Valeria Benalcázar is an Ecuadorian jewellery artist trained in Art Restoration and holding a Master of Arts in Jewellery from Birmingham City University, UK. Her practice investigates the transformative potential of materials, combining organic and synthetic elements with traditional metals such as silver and gemstones.

She develops hybrid forms that embody the meeting point between the natural and the artificial. Experimentation is central to her approach: she works intuitively with materials while carefully documenting each process, treating every test as part of a living archive. Through this ongoing exploration, Benalcázar uses tactile experience as a way to understand, question, and reimagine the world.

Her work engages themes of organic morphology, growth processes, and the material aesthetics of natural forms, alongside the emotional and sensory responses that arise when encountering matter in unfamiliar states. Each piece becomes an experimental artefact—fragile, unexpected, and alive with the tension between permanence and ephemerality.

Valeria has exhibited in the UK, Italy, Germany, Chile, and Ecuador, reflecting her ongoing interest in the relationship between biomaterials, polymers, and sensory perception.

Can objects carry a voice—one revealed through the materials they are made of? Colour as expression, texture as emotion, form and scale finding their way onto the body to create a dialogue between wearer and matter. Contemporary jewellery becomes the medium through which this expressive and transformative potential of materials is made visible.

Working with biomaterials is not about shaping what already exists, but about generating substance from almost nothing. There is a profound potential in giving life to matter—in gestating materiality from its earliest, most uncertain state. In Fertile Waters, I approach this emergence as a living process, where shapes proliferate, expand, and occupy space, echoing both organic growth and emotional expression.

Experimentation is more than technique; it is a way of understanding how matter transforms, behaves, and relates to us. Through this lens, jewellery becomes not merely adornment but portable art—a site where materials invite tactile, visual, and reflective encounters.

Within the framework of Code & Craft, my work resonates through its engagement with new materialities. Biomaterials and polymers introduce a form of technodiversity, expanding what we consider valuable or possible in jewellery. Recursivity appears through iterative experimentation: each test, record, and outcome forms part of a living archive that continually seeds new pieces.

By combining organic and synthetic substances with traditional metals such as silver and gemstones, I create hybrid forms that embody the meeting of natural and artificial. These works invite reflection on the tension between permanence and ephemerality while opening space for sensory curiosity.

Through jewellery, I seek to reveal the vitality of matter itself—its ability to grow, transform, and mirror our emotional and existential cycles.