The Handmade Ceramic Jewelry of Julieta Álvarez

Based in Madrid, Julieta Álvarez is a signature-ceramic brand specialized in jewelry and deco. Run by sisters Julieta and Rocio Álvarez, all of their products are handmade so that every piece is unique, a piece of art that serves a decorative function.

Structural in nature, Álvarez’s pieces have been shown at galleries, stores, and international museums such as the Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Luxembourg or the Reina Sofía in Madrid, amongst others. They’re also sold in more than 20 countries over five continents.

With a background in fashion and graphic design, Julieta Álvarez says she fell in love with ceramics after taking a course with Resu Labrador. “I’m in love with ceramic because is a material that allows almost everything,” she shared with Cup of Couple. “You can experiment with it, try new things, learn, make jewelry, sculptures or just disconnect from the world and lose track of time.”

She recalls being mesmerized with ceramics when she was just a child. “When I was a kid I played a bit with ceramic, my dad is pretty good molding and he used to bring pottery lumps home.”

Her designs nowadays rely on shapes and dramatic contrasts. “I’m so interested in contrasts,” she says. “When you look at nature you can find geometric shapes, symmetries and repeated patterns following a mathematical behavior, but at the same time, you find chaos, disorder, poetry, and shapes without any coherence.”

Such “organized chaos” is to be expected when scrolling through the sisters’ collections.