MEET THE ARTISTS / jewelry
JEWELRY
The ArtisTS
Oaxaca offers an abundance of distinctive jewelry, much of it very affordable. Many styles are produced in Oaxaca City. Of particular renown is ornate filigree that is often decorated with pearls, coral or semi-precious stones, which may be worked in gold, gold-plate, silver and chapa de oro (an inexpensive metal with gold tone). The basic techniques were introduced by the Spaniards who were, in turn, influenced by the Arabs. Reproductions of the ancient Mixtec jewelry designs discovered in the archaeological site of Monte Albán are produced most often in gold, but also in silver. There is also jewelry from the Spanish colonial period, composed of small stones (so-called white sapphires) mounted in silver that is soldered onto gold bases. Other designs include prominent silver chains bearing large silver Yalalag crosses, from which smaller crosses dangle. In the markets of Santa María Atzompa and San Bartolo Coyotepec one may find necklaces strung with tiny ceramic animals and beads.
Natalia Bolaños Martinez
[Winner, FOFA’s 2013 contest]
Colonia of San Andrés Huayapam
(just outside of Oaxaca City)
San Fernanda #6 Bis
naranja.bo@gmail.com
(From US) Landline: 011-52-951-540-8068
Cell: 011-52-951-500-4833
(In Oaxaca) Landline: 540-8068
Cell: 951-500-4833
Natalia has enjoyed creating handicrafts since she was a little girl. Her mother encouraged this by giving her metal to form into earrings. After high school, she pursued this early interest by studying jewelry and metal work at the Escuela de Artesanías in Mexico City. When interviewed by FOFA in 2013, she explained her creative process as she responded to the competition theme Mother Earth. Natalia thought of the common black beetle that lives in the earth, always hiding and burrowing. As she began to study beetles in preparation for her piece, she realized how adaptable filigree is to their organic form. Finally, she worked out her approach to the design, with which she is extremely satisfied.
Mónica Díaz Martínez
[3rd Place in “Other Modalities,” FOFA’s 2018 contest; Honorable Mention in “Other Modalities,” FOFA’s 2022 contest]
Leona Vicario #915, Villa de Zaachila 71317
(To call from US, first dial 011-52)
Tel celular • Cell phone: 551-131-3630
Email: diaz.martinez.monica@gmail.com
Facebook: Venada
Instagram: @venada_mx
Mónica finds the strength of the village, in which her grandmother wove utilitarian baskets, to be in the field, the corn, and the palm that perpetually accompanies its women. Wherever they go, whether walking down roads or making tortillas, women continue to weave and “finish off a row.” Mónica’s necklace is a tribute to the strength required to plant corn in the earth and, in turn, the strength provided by the nutrition of tortillas made of corn. She represented rows of planted corn from which small tortillas are suspended. Having learned, by participating in FOFA’s 2018 contest, that people appreciate the level of detail of her work, she feels the confidence to continue innovating within the tradition of her grandmother.
The Garcia Family
The members of this prolific family live as next-door neighbors, each with his own workshop. Today three brothers and their sons are actively involved in this art.
Delfino Garcia Esperanza
Oaxaca City
Vega #305, interior 5
(From US) Landline: 011-52-951-514-6880
(In Oaxaca) Landline: 514-6880
Delfino has both preserved his family’s tradition of heirloom designs and patterns in silversmithing and created new designs. He loves to resurrect old designs and molds. Among his special pieces are his crowns for religious images, some in silver and others in gold. Along with his son, Valentín Julián, Delfino produces elegantcombinations of silver and gold filigree earrings with pearls, semi-precious stones, and coral. Some are further elaborated with graceful leaf patterns. Delfino has participated in national and local contests in which the excellence of his work has been recognized. He was also featured as a master jeweler in the exhibition that derived from FOFA’s 2008 young artists contest.
