Vania Ruiz – Winner – 2nd Latin American Contemporary Jewellery Biennial 2018

A huge congratulations to our very own Eclectic Artisans collective member, Vania Ruiz (Cas Kiro Joyas), from Chile for winning the first prize in the 2nd Latin American Contemporary Jewellery Biennial! All the winning pieces can be seen at the The Museo de Arte Popular José Hernández, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The first place piece is the brooch, “The New Neighbours”, made from layered resin, hand stitched and hand painted

Vania describes the essence of the brooch – “Colombians, Dominicans, Venezuelans, Haitians, Central Americans. The exuberance of our new female neighbours conquers our modest womanhood, shifting adornment from a domestic and introverted realm, to a leading urban and extroverted scene of these exotic creatures.”

Given the judging criteria, and the description of the selection process by Paula Isola (Joyeros Argentinos), the piece can be described as beeing an example of excellent manufacture with everything having a “…perfect solution: front and back, mechanisms, systems, surface finishes; a work that shows sufficient experimentation and research of materials and their possibilities…(and) where even the small parts, including those not visible, had been taken into account…. Finally, the manifestation of an own language, unique, with identity, with the integration of idea, image and poetry.”