All That Glistens: Artist Brings Modern-day Jewelry Making to Mexico

“It’s been a long journey,” says Mathew Gross, who puts on tefillin weekly with Chabad’s Friday Boys at his Berkley jewelry studio.

Published November 7, 2022

In February, Matthew Gross and his wife, Elena, decided they needed a break from Michigan’s brutal winter. So they booked a two-week trip to Mexico.

And that’s where Gross, “a nice Jewish boy,” jokes that he found Jesus.

There, in San Miguel de Allende, about 170 miles from Mexico City, Gross did, indeed, find Jesus. Jesus Villaverde Fuentes.

“For years, my customers have told me about this amazing artist’s colony in Mexico on a mountain top, where it’s 75 degrees all year long,” says Gross, a jewelry designer whose studio has been based in Berkley for the past 26 years. “It sounded too good to be true. So, as soon as I had the chance, I went. And they were right; it is a magical place.”

An adventurous world traveler, Gross researches each country beforehand and contacts jewelry designers, usually through Instagram, to meet. Always staying at Airbnbs, the Gross family maximizes their trips by taking part in Airbnb Experiences, which are unique activities hosted by local experts. While Elena took cooking and Spanish classes, Matthew took drawing and saw a listing that advertised “Make a Ring in a Day.” He reached out to jeweler Jesus Villaverde Fuentes who was running the class and asked to visit Fuentes’ studio.

Gross took a cab outside of the historical city, along a rubble road, to Fuentes’ tiny home. Inside the home was Fuentes’ studio where he teaches kids and adults about jewelry making. Jesus, his wife, Alejandra, and their 1-year-old daughter, Aliah, tend to their beautiful garden and grow and sell produce as an additional source of income.

“Jesus had horrible tools. I couldn’t imagine how he was making jewelry with the tools he had,” says Gross, who graduated from the Gemological Institute of America in Santa Monica, Calif., in 1992. “He asked me for help on a project that needed a special tool that he would have to take a bus to go to his friend’s house to borrow — a whole production for a 10-minute project.”

Gross promised he would send the tool to Fuentes once Gross returned to Michigan. The cost of the tool: $35.

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