The Real Spanish Jewelry Scene - A Guide to Independent and Designer Brands

Most people bring back jamón, olive oil, or a bull magnet from Spain. Nothing wrong with that — but there's a better option. This guide covers twenty independent jewelry brands across ten regions: from a tiny shop in a Bilbao doorway to an exclusive studio on Madrid's Gran Vía.

Madrid: Designer Jewelry for Every Taste and Budget

Madrid has more independent jewelry than any other city in the country, and it covers an enormous range: from bright acrylic pieces to exclusive gold and diamonds.

Coolook is known for its hand-cut natural stones: agate, labradorite, lemon quartz, fluorite, onyx — more than twenty varieties set in silver with gold plating. The brand was founded in 2011 by Mar Aldeger. She made her first piece from stones collected on her travels, as a gift for her mother — a pianist who had spent her whole life gathering gemstones. Her mother put them on and never went back to anything else. The stones are generous in size, the settings sculptural, the prices reasonable. Regular customers include Queen Letizia of Spain and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, and Coolook pieces have appeared twice in the series Emily in Paris.

ANDRESGALLARDO makes rings, earrings and brooches from… porcelain, and uses porcelain details on leather bags too. In 2010, Andrés Gallardo found a box of broken porcelain figurines at a Berlin flea market and started making pendants from the pieces. Madrid stylists and shops took notice very quickly. Today the brand has its own production facilities, a boutique in the Las Letras neighbourhood, and partnerships with the shops at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

Ginger & Velvet has two boutiques in the same Las Letras neighbourhood. Founder Maite García Tejedor makes large, expressive designer pieces in gold plating and enamel. Her workshop is right inside the shop, so you can have something adjusted or order a custom piece on the spot.

Sandra Bellew is a designer and gemologist with twenty years of experience. Her materials are silver, brass, natural pearls and uncut diamonds. Her separate line — medallas rústicas — consists of religious medals in brass and silver with deliberately aged, uneven surfaces, as though they'd been buried for centuries. Our Lady, Guardian Angel, Cross of Calatrava — people buy them as personal talismans, give them at births, pin them to wedding bouquets. Her shop at Almirante 8 in the Chueca neighbourhood is shared with local clothing brand Guillén y Bayona, and she is almost always there in person.

Papiroga is the label of Estefanía de Oliveira, and her boutique three blocks from Alonso Martínez metro is a genuine experience space. At the entrance, a pool of plastic balls; in the windows, bright acrylic jewellery. Flowers, magic mushrooms, references to Hieronymus Bosch and Wong Kar-wai — there's something of everything here. The brand's motto — "How do you want to feel today?" — hints that these pieces are meant to set the mood for the entire day.

Laura Márquez is not a shop with a display window. It's a studio-workshop on Gran Vía, best visited by prior appointment. Laura is one of Spain's most celebrated jewelry designers, founder of the Asociación Joyas de Autor, and winner of numerous awards. Her clients include Queen Letizia and many Spanish celebrities.

Barcelona: Contemporary Jewelry — Lightweight and Modern

Barcelona has its share of expensive jewelry boutiques and tourist shops selling silver pendants. But NUNU BCN occupies its own category: designer jewelry at genuinely accessible prices. The brand was founded by Núria Aragonès, an architect by training who worked in America, Asia and Europe. All her pieces are hypoallergenic: brass or zamak (an ultra-light zinc alloy) coated in 18-carat gold. The Tierra collection features natural stones: agate, pink and green quartz, sodalite, amethyst, pearl. Tubular is built on curved gold-plated tubes. Jardín features large earrings made of flowing chains and leaves. Ball plays with spheres of different sizes. In Barcelona the brand has two shops: one three blocks from Casa Batlló, the other next to the Mercat de Galvany. There are also shops in central Madrid and in Valencia.

The Basque Country: Symbolic Jewelry and New Technologies

Basq Lore in Bilbao occupies seven square metres in doorway number 5 on Calle Bidebarrieta. A hundred years ago, small shops in Bilbao were set up exactly like this, inside the entrances of residential buildings. Only four such historic shops survive in the city today, and Basq Lore is the largest. They sell jewellery and gifts featuring Basque symbols, with explanations of what each one means. Eguzkilore — dried thistle hung above the front door: according to local belief, witches mistake it for the sun and hurry back to their caves. Lauburu — the sign of the four elements and cardinal directions. Baldosa de Bilbao — a relief tile that has become an unofficial symbol of the city.

Lotune is a boutique in the Casco Viejo that brought four local craftswomen together. The jewellery here comes from Kiribiltxo ("little curl" in Basque) — a label that Olaia Fernández started in 2004 at the age of fifteen. She works with brass, aluminium and silver in constant search of a unique style. Her handmade pieces are produced in small runs and are therefore truly one-of-a-kind.

BaRock — the name says it all: baroque plus rock. BaRock is Estíbaliz Uguero, an architect who designs jewellery using parametric design and prints it on a 3D printer. The result is ultra-lightweight earrings, necklaces and rings with complex organic forms, inspired by the nature of the Basque Country. In Bilbao you can find them at Cabecita de Ajo or at the Azkuna Zentroa cultural centre.

