In the 87th episode of Perceived Value, host Sarah Rachel Brown is just outside Medellín, Colombia, recording from the family home and studio of contemporary jeweler and author Nicolás Estrada. Nicolás and Sarah first connected on social media in 2018, when Nicolás was living in Barcelona, and Sarah was in Philadelphia, PA. Their online friendship led them to meet in person during Munich Jewellery Week that year, and all these years later, they have reconnected in Colombia.

When Sarah returned to Medellín to work on the CONNECTOR Exhibition, she took up Nicolás’s offer to host her and record a podcast interview. The two friends discuss Nicolás’s upbringing in Colombia during the height of violence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, being sent to the United States to study business and marketing, and navigating education, language, and identity abroad. Nicolás shares about his familial expectations to follow a path to financial success and how a later move to Barcelona led him to discover contemporary jewelry and choose a creative path.

Listen to this intimate conversation between friends about what it means to live within one’s means as an artist, redefine wealth beyond money, and use jewelry to process anger, politics, and personal history. Nicolás offers insight into how he developed multiple bodies of work—commercial, artistic, and experimental—to support himself, and into the origin of his influential jewelry books, where an unpaid opportunity grew into a long-term publishing practice rooted in connection and service to the field.

Towards the end of their conversation, Nicolás reflects on returning to Colombia after more than two decades abroad, on grief and inheritance, and on settling into a slower rhythm of life.

🎧 This episode is sponsored by SNAG Metalsmith, the publication of the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG). Subscribe and save 25% with code VALUE25 at snagmetalsmith.org.

Jeweler Nicolás Estrada, originally a marketing entrepreneur in Colombia, discovered his true vocation in Barcelona. His training at the Llotja and Massana schools marked the beginning of a tireless search that led him to study gemology, stone setting, and ancestral techniques across diverse geographies—from Berber jewelry to the filigree of Mompox (Colombia)—culminating in a master’s degree in gemstone cutting in Germany.

For Estrada, jewelry is an intimate dialogue and a poetic proposition charged with immense power. His works center on humanity and sensitivity, seeking to offer new perspectives through deep reflection and irreverence.

Recently, after 23 years in Barcelona, he has returned to Medellín. This return has been a vital reconnection with Colombian nature, whose vibrant beauty has healed a past anger and become a source of profound gratitude. His current pieces, such as Wind, are material anchors that invite the wearer to don memory, celebrating eternity within an instant.

Author of five jewelry books distributed worldwide, his work stands as a testament to the balance between a refined craft and deep artistic expression.