The Art of Taxco Silver: How It Was Made and Why It Matters

The Mexican Silver Renaissance was defined as much by extraordinary craftsmanship as by bold design. Master silversmiths transformed silver, stone, and other materials into remarkable works of art, reviving ancient techniques while inventing new ones. Explore the techniques behind twentieth-century Taxco silver—from repoussé and chasing to champlevé enamel, stone mosaic, silver overlay, metales casados, and articulated handwrought construction—through examples from the Museum's collection.

The Craftsmanship Behind a Renaissance

During the Mexican Silver Renaissance, some of the twentieth century's most inventive jewelry designers worked alongside exceptionally skilled silversmiths in the workshops of Taxco, Mexico. Together, they created objects that were remarkable not only for their appearance, but for the ingenuity required to make them.

Working largely by hand, these artisans transformed flat sheets of silver into sculptural relief, joined contrasting metals with extraordinary precision, assembled intricate stone mosaics, and engineered substantial necklaces and bracelets that moved naturally with the body. Some methods drew on centuries-old Mexican and European traditions. Others were adapted or developed to realize designs that pushed the boundaries of what silver could do.

Understanding how these objects were made changes how we see them. A repoussé flower becomes evidence of a silversmith's remarkable control over metal. An articulated necklace reveals the engineering hidden within its design. The barely visible seams between married metals demonstrate a level of precision that photographs rarely capture.

These techniques were not simply decorative. They were essential to the artistic language of the Mexican Silver Renaissance.

Yet technical complexity alone does not make a piece exceptional. Some of Taxco's finest silverwork is remarkably simple. What distinguished its greatest artists and silversmiths was their ability to choose the right materials and techniques—and execute them with extraordinary precision—to give each design its intended form.

This guide explores the methods that helped define twentieth-century Taxco silver, using documented objects from the Museum's collection. Learn how to recognize each technique, what it reveals about the makers, and why craftsmanship remains central to appreciating these works today.

The Hands Behind the Designs

The history of Mexican silver is often told through a handful of celebrated names: William Spratling, Antonio Pineda, Héctor Aguilar, Margot de Taxco, and Los Castillo. Their designs helped establish Taxco as an internationally recognized center of modern silverwork. But the objects themselves tell a larger story.

The great Taxco workshops, known as talleres, brought together designers and highly trained artisans whose skills were often remarkably specialized. A designer might imagine an ambitious necklace or sculptural vessel, but realizing it required silversmiths who understood how metal behaved under the hammer, how to fit stone precisely, or how to construct a hinge that would survive decades of use.

Apprentices spent years learning these skills, progressing from basic cutting and assembly to increasingly demanding work. The most accomplished became maestros, or master silversmiths, sometimes specializing in repoussé, chasing, stone setting, or other techniques.

In Antonio Pineda's workshop, for example, his brother Bruno supervised production and quality control, while master silversmith Rafael "El Chino" Ruiz became central to the workshop's increasingly ambitious hollowware and sculptural production. Pineda's designs were translated into finished objects through close collaboration with these and other exceptional artisans.

The relationship was creative as well as technical. Skilled maestros didn't merely reproduce drawings. Their understanding of materials helped determine what could be made, and their experimentation opened new possibilities for design.

These workshops were also different from conventional factories. Although many artisans might contribute to a single object, much of the production remained labor-intensive and hand-executed. Individual craftsmen developed considerable expertise, and the organization of the larger workshops made increasingly ambitious work possible.

Much of the history of Mexican silver has been preserved through the names stamped on finished objects. Understanding their construction offers another perspective: the extraordinary abilities of the people who brought those designs into existence.

The techniques below are among the clearest ways to recognize their work.

Quick Reference: How to Recognize Taxco Silver Techniques

Technique	How It Works	What to Look For	Commonly Confused With
Repoussé	A metal sheet is worked from behind to raise three-dimensional relief.	Smooth, continuous raised forms; corresponding hollows on the reverse when accessible.	Applied or cast ornament soldered onto a surface.
Chasing	Tools are used on the front of the metal to shape lines, contours, and textures.	Crisp grooves, defined ridges, textured surfaces, and carefully modeled details.	Engraving, die stamping, or cast decoration.
Champlevé enamel	Glass enamel is fired into recesses formed in the metal.	Colored fields separated by integral raised silver walls.	Cloisonné enamel, painted surfaces, or resin.
Stone mosaic	Numerous small pieces of stone are fitted together to create a surface or image.	Individual tesserae, visible joints, and carefully arranged fields of color.	Single-stone inlay or composite stone materials.
Stone inlay	Shaped stones are fitted into prepared recesses or settings.	Stone plaques or bands integrated into the silver, often flush with its surface.	Raised cabochons or applied stone ornaments.
Silver overlay	Decorative silver elements are applied over another metal, often copper.	Raised silver ornament against a contrasting metal ground; visible boundaries between layers.	Metales casados or silver plating.
Metales casados	Contrasting metals are precisely cut, fitted, and joined into a shared surface.	Silver, copper, or brass meeting along closely fitted boundaries, usually in one plane.	Silver overlay or generic mixed-metal decoration.
Articulated handwrought construction	Individually formed components are connected with hinges, pins, or links.	Carefully engineered joints that allow substantial jewelry to flex and move.	Cast chains or rigid one-piece construction.