José de Jesús García Hernández
[1st Place in “Other Modalities,” FOFA’s 2022 Contest]
Vega #305, Oaxaca de Juárez 68000
Cell phone: (From US) 011-52-951-208-7188
(In Oaxaca) 951-208-7188
Email: jesus1406jose@gmail.com
Facebook: José de Jesús García Hernández
José is the grandson of Oaxaca’s silver filigree master artist, Juan Manuel García Esperanza. He began working with silver filigree as a child and has begun to teach this art to his own 10-year-old son. Like his father and other family members, José is deeply committed to keeping the traditional craft of Oaxacan silver filigree strong. He chose to use concentric circles in his silver filigree necklace and matching earrings, explaining that in Oaxacan tradition this design represents the cycle of life. José finds hope in the cycle of life that encompasses where we are now and our future growth and new endeavors.
José Jorge García García
Oaxaca City
Vega #305, Interior 4
ofebreriaenplata@hotmail.com
(From US) Cell: 011-52-951-208-7188
(In Oaxaca) Cell: 951-208-7188
José’s specialty is silver filigree jewelry, including bracelets – cuff style as well as more delicate bands – and chains. His outstanding work has been awarded prizes in a series of state and national contests. Joséoriginally learned his craft in the workshop of his father and three uncles, one of whom is Delfino (above). However, at 25 years of age he went off on his own, creating new designs, such as a ribbon style with beads of coral, turquoise or pearl.
Rodolfo Pérez Santos
Oaxaca City
Argentina #307
Colonia America Sur
(From US) Landline: 011-52-951-513-9902
(In Oaxaca) Landline: 513-9902
Rodolfo creates many styles of jewelry and has a broad repertoire. He is especially talented in creating pieces in the safiro blanco (literally translated as "white sapphire"), a technique characterized by small bits of crystal and decorative elements mounted on silver with a corresponding gold backing. He is very proud of having originated his own designs, such as the leaf cross and the "ring of the duchess." Rodolfo works in his own shop in a neighborhood 10 minutes outside of the center of town with his son, who also loves this form of art. Most of Rodolfo’s work is commissioned by collectors.
Oliver Andrés Ramírez Montaño
[1st Place in “Other Modalities,” FOFA’s 2022 Contest]
Vega #305, Colonia o Centro, Oaxaca de Juárez 68000
Cell phone: (From US) 011-52-951-277-3125
(In Oaxaca) 951-277-3125
Landline: (From US) 011-52-951-626-1965
(In Oaxaca) 626-1965
Email: azpykc_22@hotmail.com
Facebook: Ramirez Adianey
Instagram: andre_w2706
Although no one in his family does filigree silver work, Oliver saw pictures of it and decided he wanted to study with a master artist. In 2019, he began traveling daily to Oaxaca from his home in Etla to learn this beautiful, traditional art. Eventually he plans to establish a workshop in Etla to teach young people to work in silver filigree, in this way fulfilling his dream of keeping this important Oaxacan art form vibrantly alive. He became interested in images of serpents, and ultimately created his elegant serpent necklace.
Cesar Rodríguez Zárate
Oaxaca City
Prolongación de Arteaga #513
Colonia 5 Señores
platadeveras@hotmail.com
(From US): Cell: 011-52-951-207-0407
(In Oaxaca) Cell: 951-207-0407
Cesar specializes in milagros, appealing folk art charms in silver that present an individual’s personal spiritual belief that miracles, including small, everyday miracles, can occur. The pieces range from representations of body parts to animals to human figures. In addition to creating necklaces and bracelets incorporating these milagros, Cesar produces Yalalag crosses. These originated in the Sierra de Juárez and predate the Conquest. They consist of a central cross from which three lesser crosses are suspended, a typical Zapotec style embued with cosmic, social and theological significance.
