Pliers, roofbeams and a blowtorch….and especially hands are the tools that Mabe Abenza employs in order to create her handcrafted jewelry. Her works are full of life and an exquisite sensitivity. She is in love with jewelry, which became the center of her life many years ago. As she said, ‘I worked for more than twelve years in a Chopard jeweler’s, a boutique from Serrano street in Madrid’. After being named ambassador of the brand, many changes in the company made that she no longer wanted to work there. ‘I decided that it was time to start thinking of working in something I really liked, so I began taking courses in assembly and use of tools, and I set up my own workshop’, she explained to us.
She complemented her knowledge by taking more courses on gemology in order to learn how to recognize stones, metals, settings and finishes. All of these gave her the opportunity to learn how to create and use all the different materials and techniques, and to apply such knowledge to the creation of new unique pieces. One of the newest techniques she has saddled with is the so-called “smelting with ‘lost’ wax”. ‘I carve in stone the piece that I have in mind and I melt it and I replace the wax with the metal I choose (normally silver). Then I perfect it in order to obtain a mold. Finally I make as many copies as I want out of the original one”, she claims’.
Among her materials are silver, noble metals and many other pieces. She still lacks working with gold, since as she points out, ‘I have not dared to it yet’. This craftsman exhibits her works in a small boutique in the Letters Quarter, Valyrium, in her workshop and in some occasional pops up. ‘The next time will be on August 22nd and 23rd in the Pop-up Chich event in Guadalmina (Marbella)’.
The signature of the craftswoman
Her never-ending imagination makes wonder about the following collections to carry out. Her last projects were characterized by the variation of asymmetrical baroque pearls with very different designs, which vary depending on the artisan’s imagination –she even creates customized pieces suiting the customers’ needs and wants. We ask her about what she believes her works have that the other artisans’ works do not have. ‘I think I have my own style. You do not need to put a signature in your pieces of art because the style printed on them already fingers you. Definitely, the most important thing is the invisible signature we put in our works’, she concludes.
