Mateo’s Story

Mateo lives with his wife and their three children on the island of Ios. He has always been fascinated by the idea of transforming hard, raw materials into objects of art as well as the slow process of transformation itself, a process that requires knowledge and patience.

He started by working on stones and creating decorations for buildings in Ios. 10 years ago, wanting to broaden his horizons, he began delving into the field of crystals and semi-precious stones. For a long time, he studied their origin, composition and properties and in this search he discovered that on Ios itself there were several types of crystals such as Obsidian, Amethyst, Jasper, Quartz and others. He made frequent trips around the island, together with his family, looking for and collecting crystals, while at the same time he was searching for more information on their processing.

To be able to work on these new and particularly hard materials, he bought a complete set of tools from the best factory of its kind, which is located in Austria. The owner of the factory, recognizing Mateo’s passion for crystals and their processing, encouraged him to study the subject, a procedure that would last at least three years. Mateo, unable to leave his family for such a long time, set up a makeshift workshop in the small warehouse of his own house and began to experiment on his own, constantly reading and trying to acquire the knowledge that he needed.
When he completed working on his first diamond, he sent photos of his work to Austria and received rave reviews from the tool makers themselves. For three years, he passionately worked with raw crystals, enjoying the process of transformation but also deepening his knowledge of the stones themselves.

Mateo Stones

Mateo wanted to take his work a step further, always in his small workshop in his home storage room, so he began studying precious metals and getting to know how he could combine them with the crystals he was creating. His next goal was the creation of actual jewelry by binding the stones with gold, silver and other materials. A new set of tools, this time for metalworking, found its place in the warehouse’s small workshop and a new quest began.

A few years later, having already created entire jewelry collections, he decides to give his art and his creations their own space and opens his shop in the port of Ios. There he places and exhibits the results of his search and work of recent years. The workshop of the small warehouse is moved intact to the new space, where Mateo continues to imagine, design and create.