Helena Aguilar lives and breathes jewelry. Her life is deeply connected to form, beauty, colors, and textures, and she says she will live as long as she can work. She gets incredibly bored when she’s not engaged with her craft, which she has not only practiced for over thirty years but also shared with countless students. The daughter of a creative homemaker who oil painted and knitted, Helena began her journey studying industrial design. She then moved to Italy before finishing her degree to learn a specific trade. She had already learned to work with leather, making wallets, and brought her work to Italy, which led her to a jewelry school in Florence.

When the time came to decide whether to stay there or return to Colombia, her homeland called her back. She would later realize that returning was not in vain, as her interest in the geography and history of this vast country would become central themes in her pieces. She came back to complete her degree and soon teamed up with her colleagues, who had graduated before her and were already working at the university, to set up the jewelry module that was missing from the curriculum. She directed it for twenty years because teaching has always been a part of her life. Without being overly sweet or holding back her opinions, as she says, she has guided her students for years to find their personal voice. With her kind seriousness, she supports them in the introspective work necessary to discover their unique language and invites them to participate in her projects.

Thinking about contemporary jewelry involves understanding that each piece originates from a research transformed into concept and gesture. A good example of this are the pendants shaped like the map of Colombia, in which Helena highlights the locations and extents of the Sierra de Chiribiquete National Natural Park and the Magdalena River. These delicate, simple-looking copper pieces resulted from two investigations tied to her major interests: geography and history. During the pandemic, she read, along with her team of students, a study-oriented book by Carlos Castaño Uribe about Chiribiquete. After analyzing its contents, she intuitively traced the map of Colombia onto a copper sheet, cutting it out, and then also cut out the rectangle that encompasses this natural reserve. She felt that through this process, she was literally traversing the country. The same goes for the Magdalena River, which she visited at its narrowest point in Huila where it is just a thread of water, and observed its grandeur in Honda, where she studied it with her loyal students and colleagues. She repeated the map of the country in copper, a material in which oxidation and thermal shock create generous results, this time with the river cut out, and also experimented with soldering its course, resulting in an overflowing river. It’s understandable why she no longer wants to leave this rich country.

With work and years of practice, Helena realized that she thrives when taking her time: running her workshop at her own pace, not thinking in collections but in series, and guiding her students through their processes, giving each the time they need. Slowly, Helena moves between the industrial, the artisanal, and the artistic: because of her career, her interests in geography and history, and having always been surrounded by artists—family and friends, including a brother she describes as a Fuji camera for his skill in drawing the human figure. She feels that sometimes her rational character clashes with her artistic side, pushing her to create series, schedule her projects, and make things work. But in her pieces, you can see that sensitivity and attention to detail slipping through her rationality.