My 5 favorite Spanish Jewelry Brands

I was so lucky this year! Four weeks of summer holiday in Spain. How could I not tell you passionately about my five favorite Spanish brands! It’s like expanding the summer holiday just that little bit longer...

Every morning I went to the beach, for some meditation to start the day....felt so blessed here!

 

Costa Brava

For the past 4 years we have been spending our holidays on the Costa Brava in a small town called Platja de Pals. Pals itself is a magnificent medieval town on a hill, but Platja de Pals is not more than a holiday village. However, it is close to this marvellous beach and I love to walk the 600 mtr every morning to that beach. When my hubby and child are still asleep, I inhale the morning air. Greet the many joggers and stroll down the hill towards the beach. It’s a small entrance, but then you’ll find one of the larger beaches of the Costa Brava coast, but without the whole Lloret de Mar craziness.

Shopping

Apart from Platja d’Aro, there aren’t too many shopping places where you can go for jewelry or clothes. Unless you visit the larger towns of Figueres or Girona. Or Barcelona, of course! But with a 6 year old, I find that going for a shopping trip is anything but relaxed :-)

Some random pictures we took from the Costa Brava

 

Boho from Begur

The Spanish people and the tourists in this part of Catalonia are all kind of laid back. One little town I especially enjoy is Begur. If you like to go shopping for some serious Boho style clothing and fashion jewelry, you should visit this little pearl. I especially enjoy to come early morning and have my cappuccino on the main square, where I can observe all the people passing by. The shops that are opening, people sweep their part of the street, people greet each other, many walk with a newspaper under their arm, heading for a nearby bar, to sip their coffee and enjoy their lovely start of a new summer day. 

Catalonia loves animals

Catalonia is lovely region with a very strong own identity. They are also the first (apart from the Canary Islands) to ban bullfighting. Something I applaud, with all my heart. Those who claimed that such a ban was anti Spanish got the message back that it has nothing to do with being anti Spanish, but everything with evolved taste. Death and suffering of a living creature should not be a public spectacle. Hear hear!... 

More of the Costa Brava's beautiful images, the picture on the left below is a picture I take every year :-) 

Vivid passion

Many compare Spain to Italy, but their is no comparison really. They are both Latin countries. People express themselves a little more vividly than up north in Europe, but the Spanish people have a slightly more laid back approach of life. The Italians, and I say this with all my love and affection for them, tend to care a little more about the exterior part of their lives. They are more keen of the way they dress, the latest fashion trends and so on. But both countries share a huge and profound love for warm and gorgeous jewelry. Jewelry that is not afraid to show you some colors, jewelry that expresses vividly passion and tradition.

Come and explore with me, my very favorite top 5 jewelry brands from Spain.

 1. Magerit

Now Magerit is one of those companies that have such a strong identity, but that really goes for all the companies I have chosen as my favorites.

Everyone makes statement jewelry, jewelry that one needs to be perhaps slightly daring to be able to wear it with flair. It won’t be your first piece of jewelry for sure.

Magerit is a brand that makes mini sized art. I admit to say that often, but when you look closely at the details of each piece, it is so refined and so wonderfully detailed. I showed it to my hubby, who doesn’t share my more extravagant lust for jewelry most of the time, and he instantly fell in love with it. He could not stop pointing out all the details! This is what I love! Someone who *isn’t that much into jewelry* that gets all enthusiastic as he or she found something in a piece of jewelry that makes them marvel, that makes them smile, or wonder...Jewelry should move something within your heart.

 

Magerit is a company founded in 1994 but has roots that go far more back. The name is an ancient name for Madrid and the company claims to embrace the Spanish culture whilst being very open towards other cultures. Jewelry of Magerit is a bit like wearing a piece of art. It’s also very strong and will for sure attract people to watch closer. This is jewelry that won’t go unnoticed and it will get conversation started. Something I love.

 

2.  Vicente Gracia

Once I was doing a blog about jewelry with animals and this was my moment of discovery of this Valencian jeweler. Born in 1961 he grew up as the son of a jewelry maker and when you read a bit more about this designer, you soon discover that his passion and his interest covers a large amount of topics. I love that, as I believe that inspiration comes from many different places. It’s almost always a mix of things that you have seen or read about, that in some way start to inspire you.

 

Vincente Gracia has his very own style, there is a lot happening in most of his jewelry. Even if I perhaps would not be able to identify a piece directly ( apart from the collections that I know of course) as a Vincente Gracia, it has it’s very own strong style. I come across many jewelry companies, most have wonderful jewelry, but it’s not always easy to have a strong identity.

 

Vincente comes across as a very strong personality and so does his amazing jewelry.

 

3. Ramon

Perhaps Ramon is the *easiest* brand of the 5 described here. I know, it made me smile too, but what I mean is that it’s slightly more classic. There aren’t animal figures or heroins holding tigers.

 

There are soft, shiny shapes, easy on the eye and well made. I especially love those lovely bracelets. Ramon dates back to 1888, which does not show in their current collection. It’s the simplicity of the jewelry that emanes beauty and serenity. It does not want to tell a story, it does not want to play the leading role in your outfit, yet it completes it. It’s elegant with a capital E.

 

Ramon is for when you wear your camel trench coat. It’s that simple and that beautiful.

 

4. Bagues Masriera

Founded in 1839, this company is really one of the oldest jewelry companies in Spain. It was the third generation of Masriera that back in 1888 started with the increasingly popular Art Nouveau design. And it’s what they became most famous for.

Masriera still employs enameling techniques that the founders and those who followed, used. Like Basse-taille, champlevé and plique-a-jour. They also invented a very own technique called the Esmalt Barcelone. Enameling is a very complex technique and it requires great skills, artistically and as craftsmanship, to have the kind of effect that you’ll find at Masriera.

 

 

I admire this company for their tradition, for their eye for detail and for the incredible enameling that they use. One of the best I have ever seen.

 

5. Carrera Y Carrera

Founded in 1880. Another jewelry company with a long and impressive history. Carrera Y Carrera is the most famous of the five companies that you see here today. It’s amongst the 30 most important and most known jewelry companies in the world. This brand sells worldwide and has made it big in the U.S. too. Something that most jewelry companies from Europe dream of.

 

 

Carrera Y Carrera is a jewelry brand that has this very warm yellowy feeling almost in all it’s jewelry. It’s 18kt gold, like all the others and almost always with a satin finish. Mind you, they do jewelry without that satin finish too, but it’s that remarkable own style that I love about them. It’s a brand that in the Northern part of Europe is hard to sell. Even if people do *kind of get it*, it’s too warm, too expressive maybe for them. But even if the Northern Europeans did not get it as much as many other countries, Carrera Y Carrera continue happily on their path to expand all over the world. 

Why should you want Carrera Y Carrera? It’s strong, it’s bold, it’s detailed, it’s soft, it’s expressive and it has got such character!

 

But wait...there is nr 6?

:-)

Well, Oscar Rodriquez did not make it to my top 5 but I want to show you the company that I have spotted and it really caught my eye. The collection is very small, but it’s a delicate and interesting collection of rings. I always love a strong, bold, colorful ring! But these have something poetic about them. Maybe it’s the shell that tells you a story of its origins, maybe it’s the colors of the rings….I find them enchanting:-)

 

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