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In 1987, Helena Aguilar set sail for Italy. She crossed the Atlantic by ship, at a time when almost no one did so anymore, with the certainty that a craft and a future awaited her in Florence.
She studied at Le Arti Orafe Jewellery School, on Via de’ Serragli, where she took courses in Jewelry and Chasing between June 1987 and February 1988. Upon returning to Medellín, she completed her training as an industrial designer at the Pontifical Bolivarian University, where she graduated in 1993. Her time at the university helped her recognize that design offered the possibility of learning a craft, and her affinity for Art History and Design courses guided her decision to specialize in jewelry.
Ever since she began making jewelry, she wanted to give pre-Columbian techniques a central place. Returning from Florence and looking toward her own roots was a conscious decision: to honor the work of indigenous goldsmiths, their procedures, and the materials with which they worked. That heritage remains present in what she does. This craft has allowed her to materialize the reflection and immediacy of her thoughts, and to take them to a therapeutic point. She seeks for her works to retain the artistic character from which they were conceived, and for each piece to be a vehicle for exploring with the greatest possible freedom and opening it up to whatever interpretations it may invite.
She works at a slow pace. Each piece asks for its own time: crafting it slowly, feeling the material, letting the technique remain visible, and allowing for the imperfection of the hand. That mark of the process is what distinguishes a thoughtful piece from mass production, and it is precisely what she is interested in preserving. She believes that design contributes significantly to the construction of the city, even when it continues to be traversed by consumer dynamics, and all the more so when we live surrounded by a multiplicity of objects that shape our daily lives.
Her pieces are born precisely from restoring value to those objects, those of enormous importance that are sometimes forgotten. She ensures that each material is chosen with passion, knowledge, and intuition in all its forms.
Throughout their career, they have dedicated themselves to teaching contemporary jewelry in various contexts, and to how it intervenes in the construction of the languages that people are constantly seeking. Their methodology seeks to allow each person to find the path they wish to chart. They recognize their academic training as a fundamental component in the construction of their perspective and the appropriation of design methodologies, which have been decisive in their professional practice. Hence their deep gratitude for the tools and learning acquired over these years, both as a student and as a teacher.
33 years later, that is her new challenge. Helena Aguilar is the brand behind her work and the place where she connects with those who come to her Jewelry Space. A space that is also theirs.
