In Milan! Mexican students to exhibit their jewelry designs

18 students from the Concentration in Jewelry Design, Production, and Marketing on the Industrial Design Degree Program (LDI) at Tec Guadalajara will present their jewelry pieces at Milano Jewelry Week in Italy.

Guided by course professors Alejandra Alfaro and Juan Carlos Banda, the students worked on their designs throughout the February-June 2022 semester in the campus jewelry workshop.

The requirements to participate included a collection of 24 pieces of pure silver, with a Micro LED light visible in the design that could last for 8 hours and batteries that could be changed.

Aside from these guidelines, the technique and design were completely open to each student’s creativity. Each student implemented various techniques, such as wax carving, hand carving, and 3D printing.

Tec Guadalajara will represent Mexican talent at the exhibition, which will be held in Northern Italy with 500 participants from 40 different countries taking part.

Learning to work with lights

During the exhibition, the concentration in jewelry group will be part of the pavilion that focuses on university participants.

In order to create the pieces, the students carried out the whole creative process from the original design idea to soldering the parts together.

Rotceh Acosta, one of the design students that will be participating in Italy, designed a ring in the shape of a beta fish with a light inside it.

She measured each piece and started working on the most challenging part of her design, placing the LED light on the silver.

“I never imagined that I would be exhibiting my pieces in another country. I’m very satisfied with the results… I hadn’t worked with lights before, but I enjoyed the experience of learning something new and including it in my design,” she said.

“I never imagined that I would be exhibiting my pieces in another country. I’m very satisfied with the results… I enjoyed the experience of learning something new and including it in my design.” -

She then cut the fish in half and carved it inside so the light could fit inside and finally worked on the fins to get the final shape of the design.

Rotceh worked with wax carving, a process that is carried out entirely by hand, which makes her piece a handcrafted design.

Representing Mexican talent in Europe

According to the group of students, a very important part of the exhibition was getting the opportunity to show Mexican ingenuity and creativity to the world.

After course professors Alejandra and Juan Carlos informed their students about the exhibition, they focused a large part of their classes on preparing the collection.

“We want to make ourselves known, to make it known that we have courses and diplomas in the jewelry industry for the general public that are as good as anywhere in the world,” said Professor Alfaro.

He added that Guadalajara is known as the jewelry capital of the Americas and Mexico has been the largest producer of silver in the world for the last eight years.

That’s why he highlights that supporting this industry is key and that Tec Guadalajara has a workshop specialized in jewelry, which serves as the main classroom for the course, making it unique in Latin America.

Addressing issues through design

According to Grisela Herrera, her piece had a meaning far beyond the mechanism and techniques, with sensitive issues artistically represented in her design.

She made a transparent jellyfish pendant as a metaphor for the emotions of people struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts. The light in the piece represents the hope within each person.

“I couldn’t believe that I only started with jewelry this year and now I’m going to Milan to exhibit my work,” said Grisela about her trip to Milan.

The most important thing for Grisela was to end the taboo and encourage conversation on the subject. She hopes to turn a sensitive issue into something that can be proudly displayed and worn as part of the path to tackle it.

Grisela has long-term plans to sell her pieces on the

Since 2015, the Concentration in Jewelry Design, Production, and Marketing has allowed specialization in this area, which combines three pillars:

• Design and creativity
• Production systems
• Marketing and brand development

In addition to the opportunity offered by the jewelry workshop to put the concepts learned into practice, it was possible to combine the prestige of the Tec with the professional authority of the Jalisco Chamber of Jewelry to benefit the development of this industry.

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