Designer 1
Vania Ruiz
Casa Kiro Joyas
Vania Ruiz
Casa Kiro Joyas, based in Vina del Mar, Chile, is the jewelry design studio and workshop founded by Vania Ruiz. Inspired by Chilean landscapes, Latin American heritage and everyday culture, she creates small, colorful worlds out of resin, silver and paint. Vania looks closely and thoughtfully at the world around her. She translates her world into art that evokes her experience. Each of her pieces is meticulously handmade - from creating the silver parts and molds, pouring resin, drawing and painting layers, adding and embedding organic materials to finishing the pieces.
The end result: Vania’s joyful vision encapsulated in engaging, colorful and celebratory works of wearable art.
Microlandscapes
Vania creates microlandscapes out of painterly layers of resin encased in sterling silver and embedded with daily organic materials such as chia seeds, poppy, quinoa or amaranth. Each piece is completely handmade – an abstract artistic rendering of the experience of a natural landscape. The microlandscape lures us in and we feel the enchanting beauty of nature.
Wetlands These designs are inspired by an early morning drive along wetlands. The sun just illuminated the canals behind the haze, creating a fuzzy golden halo against which the wetlands were silhouetted and the water was a lush aqua color. Vania evokes these soft morning views using two color palettes - Aqua and Golden Dawn - and includes fennel fronds and 22k gold leaf to capture the mood of the wetlands.
Blossom Fields These are inspired by the fields of the Central Valley where Vania spent many summers as a child. The saturated colors and use of organic materials which grow there evoke nostalgia for the warmth and beauty of long days of high summer.
The Botanical Collection
The botanical collection is another expression of Vania’s love of her natural environment and the nostalgia that environment evokes. It is very personal. The botanical elements are created by casting in silver organic forms she and her daughter find in the park across from their home – tiny pine cones, twigs, fern fronds. For her daughter, the park is a large forest. For Vania, the park evokes childhood memories and remote forests of southern Chile.
In this collection, the botanical pieces are combined with microlandscapes in golds, aquas and pinks to create nostalgic visions of the rainforests in southern Chile.
Butterfly Collection
First inspired by specimens in a butterfly museum, then by butterflies she sees in her garden or are native to Chile, to those in the world, to those she imagines. All seem life-like – light, iridescent - and capture the essence of each type of butterfly. Yet all are markedly Casa Kiro, bringing beauty, joy, hope, positive transformation, renewal and freedom. The Butterfly Wings are perfect for this moment in time.
The Garden Collection
These creatures bring delight, especially so during the pandemic. Birding has become a widespread passion. We come to learn about and appreciate endangered species. And our cats amuse us. How wonderful to enjoy the antics of birds and cats.
The birds are native to Chile and the cats are inspired by Vania’s cat, Vaquera, and the numerous street cats of Valparaiso.
