As a Mexican Artist, but also as a woman who lived in the United States, I felt the urge to guard myself from the desolating grayness of the long northern winters. By manipulating perceptual notions of form and color, I assemble gradations of circular units, infusing the body with the visual energy of warm saturated hues that perform as protective shields.

Series “When Shit Happens, Turn it into Fertilizer” I have always entertained the habit of collecting objects that have served an initial purpose in our everyday but could potentially have a second life. Just after coming out of grad school, I found myself in desperate need for making. Like any recent foreign graduate my expenses budget was substantially shortened. This made me scrutinize into my household items searching for something worth experimenting with. As a result, a life long research and collecting of materials available in our everyday lives emerged in my artistic exercise. Carefully cleaned and stored away milk cartoons, coffee cups and lids, toilet paper cardboard rolls and plastic bottles, to name some, have been filling up the space of my confined studio walls in México for the past 3 years. These jewelry pieces are the first ones of my series entitled “When Shit Happens, Turn It Into Fertilizer.” Toilet paper is a staple in every household therefore it is a material readily available and accessible to reach and collect. The cardboard rolls found in toilet paper are waste objects that only get to serve their initial purpose of acting as a support for the paper. When finished, these rolls are discarded and replaced by new ones. In these series I unwrap the potential of such a humble, ordinary and worthless material to become the expression of the extraordinary through a process of experimentation of the aesthetic qualities inherent to the material. By exploring the structure and the form in which toilet paper cardboard rolls are fabricated I have encountered a myriad of fascinating ways to naturally unfold its hidden grace. Empathy is key in my making process. It is through countless hours of honest and humble experimentation that I have been able to understand and listen to the material´s plasticity in order to transform it into pieces of jewelry that convey its beauty and shapeliness. Photo credits : BY THE ARTIST ( Mariana Acosta Contreras)

Contemporary jewelry fabricated in resin.

As humans we have the ability to change from one state of mind to another, we can choose to be happy or sad, content or unsatisfied. The purpose of this anchoring piece of jewelry is to connect the wearer to the piece by means of a process of interaction that completes a cycle of awareness and inner power. These wooden beads have been delicately and expressly hand wrapped in purple macramé cord in order to infuse them with the energy of this color, which is believed to counteract negative states of mind and allow a connection with our inner power as it brings insight and fulfillment.

Upcycled paint chips into wearable jewelry.

Polymer Clay color studies

Aug - Jan 2014_15. The class goal was to make a drees and a piece of contemporary jewelry from waste materials that are considered useless outside the creative realm. A dialogue between the maker and the material is enabled through a process of profound research and experimentation. Understanding the possibilities of the material to be transformed into an out of the ordinary body ornament was central to the success of the work.

Aug - Jan 2014_15. The class goal was to make a drees and a piece of contemporary jewelry from waste materials that are considered useless outside the creative realm. A dialogue between the maker and the material is enabled through a process of profound research and experimentation. Understanding the possibilities of the material to be transformed into an out of the ordinary body ornament was central to the success of the work.

Sep-Jan 2015-16. The class goal was to make a piece of contemporary jewelry from waste materials that are considered useless outside the creative realm. A dialogue between the maker and the material is enabled through a process of profound research and experimentation. Understanding the possibilities of the material to be transformed into an out of the ordinary body ornament was central to the success of the work. I feel very proud that some of them were able to develop their own personal exchange with the material.

Feb-Jul 2013. This is my students work. The class goal was to make a piece of contemporary jewelry from waste materials that are considered useless outside the creative realm. A dialogue between the maker and the material is enabled through a process of profound research and experimentation. Understanding the possibilities of the material to be transformed into an out of the ordinary body ornament was central to the success of the work. I feel very proud that some of them were able to develop their own personal exchange with the material.

Feb_June 2013. This is my students work. The class goal was to make a piece of contemporary jewelry from waste materials that are considered useless outside the creative realm. A dialogue between the maker and the material is enabled through a process of profound research and experimentation. Understanding the possibilities of the material to be transformed into an out of the ordinary body ornament was central to the success of the work. I feel very proud that some of them were able to develop their own personal exchange with the material.

This is my students work. The class goal was to make a piece of contemporary jewelry from waste materials that are considered useless outside the creative realm. A dialogue between the maker and the material is enabled through a process of profound research and experimentation. Understanding the possibilities of the material to be transformed into an out of the ordinary body ornament was central to the success of the work. I feel very proud that some of them were able to develop their own personal exchange with the material

Aug_Jan_2014/15. This is my students work. The class goal was to make a piece of contemporary jewelry from waste materials that are considered useless outside the creative realm. A dialogue between the maker and the material is enabled through a process of profound research and experimentation. Understanding the possibilities of the material to be transformed into an out of the ordinary body ornament was central to the success of the work. I feel very proud that some of them were able to develop their own personal exchange with the material.

Jan-Jul 2016 / The class goal was to make a piece of contemporary jewelry from waste materials that are considered useless outside the creative realm. A dialogue between the maker and the material is enabled through a process of profound research and experimentation. Understanding the possibilities of the material to be transformed into an out of the ordinary body ornament was central to the success of the work. I feel very proud that some of them were able to develop their own personal exchange with the material.

Graphic design projects for diverse companies and organizations