These techniques frequently appear together. A single necklace might combine repoussé, chasing, stone setting, and articulated construction.

Learning to distinguish them is not simply an exercise in terminology. Each reveals something about the artistic choices and technical challenges behind an object.

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Repoussé: Turning Silver into Sculpture

What is repoussé?

Repoussé is a metalworking technique in which a silversmith creates raised relief by working a sheet of metal from behind.

Using hammers and specially shaped punches, the smith gradually pushes the metal outward, transforming a flat surface into sculptural forms. Scrolls, flowers, figures, and geometric designs emerge directly from the sheet.

Unlike separately applied ornament, the raised form is created by displacing the original metal. Where the reverse remains visible, the raised relief often corresponds to a hollow on the back.

This distinction matters because repoussé allows substantial three-dimensional forms to be created without adding equivalent masses of solid metal. A skilled silversmith can produce flowing, sculptural designs that are visually powerful without being unnecessarily heavy.

Repoussé was particularly suited to the bold organic forms that characterized much of the early Mexican Silver Renaissance.

An Exceptional Example: Los Castillo's Glyph Necklace

The Museum's Los Castillo Glyph Necklace, Design No. 152, circa 1940, demonstrates how repoussé could transform jewelry into wearable sculpture.

The necklace's large pectoral is worked in sweeping raised scrolls and rounded forms. Broad, comma-shaped volutes frame the composition, while smaller spirals and beaded details introduce rhythm and texture.

The design continues into the chain itself. Domed round links decorated with spirals alternate with oval links carrying concentric channels, extending the visual language of the central pectoral around the neck.

Rather than a decorative pendant suspended from an ordinary chain, the necklace becomes a unified sculptural composition.

The design is attributed to Margot van Voorhies Carr during her early association with the Castillo brothers, whose Los Castillo workshop was founded in 1939.

A second example demonstrates the technique's versatility.

The Margot de Taxco Cornflower Clamper Cuff transforms a bracelet into a dramatic floral composition. Two oversized flower heads overlap around the wrist, their petals raised in repoussé and further defined by chased ribs.

Small applied silver beads form the flower centers. Darkened recesses between the petals contrast with polished high points, emphasizing the volume of the relief.

Although Margot later became particularly celebrated for her enamel designs, this bracelet achieves its effect entirely through metalwork.

How to Recognize Repoussé

Look for the continuity of the metal surface as it rises into relief.

In repoussé, the sheet itself has been shaped. Separately applied ornament is constructed from additional elements attached to the underlying surface.

Where the reverse is accessible, the hollow beneath a raised form can provide especially useful evidence. However, backing plates, soldered construction, and other finishing methods may conceal this feature.

A front-facing photograph alone may not establish how a raised design was produced.

Why it matters: Repoussé reveals the silversmith's ability to transform a flat material into complex three-dimensional sculpture. In the finest examples, the metal appears almost fluid, concealing the considerable skill required to achieve the form.

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Chasing: Drawing and Texture in Silver

What is chasing?

Chasing is the process of working the front surface of metal with specialized tools to create or refine lines, contours, and textures.

The silversmith uses small steel punches, often driven by a chasing hammer, to displace and shape the metal. Unlike engraving, which removes material, conventional chasing primarily reshapes the existing surface.

Repoussé and chasing are closely related and frequently used together.

Repoussé establishes the underlying volume. Chasing refines its contours, sharpens details, and adds texture.

Together, they allow a silversmith to achieve effects approaching drawing or sculptural modeling, using the surface of the metal itself.

Chasing can define a feather, suggest the veins of a leaf, or create the illusion of movement. Recessed lines collect shadow, while raised areas reflect light.

On the finest Taxco pieces, these details aren't simply decoration. They are essential to the composition.

An Exceptional Example: Los Castillo's Feather Gauntlet Bracelets

The Museum's Pair of Feather Gauntlet Bracelets demonstrates how chasing can define the character of an entire object.

