Giving the last name of the company you are creating is normal, and often effective, but when Fabian Ortega He launched his own company in 2010. Modern goldsmithingchose to go in the exact opposite direction: nothing “Ortega Goldsmith”. no, “Silver Mother”. over time, Even Johnny Depp and Javier Miley would understand that.
Ortega (47 years old) said during an interview with the program, “I did not want to give it my name. (Juan Carlos) Pallarols faced a problem because he named it after him, and then many Pallarols who work in goldsmithing appeared.” iProfessional.
Jewellery, goldsmithing and sculpture combined at PlataMadre
And what is this? Silver Mother? “It’s about the Earth, Mother was Mother Earth, and the Silver Mother came to mind. Silver is a metal that gives the earth. I invented a new concept for modern goldsmithing: Jewellery, goldsmithing and sculpture, I mix three styles. Today I make everything, including knives. I add, for example, jewelry and goldsmithing to silversmithing in Gaucho. “That’s why I say that PlataMadre is neither jewelry nor silversmithing, it is a combination of all the arts that I have learned.”
Ortega loves what he does, because it’s what he always wanted to do. At the age of twenty-two, he discovered the exotic world of Libertad Street, that succession of shops dealing in metals and jewelry in the heart of Buenos Aires, a place that gave him the foundations to be what he is today and enjoys the workshop he owns in the heart of the San Telmo neighborhood in Buenos Aires.
“I really wanted to be an artist, and today I am an artist and a businessman. I grew up on Libertad Street with Armenians and Jews, who are number one in everything related to business matters. I learned to trade with them. I spent my days buying and selling gold, and went to foundries. I began to understand the business part, apart from the fact that I was an artist. They adopted me as if I were a son. People with great authority and well-known people taught me trade.”
From those years ago, Ortega remembers a phrase his bosses used to repeat over and over: “A sleeping alligator is a wallet.”
The matter is like this, he says: “Many artists do not succeed in their work because commercial matters are very difficult. You have to learn them and deal with the subject.”
“The profession of an artist is not easyApplying commercial standards cost me a lot. My family is very entrepreneurial and they helped me a lot, they are restaurant and hotel owners, they mentored me. And the Armenians and Jews of Freedom Street. Thank God, because in Argentina, everything that is art is done in complete isolation.”
PlataMadre combines jewellery, goldsmithing and sculpture
Intensive experiences in the workshop of the Pallarols nephews and with Gomez, a first-class goldsmith, were added to this intensive course on Libertad Street..
“I’ve been an artist since I was very young. I studied fine arts, sculpture, engraving, painting, interior design, image and sound, industrial design. I also worked at Casa FOA, and did many things.”
In these years of developing PlataMadre, Ortega has learned how important it is to maintain focus.
Enthusiastic, he started an art gallery years ago with a friend and partner, but it was a mistake.
“I had an art gallery for three years, and we did a lot of events, but I lost focus and my partner didn’t do everything I expected. That helped me understand that I had to focus on PlataMadre.”
An expanding luxury brand chosen by Miley and Johnny Depp
Ortega does not hesitate to admit that what began as an artistic dream has today turned into a dream “Luxury brand”.
“I work luxury, and I do avant-garde things. Today PlataMadre is a luxury brand. It’s been turning, when I started it wasn’t like that. Today we are 20 people, now we are facing expansion in Europe and the United States, and I will soon travel to Miami to open a showroom there. And in 2026 we will be in other cities, In addition to Miami, places like New York, Punta del Este, Madrid, Rome or Paris“.
The new strategy aims to co-brand and collaborate with many other brands in order to achieve this global expansion.
There is not only silver in PlataMadre, there is also gold, although “silver is the fashion in Argentina and in the world.”
Johnny Depp is one of the international figures who wears PlataMadre pieces
Those silver necklaces, bracelets and rings came to football. It is worn by Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia, president of the Argentine Football Association (AFA), but also by Lionel Messi, who received the “Plata Madre” pieces as a gift from sponsor YPF.
One of the last International personalities who wear SilverMadre pieces include Johnny Depp. During his recent visit to Argentina, the American actor received a gift from his friend Jorge “Corcho” Rodriguez, which was a bracelet engraved with the phrase: “Stop making stupid people famous.”
“Johnny loved PlataMadre, he really loved the rings. We also gave him two feather rings and a bracelet, in addition to what Cork bought him.”
but Before Depp, there was Miley. Two years ago, at his inauguration ceremony as head of the nation, a symbol was added to the traditional baton: Presidential Medal.
The idea came to Ortega after Miley won the runoff and he presented it to Karina Miley: an official medallion that included the symbols of the Argentine nation and another “more personal” medal with the initials “JM” and a lion, the libertarian symbol, on the back.
“We wanted something more modern, something that represented the new government and Argentines as well,” recalls Ortega, who received frank thanks from the government leadership.
“I’m different, and that’s what helped me grow.“Concludes the jeweler who has learned that art without trade is much more fragile.