Famous Japanese Fashion Designer Keita Maruyama with Mercedes at his Tokyo boutique.

Mercedes Salazar will be on Japan Jewellery Fair 2009. Since CMP, organizer of the September Hong Kong Jewellery & Watch Fair and other leading jewellery events in Asia, assumed ownership of the Japan Jewellery Fair in 2006 the number of exhibitors and visitors has doubled. The fair is now the leading event in Japan for the second half of the year and in 2008 attracted 448 exhibitors from 22 countries and was attended by 15,968 quality buyers.

Not unlike other jewelry artists, Salazar is unafraid to create jewelry on her terms, bringing innate knowledge and every form of inspiration to her lovely creations. She fearlessly explores unusual combinations like mixing alloy with fabric, integrating cut, colored glass with metal instead of semi-precious or precious gemstones, or fashioning a sea urchin shell into a 24-karat gold-covered pendant.

A graduate of Mexico City’s Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes’ Craftwork School, Salazar’s keen attention to contrasts–light with dark, high polish with texture, and combining different shapes and colors–is a focal point of her designs. Her pieces are elegant yet simultaneously bold and colorful, and she can take a conventional design making it her own.

Her array of materials include, among others, African beads, resin, 24-karat gold plating, satin thread, brass, and sterling silver. With some of her pendants featuring semi-precious gemstones, such as her Ainan Jade Pendant, Salazar adds a signature touch by accentuating the chain suspending the gemstone with three, smaller stones: ruby, garnet, and amethyst.

Firmly holding to the belief of a positive, higher realm, she uses her creative gifts to inspire and uplift. Widely seen as a symbol of death or evil, the skull motif also symbolizes life and consciousness. Salazar’s take on this symbol is beautifully distinctive. She fashions the skull from golden brass shaping it into a mask-like pendant, overlaying it with a printed pattern and adding dangling, white pearls within the eye areas. She also creates posie-type rings, and bracelet with uplifting, engraved messages.

Her bold colored, hand-woven Caña Flecha bracelets, made with satin thread and sterling silver clasps, pay homage to her Colombian roots and artisanship. In Colombia, the leaves of the Caña Flecha palm tree are used to create such items as handbags, hats, and baskets. Before the leaves are color-dyed and fashioned into these items, artisans dry them in the sun and the fibers are divided into different sized strips. Salazar’s vibrant yet refined pieces are sold around the world including Puerto Rico, Japan, Australia, the Dominican Republic, Spain, Mexico, and the United States.

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Mercedes Salazar - jewelry designer

Desde niña el tema de la moda ha sido de su interés, pero siempre con versatilidad, nada común  y corriente. De hecho de los 17  a los 22 años se vistió con la ropa que su mamá tenia guardada en el clóset, típica de los años 50, 60  y 70. Más adelante, ya con ese antecedente  como parametro, la joyera definió su propia imagen como se le conoce hoy, fresca, divertida, auténtica, muy Mercedes Salazar.

Cuenta  con la sensibilidad y el talento de combinar adecuadamente colores y texturas, y con el caracter que le permite arriesgar sin miedo alguno. El único que puede opinar acerca de cómo se ve es Diego Martinez, su marido y mejor asesor de imagen.  Los demás aprendieron a admirarla con todo y sus botas de charol y suela blanca, sus chaquetas de estilo militar, su tacones de mas de “10 centimetros de autoestima”, sus tonos rosados, naranjas y fucsias, y todo lo que consigue en almacenes o en mercados de las pulgas del mundo, a donde suele ir a escarbar para soñar que nació en otra época  y pasarla bien.