Monica Benjumea Velasco: From a hobby to a career in jewellery making

Malaga-based Monica Benjumea Velasco has loved jewellery making ever since she can remember, pursuing it as a hobby for many years. Largely self-taught, she has cultivated her passion for the craft alongside a career in administration as a secretary. Participating in the Michelangelo Foundation’s Trainee to Professional programme has given her the chance to refine her skills under master jewellery maker Antonio Seijo and to re-evaluate her future career. Here she reflects on her experience as a trainee.

What is your educational background?

I did an introductory course in jewellery at the La Nueva Jewelry school in Madrid for two years. Occasionally, I have followed short courses on different jewellery techniques such as wax modeling and setting preparation. I consider myself mostly self-taught, as I have made jewellery on my own for many years in the workshop that I created in my home. For personal reasons, I could not train for a professional career in jewellery, so I combined my career as a secretary with jewellery as a hobby.

Why did you choose the traineeship?

It was an opportunity that I could not miss, to be able to work hand in hand with a craftsperson as experienced as Antonio Seijo. In jewellery, it is very difficult to gain an apprenticeship in a workshop. There are many schools teaching jewellery courses, but the hands-on training is scarce and insufficient if you want to specialise in fine jewellery. The Michelangelo Foundation’s traineeship programme has meant a great step forward in training for me.

What did you discover about jewellery making?

This training has taken me from making jewellery to making fine jewellery, using both metals and precious stones, I have learned how to work in a real workshop for the first time. I have perfected my techniques, learning to solve problems as they appear in the jewellery creation process, to correct mistakes and to take the right measurements for a piece.

What did you learn from Antonio Seijo?

In the jewellery world teaching is viewed with suspicion, it is a profession that is usually learned from generation to generation and when someone comes from the outside, it is not easy to enter. Antonio has opened his doors to me, teaching me what he knows and encouraging me to take risks with my designs. He has sat with me to see the way I work and what I design, giving me new challenges, new ideas, inspiring my creativity and my motivation to create. For me, that is the most important thing, finding someone who believes in you and who is willing to pass on their knowledge.

What are your future career plans?

I want to continue training to achieve my goals and become a designer and creator of fine jewellery. It is a profession that encompasses many different techniques, which require many hours of work and a lot of knowledge. When I finish this internship, I want to find a jewellery maker who will give me private lessons or be an apprentice in a jewellery workshop to continue training. Meanwhile, I am going to continue creating my jewellery, taking what I have learned from Antonio, I would like to launch a small collection while I continue my training.

Is craft a viable career for young people in Spain?

It is a complicated career that is difficult to enter if you are not from a family of artisans, but with perseverance and effort it can be achieved. Spain has a strong tradition of crafts from ceramics and leather to lace and basketry. I think they have always been guilds with very hard work and very little recognition, but it seems that this is finally changing. We have been invaded by mass production for many years and now we are realizing the importance of craftsmanship, quality and authenticity, and starting to give it the recognition it deserves.

Notes for editors

michelangelofoundation.org

@homofaber

The Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship is a non-profit institution based in Geneva, Switzerland, which champions contemporary craftspeople worldwide with the aim of promoting a more human, inclusive and sustainable future. The Foundation seeks to highlight the connections between craft, the wider arts and the design world. Its mission is to both celebrate and preserve craftsmanship and its diversity of makers, materials and techniques, by increasing craft’s everyday recognition and its viability as a professional path for the next generations. From engaging educational programmes such as the Summer Schools, to its signature digital project the Homo Faber Guide and the international exhibition Homo Faber Event, the Foundation is fostering a cultural movement centred on master artisans and rising stars. michelangelofoundation.org

Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte is a private, non-profit institution founded in 1995. Based in Milan, it promotes cultural, academic and educational initiatives for the protection and diffusion of Italian artistic crafts. The Fondazione Cologni’s mission is to inspire a “new Renaissance” of the artistic crafts and rescue them from the threat of extinction. Many of its initiatives focus on young people and training future generations of artisans. fondazionecologni.it

Asociación Contemporanea de Artes y Oficios (ACAO) is an association that promotes both traditional and contemporary Spanish crafts. They seek to protect Spanish craftsmanship, and use it to foster the development of culture, history and art and boost its economic benefits on the environment and tourism industry. Their main targets are to ensure an environment in which Spanish craftspeople can thrive and to aid them in having further commercial reach in Spain and internationally. The ACAO collaborates with similar institutions to ideate best practices; they assist with the development of commercial platforms for craftspeople; they organise seminars, forums and talks. Beyond this, they use media for widespread visibility for arts and crafts; they launch programmes that promote crafts and engage in research projects. Their collective expertise enables them to provide consulting services to artisans and ateliers. forodeartesyoficios.com

The Craft Project is a French non-profit association born out of the podcast which goes by the same name, which has been promoting French craftspeople and craftsmanship since 2018. The association has several aims: firstly, to create a community of artisans who collectively think of innovative strategies to build the futures of their crafts. Secondly, to raise awareness of craftsmanship among the general public by introducing them to materials and to beauty. Lastly, to encourage vocations by shedding light on exemplary destinies and adventures in the arts and crafts. thecraftproject.fr

La Tecnocreativa is a fashion and design school based in Madrid that focuses on entrepreneurship, management and sustainable development. It seeks to preserve the traditional crafts linked to the creative industries and marry them with new technologies. The school revolutionises training with a model that combines online learning, thanks to televisual technology, with in-presence seminars for certain courses. A month-long course tailored to the Trainee to Professional programme was created with partner Assocíacion Contemporánea Artes y oficios for the participating students. latecnocreativa.com

Costa Crociere Foundation was created with the aim of disseminating and developing the values of the Costa Group through the management and financing of environmental and social projects with a common interest. A commitment that manifests in supporting and developing projects to assist communities they encounter on the Costa ships’ journeys, and which focus on environmental protection and the eradication of social inequity at a global level investing. They invest 100% of the donations they receive into projects to transform the daily work they do into a promise of happiness. costacrocierefoundation.com

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