Luz Camino’s Supernatural Gems - Jewelry Connoisseur

A new book and a significant exhibition have marked the 50th anniversary of this elusive Spanish jewelry designer this year.

“Design and the quality of the craftsmanship, in tandem, have always sustained the meaning of my work,” explains high jeweler Luz Camino in A Bit of Universe: The Jewelry of Luz Camino, a monograph of the Spanish designer released this year to honor her 50th anniversary.

Sun Shadows necklace with diamonds, in platinum, steel, silver, and gold, 2019. (Fernando Ramajo)

Camino is a jewelry pioneer. Having enroled in Madrid’s Trade-Union School of Jewelry in 1973, she became the first woman in Spain to obtain the title of ‘jewelry craftsman’ and has spent the past 50 years mastering antique and contemporary jewelry techniques. Her impeccably crafted, one-of-a-kind and very limited-edition designs are simultaneously natural and realistic yet also magical and full of artistry. With no shop or gallery of her own, she has remained something of a hidden gem in the jewelry world.

Luz Camino Milky Way brooch set with labradorite, sapphires, diamonds, spinel, plique-à-jour enamel, in platinum, silver, and gold, 2011. (Fernando Ramajo)

In the US, Camino’s 50th anniversary as a jeweler was marked by a significant exhibition of her work at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York, which opened in May this year. “Jewels in a Gem: Luz Camino at the Hispanic Society Museum” was the designer’s first museum exhibition in the US and chronicled the trajectory of her work from the 1970s to the present day. Camino’s jewels were displayed alongside murals by Spanish artist Joaquín Sorolla in the newly reopened Sorolla gallery.

Poster for "Jewels in a Gem: Luz Camino at the Hispanic Society Museum." (Hispanic Society Museum & Library) — Poster for “Jewels in a Gem: Luz Camino at the Hispanic Society Museum.” (Hispanic Society Museum & Library)

While the exhibition closed its doors in September, it also served as a platform to launch Camino’s first ever monograph — a glimpse into her 50 years of creativity and craftsmanship. A Bit of Universe: The Jewelry of Luz Camino (published by Rizzoli) features more than 250 of Camino’s creations, many of which have never been seen outside of private collections. With a preface by fashion designer and longtime fan of Camino’s work Carolina Herrera, and a foreword by Clare Phillips, the Elizabeth Gage curator of jewellery from the department of decorative art and sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum, the book allows Camino’s designs to shine in a series of larger-than-life photographs that provide a visual feast for the eyes and focus the attention on the possibilities of the craft of jewelry making.

Flower Vase brooch with carved jade, coral, amethysts, diamonds, enamel, in silver and gold, 2005. (Fernando Ramajo)

In the book, Camino describes a pivotal meeting with jeweler Joel Arthur Rosenthal, known as JAR, which gave her the belief that “nothing is impossible and that anything can be made.” This statement rings true in the designs offered up in these pages, which offer a valuable insight into the vision of a unique jeweler.