It was an honor to participate in the first Art Clay exhibit in Mexico City!
The show will be open through Sunday at the Franz Mayer Museum, as part of the Abierto Mexicano de Diseño.
Abierto Mexicano de Diseño
I've been away for a while, and I wanted to thank you for your kind comments on Instagram and Facebook. Your encouragement means the world to me!
Since I last wrote, I have so much to be grateful for:
My dad is finally home after a long stint at the hospital
We survived last night's earthquake
It's been 10 years this month since I took my first jewelry class
I sold my 800th piece on Etsy!
I've also had lots of fun making amulets with Art Clay. The group you see here will be exhibited in the Abierto Mexicano de Diseño from October 18-22, in downtown Mexico City.
I will continue to add to this series next week. Every piece will be available in my online shop.
Have a wonderful and inspiring weekend!
Recycled Silver
Before I began to work as a jeweler, I was hired as a translator for a group of Canadian filmmakers who wanted to document the ravages caused by current mining practices in Mexico.
The film crew and I visited a large Canadian-run mine in a colonial town called Cerro de San Pedro, in the state of San Luis Potosí. The San Pedro mountain was originally a sacred site for the local indigenous population, but it was transformed into a mining town when the Spaniards discovered gold and silver in the16th century. For the next 100 years, the metal ore was extracted from underground tunnels using handheld mining tools.
Today, the fine metal ore in the underground mines is scarce, and can only be extracted using a modern system called “open pit mining.” This method uses thousands of gallons of water mixed with cyanide to extract metal from huge mountains of previously crushed underground rock, a practice that is highly toxic for the environment.
When I returned from the visit, I had already decided to become a silversmith, so I knew I had to find a way to do it without further harming the planet. I eventually found a local source that supplied sterling silver recycled from x-rays and photographic processes. This is the silver that I use to make my jewelry.