Charo Casteres is the jewelry label of architect Rosario Casteres Serrats, and her architectural background shows clearly in every piece: complex volumes, precise forms, minimal decoration for decoration's sake. In 2019, together with fellow architect Ignacio Barajasarra, she opened Espacio B+C in the heart of the city. From the outside it looks like an architecture studio — because inside, that's exactly what it is. But where else would you find an architecture studio with contemporary designer jewellery in the window?

For more on the Basque jewelry scene — see our Bilbao local design guide.

Galicia: Ancient Filigree, Camino Heritage and Contemporary Silver

Galician jewelry is rooted in two local traditions. The first is silver filigree — fine wire twisted and soldered into intricate patterns. The Galician technique, more restrained and austere than its Portuguese counterpart, descends from Celtic craftsmen. The second tradition is azabache — jet, a distant relative of amber: a deep-black stone with a warm resinous sheen, used decoratively by ancient Egyptians and Romans, and considered a protective talisman for Camino de Santiago pilgrims in Galicia for centuries. In Santiago de Compostela, a street and a square both carry the name Azabachería — where masters of jet have worked for hundreds of years.

Ardentia was founded in A Coruña in 1988 by jeweller Luis González. His style is instantly recognisable: silver earrings, rings, bracelets, pendants and brooches with hot enamel, nano-ceramics and original textures, polished to a mirror finish. Ardentia shops can be found in A Coruña, Vigo and Santiago de Compostela — the last one is right next to the famous cathedral.

Also in the heart of Santiago de Compostela is Orfega — a brand that for more than twenty years has been combining contemporary design with traditional techniques in silver and azabache. Their signature is coloured silver: not enamel, not patina, but a proprietary technique in which natural dyes are fused directly into the metal. Earrings and rings acquire colour gradients — from deep blue to turquoise, or from ochre to terracotta. Right inside the shop is a workshop where you can watch a jeweller working with black azabache stone.

Maeloc is one of Santiago's best-known shops, carrying jewellery and ceramics made exclusively in the local area. Silver pieces with azabache and Camino de Santiago symbols are available in extraordinary variety — from traditional filigree to minimalist contemporary designs with black stone set in polished silver.

For more on the jewelry brands of Santiago — see our piece Rewarding Yourself at the End of the Camino de Santiago.

Tarragona: Sculptural Handmade Jewelry

Borràs Joiers — brothers Guillem and Jordi Borràs, working in the old town of Tarragona. Their jewellery is distinguished by simple forms and extraordinarily tactile textures — as though the pieces had been brought in by a wave from the floor of the Mediterranean. The brothers continue their father's craft: directly above the shop, behind large windows, is their studio where every piece is made by hand.

Veteran craftsman Joan Blázquez has been creating jewellery-as-sculpture for more than fifty years. He draws inspiration from baroque plasticity and Catalan Modernisme, and his work has been exhibited in Barcelona and New York. Nobody is indifferent to Blázquez's pieces: some people collect them, others walk past in bewilderment. See which camp you fall into.

Valencia: Jewelry as Works of Art

Gracia is the eponymous boutique of Vicent Gràcia — a house with a radically black façade, three minutes' walk from Valencia cathedral. Gràcia studied at the School of Arts and Design in Barcelona, where one of his teachers was the iconic Catalan surrealist Joan Miró. He won his first national prize in jewelry design in 1986, and has collected awards ever since. His pieces have been worn by Michael Jackson, Andie MacDowell, Daniel Craig and Spanish royalty. And they can only be bought here.

Asturias: Silver Jewelry with the Symbol of the Region

Santina Joyas in Oviedo makes jewellery featuring a stylised image of La Santina — the Virgin of Covadonga, patron saint of Asturias. It was at Covadonga in 722 that the Spanish Reconquista began. Since then, La Santina has been not just a religious symbol but part of the cultural identity of the entire region. A silver or gold Santina as a bracelet, pendant or earrings is something that carries deep meaning for locals — and makes a genuinely distinctive souvenir for visitors to Asturias.

The Balearic Islands: Mediterranean Jewelry Minimalism

Majoral is a jewelry brand from the island of Formentera. In the 1970s, Formentera was an almost mythical place — craftsmen, artists and creatives from around the world came, drawn by its unique natural beauty and its isolation from civilisation. The Catalan Enric Majoral and his partner Dolors Ballester arrived on the island intending to rethink their way of life in this lost paradise. Here Enric mastered the craft of jewelry-making and developed his own style — pieces saturated with the atmosphere of Formentera, embodying its forms, places and colours. He now works alongside his son Roc and in collaboration with other artists; his jewellery is exhibited worldwide and is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Arts and Design in New York (MAD NY).

Who Should Buy What

If you want something wearable every day at a reasonable price — look at Coolook, Ginger & Velvet or NUNU BCN. If the material matters — ANDRESGALLARDO with its porcelain, or Papiroga with its lightweight coloured acrylic. Serious silver with Galician roots — Maeloc; with contemporary technology and design — Ardentia and Orfega. Sculptural forms — Joan Blázquez in Tarragona or Charo Casteres in San Sebastián. The symbolism of a specific place — Basq Lore for the Basque Country, Santina Joyas for Asturias. A named boutique with a long reputation — Gracia in Valencia or Majoral on Formentera. A unique bespoke piece in gold with natural stones — Laura Márquez on Gran Vía in Madrid.