Fashion & Beauty |Featured

The Magic of Wearable Art

By Jessica Escalante | bio | contact

Local artists, Lorenzo Sevilla, Frank Albert Sanchez and Terry Samaniego create one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces. The trio respectively works with unique metals to create their ornate signature items. Whether your taste is timeless and refined or modern and eclectic, we’ve compiled items suited to please every eye.

Lorenzo Sevilla Heals Hearts One Piece of Sheet Metal at a Time

By Jessica Escalante

When creating jewelry, Lorenzo Sevilla has an unfair disadvantage. The hairdresser-turned-jewelry designer creates his works of art in a studio nestled on the scenic Rim Road. Not that location matters because the self-taught artist can probably create magical pieces in the dark. But when you overlook the beautiful El Paso landscape on a daily basis, inspiration just cooperates.

Self-taught jewelry designer, Lorenzo Sevilla has been creating unique jewelry pieces out of sheet metal for about four years. Sevilla’s unisex pieces are rustic and unfinished, “I don’t like anything too shiny or polished,” claims Sevilla, “and it’s too much work,” he jokingly adds. A greater part of Sevilla’s collection contains these intricate metal hearts with stitching over open wounds. An inexplicable repetition, Sevilla shares that upon showing a client one day, she suggested he called the collection “Healing Hearts,” and so he did. Sevilla’s collections are also inspired by nature, peace and love.

All of Lorenzo’s pieces are handcrafted from start-to-finish. His collections include earrings, necklaces, pendants and more. Lorenzo prefers to add rough touches by incorporating nuts, bolts, wire mesh and finishing his work with wire hand-wrapping. When asked whose jewelry he admires most, 42-year-old Sevilla claims he looks upon Todd Reed and Deb Karash’s creations for inspiration.

Originally from La Union, New Mexico, Lorenzo took a rendering class in San Diego many years ago, after much unsatisfaction with a structured classroom setting, free-spirited Sevilla (who’s lived everywhere from Lubbock, TX to Puerto Vallarta) decided to freely explore his skill.

To browse Lorenzo Sevilla’s jewelry collection, visit www.bysevilla.etsy.com.

Timeless Beauty: F. Albert Sanchez Designs

By Jessica Escalante

Jewelry connoisseur, Frank Albert Sanchez ventured into the business about 20 years ago. He started off working as a sales associate and during the infancy stages of his career, he was awakened by an unforeseen talent. After much observation and an unending interest in the fundamentals of jewelry-making, Frank started experimenting with jewelry design. “I started off at Silverman’s and learned a lot, then went off to Lacy & Co. where I grew very inspired,” stated the jewelry master.

Although Sanchez often surrounded himself with jewelry-crafting experts, he taught himself all of the ground rules that come along with creating an adorning masterpiece such as carving wax and setting stones. Frank Albert Sanchez works with high-profile stones such as blue topaz, citrine, amethyst, smoky quartz, lemon citrine, carnelian, onyx and of course, silver. He prefers to work with Argentinean silver as it is more resistant to tarnishing. “When creating new pieces, my mind goes faster than I do,” said Sanchez.

Whether it’s his necklaces, earrings or rings (his favorite to make), all of Sanchez’s designs boast a unique braid trademark. On occasion, Sanchez will incorporate gold into his designs, but for the sake of keeping his timeless items affordable, he prefers to stick to silver. Husband to a lucky wife and father to a fortunate daughter, when asked what his family thinks about the unlimited access to beautiful jewelry, Sanchez jokes, “They like to keep the pieces, if I let them, I wouldn’t sell anything.”

F. Albert Designs may be found at Ben Williams Jewelers and JR Jewelry and Gifts.

Terry Samaniego’s Art for Sale

By Denisse Rauda

By using rubber pieces, metal fabric or pipe cleaners, Terry Samaniego creates what she calls “wearable art.” Her creations walk a fine line between fashion and art, and then build a bridge to the world of jewelry. Out of her in-home studio, the artist is taking jewelry-making to the next level.

Aside from using bizarre materials, Samaniego’s unique pieces are made for untraditional places of the body. “I like to explore [by] ornating different parts of the body that aren’t normally ornated,” Samaniego said of her larger-and-more-intricate-than-jewelry pieces. Her creations include brooches pinned to the back of the shoulder so “you can get a peek of it from the front,” necklaces spanning from below the collarbone up to the chin, pieces for the back of the hand and recently new sash-pieces worn across the chest.

Samaniego, who has been selling her pieces for nearly 10 years, graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a BSA in Metals. Here, she said she learned to nurture her inner artist and curiosity with methods not available to her before. “I’ve always been fascinated with fashion and jewelry. I’ve always been oriented with that. I learned a lot with the university to unfold the way that I have and explore different ways that I couldn’t before,” Samaniego added.

It was at UTEP, under the guidance of her Metals professor, where she began to sell her craft at yearly art expo, Las Artistas. Samaniego has since added multiple trunk shows around town and a more stationary place to sell at Homebody Boutique on Cincinnati Street. Sparking much curiosity and inquiry, her designs have led to rare opportunities that few are privileged to have. After her UTEP professor photographed a ring she made to fit four fingers simultaneously, Samaniego “randomly” received a letter from a Virginia professor convincing her to submit the photograph of her ring for a book that was taking ring submissions. This was “the God part,” Samaniego said. “I didn’t have the guts to do it, but I figured if a stranger thought it was good enough…” The ring can be seen in the 2004 book titled, 1000 Rings: Inspiring Adornments for

the Hand.

The El Paso native said she finds her inspiration to create not just wearable art, but other forms as well, in God, and in herself. She stated how important it is for aspiring artists to recognize what is inside of them and not to be afraid to use it to their full potential.“Create what’s in your heart, create from the inside out and do it with passion. Even if one person doesn’t like your work, there’s a whole word of people whom you are creating for that will like that piece. Stay true to what you’re manifesting from the inside.”