About

The Artist

     I'm Susanne, the artist and maker behind Una Artesana. You might know me as a jewelry designer behind my eponymous brand, Susanne Verallo.

     Besides designing, I'd always wanted to create jewelry with my own hands, and in 2020 I'd planned on taking metal smithing classes. Unfortunately that didn't push through because of the pandemic. Then, while stuck in lockdown, I started dabbling with old beads I had at home and learned to bead weave. I taught myself different techniques and started creating my own pieces from there. Over the past few years I've continued to add to my jewelry-making repertoire including sculpture, painting, wax carving, and lost wax casting.

The Inspiration

     The Philippines, my home, is an endless source of inspiration. Like my main jewelry work, the pieces I create for Una Artesana are inspired by Filipino culture, particularly mythology and folklore. While learning to bead weave, I was also researching our precolonial myths and legends. Eventually I brought the two together to create jewelry pieces inspired by our ancestors' stories. Those pieces became my first volume of jewelry, titled "Langit".

​     Una Artesana has since evolved from lockdown hobby to fully-fledged jewelry business. While I will continue to explore various mediums and techniques in jewelry-making, my focus will always be on the Philippines – our culture, our history, and our people.