Nico Sales
What is your name and where do you live?
My name is Nico Sales and I currently live in Palma, on the island of Mallorca.
How did you start your journey in the world of jewelry?
My journey in the world of jewelry officially began in 2015, when after working a year in Kiev I returned to Spain and changed Madrid for Mallorca.
I came from the world of sociology and social work and although I have always had a certain weakness for using my hands to express myself it was not until arriving in Mallorca when I decided to completely change my course. Here, at the School of Arts was where I learned the techniques and the same year I started my studies I got to work in a jewelry workshop, which allowed me to learn more about the material and the processes required for the final result is what we wear on our body. A result in which the amount of fire that is required goes unnoticed.
What does “precious” mean to you?
I think that in the world there are many and very diverse things that we can associate with this intense word. As far as jewelry is concerned and today what I think is that stones or metals can be precious, but what is really precious that a jewel contains is the time it takes to be revealed. And of course, the meaning that is imposed on the piece, the memory it contains. The word precious I think is very loaded with meanings and what I like about this word is that I’m still investigating its meaning.
How has your background in sociology and social work influenced your creative vision?
My background in social work has influenced my creative process by accentuating the stories in the jewelry. Bringing to the forefront what they mean and for whom they mean something.
Jewelry has a social imprint that we should not ignore when we talk about this art. And that social function is changeable and variable depending on the historical moment in which it is created and therefore fulfills a social function.
Also the social act, as an act, led me 8 years ago to create Go Malaca with other colleagues. A space that allows to displace jewelry from the places created expressly for it. Since we founded it, we have intervened a bar, an optician’s shop, the street and even a nail salon. It is in a way an exercise in cultural democratization.
I believe in jewelry as a tool with the ability to create changes in the social sphere, beyond the fact of being an ornament.
Jewelry has always been a tool for social expression, we cannot ignore it.
What materials or found objects are you most attracted to at the moment and why?
Those materials that are connected to stories I know. When I was a child I kept in a shoebox objects that brought me memories, today and after many moves I still keep some of them. You can see that the manufacture of these objects was more cured, there was a certain care in the manufacturing process.
The tin boxes are elements that have always fascinated me, I find them precious objects in all aspects, both new and old, as the paint is disappearing, giving way to rust and yet still fulfilling the same function as 50 years ago.
What kind of stories or moments do you try to preserve through your pieces?
I think the moments I want to preserve are the ones I have lived and I also like it very much when someone chooses me to create theirs. I am not very clear if there is a common thread in my pieces, but I think they are very narrative, maybe I am the common thread of my pieces, maybe my pieces are something like a logbook.
Who do you imagine wearing your work?
I think jewelry is for all those people who want to wear it. I don’t imagine if I have a specific public, I think that my work as a jeweler is to express and therefore all those people who connect with any piece of mine have the right and even the duty to wear it. In that way also these pieces generate new stories and new memories.
Is your jewelry intended to be a memory, a connector, a conversation?
My jewelry is related to these 3 concepts, on the one hand it is a memory of the wearer. They are also a connector in that the person who contacts me and jointly generates a connection, with me and with the final result. And on the other hand, when that piece leaves my workshop and is exposed to the world, it opens up the possibility of generating conversations around it, although those conversations derived from my work no longer belong to me, in the same way that the memories it creates are no longer mine.
What challenges do you face in creating thoughtful work in an industry that is moving at a dizzying pace?
The biggest challenge I feel I face is the fact that I don’t want to produce for the sake of producing, I don’t want to do things quickly. I want to enjoy the creative process, the aesthetic issue and the technical issue.
Having the possibility of facing challenges is something that in the contemporary world is a fortunate thing.
On the other hand, and this is also a very important issue, I have a job outside my jewelry workshop, a job that allows me to enjoy the creative process when I work on my work, just because it gives me money so i don´t feel the pressure when i’m creating my pieces.
The capitalist world is terrifying and in my experience what I have managed to do is to pay the bills but to be able to stand firm in my way of making in my space.
What strikes you when you walk around your city? Are there textures, details or rhythms that stick in your mind?
Mallorca is sand-colored, the Mallorcan stone, the marés is undoubtedly the predominant texture in all this environment. It has a kind and crunchy aspect, like a cookie and somehow this stone awakens tenderness in me.
The Mallorcan shutter, enameled in “carriage green” color that allows you to see without being seen.
Having breakfast on a Sunday watching the street, Palma is a city that goes from a frenetic pace on weekdays to a slow and quiet pace on Sundays.
Where can people find you?
People can find me in my workshop if they want to meet me in person in the center of Palma.
But considering the digital age it might be easier to find me on instagram at @nicosalesjw or in my website www.nicosalesjw.com
I am currently working on different projects that excite me a lot, one more artistic, with stones and reflecting on what it means to set.
A more theoretical and almost anthropological project about precious stones and their use during the 15th century.
And then another more specific one about jewelry and the function of the objects we create.
Specifically in terms of sharing a table to eat, utensils, cutlery and glasses.
I like to experiment and when something clicks in my head I need to work tirelessly to develop it.