The Rojas Calvo Family
Oaxaca City
Porfirio Díaz #311 (workshop)
info@orodemontealban.com
(From US) Landline: 011-52-951-516-4528
(In Oaxaca) Landline: 516-4528
This family has improved or pioneered many of the major jewelry styles found in the city of Oaxaca: gold filigree, colonial style, and reproduction of ancient designs. Rosa (nicknamed Rosita) Quevedo and her daughter Tére Calvo opened the first jewelry shop in Oaxaca in 1947. Proud of the region’s Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations, they researched the jewelry discovered in Monte Albán’s Tomb 7 in 1932 by archaeologist Alfonso Caso. These famous pieces had been entrusted to Rosita’s colleague, master jeweler José Ortiz for cleaning and restoration. Having earned a reputation of trust and quality, Rosita’s workshop, with Maestro Ortiz’s talented participation, was eventually granted the sole rights to make reproductions of this jewelry. Today one may see examples of this work in multiple stores in town named Oro de Monte Albán (gold of Monte Albán), as well as at the workshop of the same name, which preserves all phases of ancient production principles.
The Salgado Family
Yesenia Yadira Salgado Téllez
[Honorable Mention in Other Modalities, FOFA’s 2011, 2013, 2016, 2022 contests]
Moctezuma Manzana 3 Lote 4A, Colonia Moctezuma, Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán 71230
(To call from US, first dial 011-52)
Tel celular • Cell phone: 951-545-0358
Email: saty_87@hotmail.com
Facebook: Yesenia Salgado
Instagram: @yesenia_salgadoo
Yesenia is a member of a jewelry making family with generationsof experience working in silver. Her father taught her to make fine silver wire by hand, fashioned from bars of .925 silver created from silver and copper that she melds herself. Yesenia feels proud to bring new life to the traditional techniques of her family through innovative designs. She has helped in the family workshop since the age of 15. This piece is inspired by a model that her father introduced, which Yesenia recreated and enlarged, adding a pendant to honor him. The technique she used is known as cartoneado, a form of threaded silver wire different from filigree technique, in which two silver wires are twisted together. She included pearls because they are traditional in Oaxacan jewelry.
Jesús Arturo Chávez Salgado (son of Yesenia)
[Honorable Mention in “Other Modalities,” FOFA’s 2022 Contest]
Moctezuma Manzana 3 Lote 4A, Colonia Moctezuma,
Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán 71230
(To call from US, first dial 011-52)
Tel celular • Cell phone: 951-545-0358 (cel de su mamá)
Facebook: Antiguasmaravillas
Instagram: antiguas_maravillas
Jesús has worked in the family workshop since he was six years old, where his grandfather and his mother have guided him. Jesús’s comb is in the shape of a star. When he is sad, he looks at the sky and sees the stars. He placed flowers on the points of the star, with his mother who uses flowers in mind, which gives him hope. He started by creating tightly wound spirals of silver wires which are then applied to the structure. The welded piece is set in charcoal and heated until it turns red to create a single piece.
Ian Yael Cruz Salgado
[Honorable mention in “Creative youth,” FOFA’s 2018 contest]
Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán (just outside Oaxaca City)
Calle Moctezuma #4, Colonia Moctezuma
rubicostt@gmail.com
(From US) Landline: 011-52-951-533-9454
Cell: 011-52-951-129-1475
(In Oaxaca) Landline: 533-9454
Cell: 951-129-1475
Faviola Contreras Sosa
[3rd place in “Other Modalities,” FOFA’s 2022 contest]
Privada de Oriente #5, Teotitlán del Valle 70420
(To call from US, first dial 011-52)
Tel celular • Cell phone: 951-120-7596
Tel de Casa • Landline: 951-524-4530
The daughter of renowned weavers, Faviola has always had an interest in trying different forms of manual arts. In this piece she demonstrates her mastery of the “tatting” technique she chose to learn when she won first place in textiles in FOFA-MEAPO´s 2013 contest. Her prize was a personalized course at Oaxaca‘s Textile Museum sponsored by FOFA. It was a challenge for Faviola to make this detailed and intricate set, consisting of a necklace, earrings and bracelet. She hopes wearing something like this will help a woman feel more beautiful and optimistic, with its combination of black as night with flashes of red for hope.