Honduras, a country in Central America, is notorious for its corruption, patriarchal view of society, rape, violence and murder. One brave woman, Celina Brizuela strives to change all that. This woman has been fighting all her life to show the world a different side of her country – A Honduras that is creative, talented and self-sustaining its initiative to support an economy powered by women and focused intensely on eco-friendly products that will change the way women buy jewellery.
Check out this video on YouTube, where Celina talks about the transformative process she uses to change everyday objects often thrown away in garbage bins into chic, classy jewellery that powers an economy!
The video is in Spanish but you could hit the subtitles(auto-translate) to understand what she says.
SMEs(Small and Medium Enterprises) represent 95% of the businesses in Honduras, generating direct employment for about 1.1 million workers. SMEs are the backbone that supports the development of the country. Women in Honduras are the motor that drives the small and medium enterprise sector. The National Institute of Statistics confirms that almost 900,000 mothers support the country’s economy. Women are present in various sectors such as health, education, manufacturing and trade, and are now making incursions into fields that men previously dominated. The informal economy is sustained entirely by women. Despite their significant contributions to their families, economy and country, women are still paid much less than their male counterparts.
One woman in particular, Celina Brizuela, seeks to change this gender disparity, contribute to her country’s economy, change the world’s perception toward Honduras and create demand for recycled jewellery that is both eco-friendly and sustainable in its production.
Originally from Tegucigalpa, this mother of two quit her job of 18 years at an investigation firm and set up a jewellery workshop – unlike any other that Honduras had seen before! She uses materials like old and worn taps, pipes, tubes, keys, soda cans and other solid debris as the base for her jewellery. She transforms these base metals into alloys with gold and silver through a metallurgical process. The solid metallic residue she selects for her jewellery is locally sourced and repurposed to create beautiful pieces thus supporting the country’s economy and the environment.
In 2017, Celiz Brizuela was conferred an award for the best jewelry designer In Honduras by the Honduran Council of Private Enterprise and the Chamber of Commerce & Industry in Tegucigalpa.
Today, Corporation Celeste, based out of Honduras is Celina’s venture, a unique undertaking that creates exquisite jewellery that alloys with gold and silver from Honduras, saving the nation millions of dollars in gold and silver imports!
Challenges and Struggles
Celina Brizuela is a pioneer in her field. Pioneers, pathbreakers and trailblazers have their share of struggles. In Celina’s case, her first and hardest challenge was sourcing metal that would be alloyed with gold and silver. In the early days of her venture, she would import these metals and transform them into alloys for her jewellery. This was an expensive process however since metal was imported, the cost of the entire metallurgical process was high. After incurring significant costs, Celina decided to source metal locally. She bought metal from garbage collectors, picked up tubes, cans, keys, pipes and disposed of solid waste from neighbours, friends and family and began to support the local economy through her enterprise.
Slowly, banks began to understand her vision and supported her with campaigns and collection drives to help source raw material for her transformative metal process. After running into challenges like unavailability of Capital, resources, manpower, and raw material, she finally came up with the right formula, in 2012, after two years of toil, she was able to create pieces of jewellery that were alloyed with gold and silver. Her first pieces included earrings, bracelets, brooches and necklaces. She won the award for innovation and her contribution to the environment in the same year. In 2013, Celina Brizuela was selected for the Vital International Voices program where she made a bracelet for ex-presidential candidate of the United States, Hillary Clinton.
Her Journey Onward
Since 2013, Celina has been launching collections of a minimum of 50 pieces in each collection. One of her creations was inspired by a local tree. The collection to which this piece belongs has other pieces deeply rooted in the history of Honduras. The idea is to showcase another side of Honduras to the world, a side that shows Honduras’s ability to create high-quality products and generate sustainable livelihoods for many.
The designer has also created two indigenous collections, “Maya” and “Lenca” in which they also use Honduran Jade, Quartz and Opal. Her pieces are characterized by their exclusivity, their durability, eco-friendly composition and above all because the metal alloys are composed of noble metals that do not cause allergies when worn. She also designs custom pieces for her clients, catering to their tastes and metal preferences.
In 2014 Piso Diez Diseño invited Celina to be part of its group of designers, and it was there that she took her first shot at the runway.
In 2017, Celina participated in Fashion Week Honduras where she showcased her new line, “Celeste“, her favourite colour and the name of her company, in honour of her mother, an artisan.
Celina has been invited to numerous Universities to share her story and vision. To date, her company, Corporation Celeste is the only one in Honduras that fuses metal with gold and silver to create unique, sophisticated, ethical, eco-friendly and affordable pieces of jewellery.
Read also
Ethical Jewelry is the need of the hour. How the gold extraction process is destroying the world. Click here.
References
Ecojoyería – An article by Veintemundos.com (now defunct)
