Jeweler Daniel Taboda (46) and sculptor Alejandro Benarós (41) have found a yet unexploited niche, and a very profitable one: the nautical gold or silver work.

Both of them studied at Fundación Rómulo Raggio; Taboada studied jewelry making and Benarós sculpture. After that, they perfected their techniques with master Antonio Pujía. In 1993, Benarós studied with Argentinian sculpturer Mónica Chames at her atelier, where she encouraged him “to create objects of art.” Meanwhile, one of them worked as a jeweler and the other reconditioning antiques.

“I've always sailed and, in 1997, I took classes to be a yacht pilot at the Argentine Navy Prefecture. When my shipmates saw my works, they ask me to do silver lapel pins for the graduates. Thus, it was born the idea of doing jewelry and sculptures with nautical motifs,” says Benarós.

But the dollar-peso parity during the 1990s didn't allow them to take off (or to weigh anchor we should say). “It was impossible to compete with imported jewelry," they say. So, each of them followed their own occupations while they made nautical designs in their spare time. In 2000 "we already had 50 original designs.”

Until the year 2002 arrived with the popular demonstrations known as cacerolazos and the devaluation. At that point it became clear “it was time for casting off,” says Benarós in nautical jargon.

First of all, they published articles in specialized magazines. There they offered nautical jewels and sculptures as items for personal use.

“On the first phone call we received, they asked for trophies for a nautical club. Nothing to do with what we were offering or with the public we were targeting. We had to change before we had begun,” Taboada recalls.

But it was that same client the one who gave them the key: “My wife is tired of so many little cups, all alike. Even I don't know in what competition I won them,” he said. “So we realized that our challenge was to be different from everybody else.” It was then that they gave birth to Orfebrería Náutica, their business.

They knew their objective: to transform a boring trophy into an object of decoration and to personalize it for the clients’ different nautical competitions.

So they made designs with lighthouses, seagulls and regatta boats that allowed the winner, in seeing them in his shelf at home, to relive the moment that had led him to the prize.

Today, apart from the trophies, they also offer jewels, medals and sculptures. The main target are nautical people, a portion of society with great purchasing power that is likely to be interested in what they have to offer. “Every weekend all the nautical clubs organize competitions, that means that the consumer demand is high."

The prices of the trophies vary between $20 and $120 pesos; silver jewelry starts at  $25 and the sculptures at $80.

However, they do not limit themselves to nautical designs. Water became a medium to get more clients through the many contacts they have made. One of those contacts is the Boehringer Ingelheim Laboratory. Every year, Taboada and Benarós make the medals that the laboratory gives as a gift to the employees that go into retirement.

Later on, another unexpected work emerged over the waves. Benarós participated in the Camel Art Collection marketing campaign, where the mascot of the cigarette appeared as drawn by renowned artists. "They ask me to make the camel as Botero would have done it. I made a three-and-a-half-meter-high sculpture," he says. And that's not all. They also make figureheads for old-fashioned ships.

Most of the orders do not come from sailors but from surfers, yes, but the other kind of surfers: the ones who surf the Web. "We get a lot of orders through our site; so many that we’re about to take no more," they assure.

"Our studio is at home and we work all day long. We have our minds set at full steam," they say providing another nautical allegory.