The jewelry pieces of Paula Estrada are born from a constant dialogue between her inner and outer worlds. Within her, personal intuitions intermingle with her tastes, sensations, and thoughts. Her task has been to find a way to materialize all that internally swirls around her and transform it into objects that circulate in the world outside of her. To achieve this, she relies on technique, a collage of resources that allow her to shape her ideas.

Not only are there many techniques in the world of jewelry, but Paula is an artisan who has spent years in other areas of design, accumulating various methods for doing things. She first studied industrial design, learning about hardware, textiles, leather goods, footwear, furniture, and packaging. She then spent ten years designing furniture, realizing how similar furniture and jewelry are, as both involve bending and welding metal, though on different scales. She also spent four years in charge of product design and sales for a fashion brand. All of this she did before dedicating herself to jewelry and moving to Barcelona to study it. It had been a recurring interest since her university days, when the only apparent options in jewelry were high-end jewelry or selling wirework pieces at the San Alejo market. What she discovered instead was a whole new world: contemporary jewelry.

When she began her studies, she realized how little she knew about the discipline; it was like waking up for the first time and seeing a world filled with novelties. She became a sponge, voraciously absorbing knowledge to fill the gaps and understand. Even today, she feels that the more she learns about the craft, the more she realizes the time and dedication it requires. She knows that learning is endless, which is why she sometimes hesitates to call herself a jeweler: she wants to know everything before claiming that title.

Exploration thus became the guiding thread of her work. She is in constant search of the means to bring her intuitions into the world. Her pieces featuring insects, flies, cicadas, bedbugs, and beetles, for example, arose from a desire to create something that evoked both attraction and repulsion. To make them, she employed 3D printing commonly used in industrial design, combined with traditional jewelry casting and rubber molds. For other pieces, she has explored porcelain and textile techniques applied to metals.

Choosing the craft of jewelry led her to change her lifestyle. She realized she didn’t want to produce thousands of pieces, only the necessary ones. It was as if she switched sides, from the world of design and mass production to the world of handmade, slow-crafted jewelry. Undoubtedly, making her passion profitable has been a challenge. Fortunately, she has found balance in the variety of techniques: casting and mass production for her popular fly earrings, and silver thread weaving for slow craftsmanship. Additionally, she has been teaching at the university for over ten years. All of this allows her to continue instinctively creating pieces born from her deep questions, with the ultimate goal of communicating through her jewelry.