Today we’d like to introduce you to Mariela Notario.
Hi Mariela, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Bitácora Collection was born in 2015 as both a love story and a creative partnership between Mariela Notario, an industrial designer specialized in costume design, and Senén Tabares, a photojournalist.
We began in Cuba, in a small home workshop in Pinar del Río, at a time when material shortages were a part of everyday life. Those limitations pushed us to experiment. We started rescuing mechanical components (vintage watch movements and discarded metal objects) and transforming them into contemporary jewelry and wearable art.
The first pieces emerged from a very personal exploration. We brought them to a store where Mariela was already selling some of her work, and just a few days later we received the news that everything had sold out. That was the first sign that this experiment could become something more serious.
Shortly afterward, we were invited to participate in the First Havana Design Biennial. That opportunity forced us to give the project a real structure: finding a name, creating a visual identity, defining a narrative, and thinking about how to present our work within a contemporary design context. That was the official beginning of Bitácora Collection.
Over the following years, we participated in design and art biennials, collective exhibitions, fashion shows, and curatorial projects throughout Cuba. Gradually, we developed our own visual language based on material reuse, the memory carried by objects, and the transformation of industrial components into pieces meant to be worn.
In 2022, a turning point arrived. We were selected to participate in Milan Jewelry Week, but doing so from Cuba was extremely difficult. We needed to cover shipping, handling, installation, and dismantling costs for the collection, so we launched a crowdfunding campaign. Thanks to the support of family, friends, clients, and people who believed in our work, we were able to raise the necessary funds.
We traveled to Mexico to personally manage the shipment of the pieces, since doing so from Cuba was impossible. However, that journey also became a life-changing decision. The economic and professional limitations we faced made us realize that, in order to support our family and sustain our creative project, we needed to seek a different future.
On the very day we crossed the border into the United States, surrounded by uncertainty and emotion, we received the news that we had won the award for Best Contemporary Design at Milan Jewelry Week. At the time, we could barely process it. Only days later, once we were safely in the United States, did we fully understand what had happened.
Arriving in Miami meant starting over from scratch. We worked long hours to support our family: Mariela in professional kitchens and Senén in the aerospace industry. Even so, we never abandoned Bitácora.
Today, we work from our studio workshop in Miami Beach, where we continue creating unique pieces and limited collections from reclaimed mechanical fragments.
For us, Bitácora Collection is a way of transforming what has been discarded into something alive again, an exploration of memory, craftsmanship, resilience, and reinvention.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been an easy journey, but we do not believe that challenges are something separate from our work. Many of them have ultimately shaped who we are as creators.
For years, we worked in an environment where scarcity affected virtually every aspect of the creative process. It was not only difficult to access materials; there were also constant limitations related to electricity, internet connectivity, and the tools necessary for production. We learned to design and create by adapting to those conditions, organizing our work around the few hours when services were available and finding solutions to problems that extended far beyond the design process itself.
The collection we presented at Milan Jewelry Week was developed under particularly challenging circumstances. For several months, we temporarily relocated to Havana in order to work with greater stability, as power outages were even more severe in other regions of the country. The pieces were designed and built in improvised workspaces, constantly adapting our workflow to the availability of electricity and the limited infrastructure around us.
Another ongoing challenge has been developing a contemporary jewelry practice using materials that were never originally intended for that purpose. Each collection involves research, selection, disassembly, transformation, and assembly. Over time, that process ceased to be a limitation and became the core of our creative language.
We’ve been impressed with Bitácora Collection, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Bitácora Collection is an independent contemporary and avant-garde jewelry studio-workshop based in Normandy Isle, Miami Beach. We specialize in creating one-of-a-kind pieces and limited series by upcycling salvaged mechanical components (vintage watch movements, historical flatware, locks, and discarded metallic objects) which we transform through a meticulous process of selection, disassembly, restoration, and manual assembly. Our work thrives where contemporary jewelry, fine art, and sculptural construction converge.
What deeply drives our practice is the memory contained within objects. Every component we rescue once held a prior function, belonged to a complex machine, or measured the passage of time for decades. We are captivated by the act of retrieving this material history to build new structures that preserve their original heritage while acquiring an entirely new meaning. We predominantly create necklaces, earrings, and structural body pieces that, due to the nature of the historical vestiges we find, are strictly unrepeatable.
What truly defines the uniqueness of Bitácora Collection is our commitment to honoring the excellence and durability of past eras. In today’s world of extreme consumerism, dominated by the short-lived and the disposable, we choose to look back at the craftsmanship of artisans, engineers, and creators from previous decades. Those historical engineering works and artifacts were built on a principle that is rarely practiced now: they were made to last. By recovering these components, we do not just salvage materials; we rescue the technical mastery and the soul of objects from yesteryear, enhanced by the added value that only time, natural patinas, and the marks of age can bestow.
We are deeply inspired by nature, not only in its aesthetics but in its behavior: how it constantly reinvents itself, utilizing and recycling its own resources efficiently and continuously.
We romance the ancient craft of traditional metalwork under a made-to-order production model. This approach avoids the over-exploitation of materials and completely eliminates toxic chemicals from our production line, guaranteeing a clean environmental footprint.
Over the years, our work has been featured in prestigious art and design exhibitions, runways, and international platforms; however, beyond any accolade, what we are most proud of is having developed a highly recognizable, singular sculptural language while sustaining a creative practice rooted in transformation. We want your readers to understand that Bitácora Collection promotes a “slow” lifestyle; a way of approaching jewelry with a positive impact and the profound belief that even discarded materials can find a glorious new life and purpose.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
If there is one thing we would like readers to remember, it is that creativity does not depend on the abundance of resources, but on the ability to look at the world differently.
Bitácora Collection was born under very limited circumstances, but it was never built around scarcity. It was built around curiosity, craftsmanship, and the conviction that objects preserve stories that deserve to continue.
We live in an era where so many things are produced to be quickly replaced. Our work proposes a different relationship with matter and with time.
We also believe that contemporary jewelry has the capacity to go far beyond mere adornment. It can raise questions, awaken memories, and establish a conversation between the person who creates the piece and the person who chooses to carry it with them.
If our work manages to make someone look at an everyday object with new eyes, then we feel that our purpose has been truly fulfilled.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bitacorascollection.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bitacorascollection
- Other: https://thebitacoras.etsy.com/
