History
Jaime Díaz was born in Sevilla in January 1972. When he was 20 years old, he decided to embark on an apprenticeship in jewellery work and design in a traditional workshop. after finishing his apprenticeship Jaime moved to Barcelona to learn the art of precious stone cutting, before graduating in Applied Arts and Design with a jewellery specialization in Escuela Massana. Jaime later went on to obtain a Diploma in Art and Design from Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona.
While studying, he worked in various workshops where he learned forging in an autodidactic way. After an internship as head of the workshop at the Massana School and after a personal evolution, he decided to devote himself to teaching.
El Taller was born in the Poble Nou district. Its mission; to teach the traditional techniques of jewelry. Its objectives, to establish a dialogue with students and shorten the gap between the world of learning and the real professional production scene.
Philosophy
To adorn oneself is a universal act of expression. Jewelry, used as a protection amulet or as a sign of social status, throughout human history, and across cultures has been, a communication medium, a form of sending signals to other people and of establishing an identity. Jewelry says something about who we are.
The jeweler maintains a beautiful love story with nature, with the earth, with the fire. Like a magician or alchemist, the jeweler has to control the elements with which he works, know the materials and use the tools accurately. Skill is the rock to find creativity and freedom from fear.
The jewelry maker, is in a way a messenger; he has to learn to put into his jewel a message of himself, or of the person to whom he makes the jewel for. It is through this sensibility, that he is capable of creating with his hands honest objects with a meaning which people are enabled to identify with.
The contemporary jeweler in his search for freedom has gone through the borders of materials and of the functionality of the jewel. Creating new links between the jewel and the person who uses it, establishing new types of intimacy, of dialogue, of identification and of meaning.
Jewelry is today a medium of expression of the creator and the wearer; it is an art that testifies peoples need of belonging, that legitimates a space from which universal images and emotions are evoked that identify us and commit us to the connection and continuity of life.