In 2017 I started at the goldsmith training, at the vocational school in Schoonhoven as an addition to my job as an engineer. Goldsmithing is my passion and offers me the opportunity to be creative with my hands. As a maker of está linda la mar I work alternately in my studio in Haarlem, the Netherlands or Queretaro, Mexico. Two professions and also two countries... the basis of who I am. The duality is also there in my inspiration nature and technique.

"Está linda la mar" (The sea is beautiful) is a sentence from a poem by Ruben Darío that my grandfather often recited to me. It's about a little princess who wanted to make a brooch. When I decided to study this old rhyme came straight into my head, along with the memory of my grandmother who worked in a goldsmith's workshop. está linda la mar is a dream come true for me.

Elsa González Palacios