He learned by watching others. Specifically, he learned watching the four Rivera brothers from Santa Fe de Antioquia. He was 19 years old in 1999 when he dared to ask Hildebrando, the eldest brother, if they could teach him how to craft the beautiful wares they made. They immediately said yes and gave him a table, tools, and the silver he needed to start working. His training lasted for 12 years.

A year after he started, when he had already mastered silverwork, his mentors started giving him a little bit of gold. They did so gradually because they wanted him to notice the tremendous difference between it and the silver with which he had previously worked. Hugo explains that “silver is very soft and pliable, whereas gold is much more rigid.” He laughs as he admits that the first rosette he made was as stiff as a wire. But he did not give up: was committed to understanding the material. He worked on it for hours: he stretched it, melted it, assembled it, and covered it until the filigree of each one of the pieces he made had the right fineness. He improved every single day.

He remembers that, when he was barely beginning his career as a jeweler, he asked his mentors where to buy the golden threads they worked with. The latter looked at each other, laughed, and told him that they were the ones who made the threads used to make the filigree from scratch. They told him that this process was called slicing and that each thread’s caliber gave a special finish to every piece of jewelry. This memory comes to him as if it had happened centuries ago, given the skill he has accrued over the years.

It was at that moment that he started to genuinely understand the true colors of the craft. He grasped what It took to master handling the metal from beginning to end, he noticed the intimacy he would develop with the trade after getting to know the matter in one state and seeing it transformed to another by means of acid and fire, he truly began to understand the process of molding the material into something unique through the subtle and skillful use of tools.

He also discovered three qualities he thinks are essential to the success of any craftsman in his line of work: good eyesight, a firm hand, and a lot of patience. They will need these skills to be able to work on the minute details of each ware they make, in which they will gather the legacy of this town of jewelers in Antioquia. He believes that perhaps his biggest challenge so far was to make a Chinese woven bracelet with the head of his favorite cow and adorned with emeralds and diamonds. He fulfilled said task so well, that he has been able to retain the customer who requested it to this day. Nowadays, he works with his brother, and he is proud to continue cultivating his crafting tradition.