to learn, but step by step Lavaculture is becoming familiar with the shopping scene. Of all the market places available, a specific market known as Chandni Chowk has been selected for exploration.

 
Within this 300 year old market is a street solely dedicated to our first shopping list item of interest, jewelry. We invite you to read on and join us on this week's venture.

To follow our recent adventures, please click on the links below to download our previous podcasts.


Podcast 1: Layout of the Indian Market Place 
Podcast 2: Chandni Chowk Market Place, New Delhi, India 

Purchasing with Knowledge

In order to purchase good quality essential oils it is important to understand what good quality oil is and the characteristics that identify it as such. Before purchasing, one should ask the vendors a few questions in order to understand the process by which these oils were created. Once they arrive in your hands, there are a few protocols for keeping their healing properties intact.

This article was written with the help of aromaweb.com and includes quotes from their site. Aromacures.com was also used as a source in this article. Read on to learn a little bit more of their wisdom of essential oils. Thank you Aromaweb and Aromacures for your knowledge!

What to look for:
Although it can be assured that there are many qualities and signs to look for to determine the quality of an essential oil and its distributor, here are a few tips to get started with:

Look for oils that have the botanical name on the label rather than a simple "essential oil" label. Phrases such as this, including: "fragrance oil", "nature identical oil", or "perfume oil" usually indicate that it is not pure. Many of these oils are usually a combination of essential oils with chemicals, or just plain chemicals so be careful!

It is best that the catalog or website you purchase from lists the country of origin and method of extraction. Knowing how the oils were extracted will help you to determine the quality.

Most good quality oils come with instructions, and/or a users' guide.
When buying online look at a few different stores before purchasing for price comparisons and wholesale prices.

Questions to Ask:
Before purchasing from either a vendor or site, ask whether any chemicals or additives were added to the oil. Essential oils must have all natural ingredients.

It is also extremely important to inquire about the method of extraction, for this will determine the quality.

A good tip to keep in mind: You get what you pay for:
"A cheap essential oil may be inexpensive because the whole plant was used when extracting the oil, when only a portion of the plant should be used for the best results. When the whole plant is used, more oil is able to be produced; cutting down the price, but it may not have the therapeutic benefits of a more expensive oil. If you find essential oils that seem very inexpensive, it is worth asking how the oil was obtained" (aromacures.com).

How to Preserve:
It is important to keep essential oils in dark glass containers, as mentioned by aromaweb:
"When receiving oils shipped in plastic or clear glass, be sure to immediately transfer the essential oils to dark colored glass bottles, unless you plan to use the essential oil up within a few days. You can find bottle suppliers listed within AromaWeb's Global Business Plaza. It's a savvy idea to keep empty bottles on hand. If you purchase from a supplier that ships in plastic, ask them how long the oil has been stored in the plastic bottles prior to shipment. Ideally, you want to work with suppliers that transfer to plastic just prior to shipment."

Watch this video to see where Lavaculture is going next:

The "How" of Essential Oils

Having just explored the use and healing properties of essential oils, Lavaculture wants to know what exactly essential oils are in order to understand the different grades of quality before making any purchases. The following article is mainly based on the information presented by two very good sites: edenbotanicals.com and aromaweb.com. Although there are many processes for making essential oils, the processes described in this article focus on what is provided by Eden Botanicals.

Each extraction method has benefits over others which are important to understand according to what the entrepreneur will be creating. The first thing to understand is that there is a difference between "Fragrance Oils" and "Essential Oils."

Fragrance Oils are usually synthetically made scents that mimic real natural scents while Essential Oils are made from leaves, stems, roots, flowers, or fruits, without artificial ingredients. Here is an overview of the different types of extractions and processes:

 Absolute Oils:
Absolute oils are concentrated aromatic oils extracted from plants. They are usually used more for perfumery rather than aromatherapy due to their intensity and the traces of chemical solvents from the extraction process. The process for extracting absolute oils involves the use of chemicals and alcohol which remain in the formula. The difference between an absolute and an essential oil, is that in the making of an absolute oil, the entire plant is used rather than only the essential oil portion of the plant.

Distilled and Expressed Essential Oils:
This process of distilling essential oils involves the extraction of concentrated oils from the plant's glands through steam distillation, water distillation, or a combination of both. There is also such a thing as dry vacuum distillation or expression such as for citrus peels.

CO2 Extracted Oils:

This form of extraction comes about with the pressure of carbon dioxide at a certain temperature. The result is either "select" or a "total" extract. A select extract means only the essential oil part of the plant is used, and a total extract contains more parts of the plant, and resembling the plant as a whole. This method is primarily used by the food and body care herbal industries as well as aromatherapy. The most important benefit is that this form of extraction does not involve chemical solvents.

Organically Extracted Oils:
This method provides a more "lively" essence. The "bio-available" essence from the plant is extracted only with natural solvents such as oils and alcohol and without added heat. As Eden Botanicals mentions, this form of technology: "is similar to the ancient method of extracting an enfleurage from precious flower petals."   

10% dilutions:
10% dilutions are pure essential absolutes diluted in fractionated coconut oil. The resulting formula contains 10% of the essential oil and 90% of the coconut oil. It is interesting to note that fractionated coconut oil is used because of its long shelf life and clear odorless nature.

This was a brief introduction to the different processes and methods of essential oil extractions. Please read the next post to learn about what to look for before purchasing, what questions to ask, what and how to preserve their healing properties. If you have any further comments or useful information, please make comments to this post!

Thank you!