Each tapered silver panel is conceived as a stylized feather. Rows of chased chevrons descend across the surface, suggesting the structure of a plume.

A raised silver boss near the upper edge creates a focal point, while the lower portion develops into overlapping curved lines and pointed forms.

The chasing is sufficiently pronounced to produce dramatic contrasts between polished ridges and darkened recesses. As the bracelets move, light travels across the pattern, making the surface appear animated.

The hinges joining the panels also contribute to the design. Their vertical seams establish a rhythm that complements the feather motifs while allowing the bracelets to open and conform to the arm.

How to Recognize Chasing

Examine the individual lines and textures.

Hand chasing may reveal subtle variations in pressure, depth, spacing, and tool marks. These characteristics can distinguish individually worked details from identical patterns produced repeatedly with a die.

However, uniformity alone does not establish machine production, and irregularity does not establish handwork.

Chasing can also be confused with engraving, stamping, or decoration reproduced through casting. A careful examination of the surface, including tool marks and the way metal has been displaced, may help distinguish them.

Why it matters: Chasing demonstrates how extraordinarily expressive silver can become in skilled hands. The difference between an ordinary decorated surface and exceptional chased work often lies in the subtlety, precision, and artistic purpose of its individual lines.

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Champlevé Enamel: Bringing Color to Silver

What is champlevé enamel?

Champlevé is an enameling technique in which recesses are formed in a metal surface and filled with powdered glass.

The piece is heated until the glass fuses into a durable, colored enamel. The surrounding metal remains visible, forming boundaries between the individual fields of color.

Unlike enamel painted over a finished surface, champlevé integrates color into the structure of the object.

The silver framework and the enamel must work together. Each boundary is both a decorative line and a structural feature of the design.

The technique allowed Taxco's silversmiths to introduce vivid, lasting color into a material traditionally celebrated for its reflective surface.

It also presented considerable technical challenges. The metal had to be prepared to receive the enamel, and firing required control of temperature and materials. Poor execution could produce cracking, uneven surfaces, or imperfect color.

Margot de Taxco and the Art of Enamel

Among Taxco's great designers, Margot van Voorhies Carr became particularly associated with enamel jewelry.

Beginning in the mid-1950s, enamel became central to the production of her workshop, Margot de Taxco.

Her achievement was not simply the addition of color to silver jewelry. She developed compositions in which color, pattern, and metalwork were conceived together.

The Museum's Margot de Taxco Design 5832 Necklace illustrates this approach.

Enamel is distributed across linked silver elements, with the metal dividing the colored fields into deliberate geometric and decorative patterns.

The silver remains an active part of the composition, providing structure, reflection, and contrast.

Margot's enamel work is represented in major museum collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Pieces bearing her Eagle 16 registration mark are associated with the period beginning in 1955. However, a design number or hallmark generally establishes a production period rather than an exact year, since successful designs could remain in production.

How to Recognize Champlevé

Look closely at the boundaries between colored areas.

In champlevé, the divisions are formed from the underlying metal itself. The enamel occupies recesses within that structure.

This differs from cloisonné, where thin metal wires or strips are attached to a base to create individual cells.

It also differs from cold-painted decoration and resin fills, which do not undergo the same high-temperature glass-fusing process.

Visual inspection can suggest a technique, but identifying vitreous enamel conclusively may require closer examination.

Why it matters: Champlevé expanded the artistic vocabulary of Taxco silver. By combining permanent color with precious metal, designers could explore effects unavailable through polished or oxidized silver alone. Margot's finest enamel pieces demonstrate how the material itself could become central to a modernist composition.

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Stone Mosaic and Inlay: Ancient Traditions, Modern Design

What is the difference between stone mosaic and stone inlay?

The use of colored stones was an important part of twentieth-century Mexican silver design.

Taxco's artists drew inspiration from Mexico's long traditions of lapidary work, stone ornament, and pre-Columbian mosaic, incorporating these visual languages into distinctly modern objects.

Stone inlay and stone mosaic are closely related techniques.

Stone inlay generally involves shaping stone to fit a prepared recess or setting. A single carefully cut stone might form a geometric plaque, a band, or a decorative element within a larger silver composition.

Stone mosaic creates a surface or image from numerous smaller pieces of stone, known as tesserae. These are individually arranged and fitted to produce patterns, textures, or representations.

Mosaic is itself a form of inlay in many applications, and the terminology can overlap.

What matters most is understanding how the stones have been prepared, arranged, and incorporated into the object.

Stone Mosaic: Los Castillo's Parrot-Handled Pitcher

The Museum's Los Castillo Parrot-Handled Pitcher with Stone Mosaic demonstrates the sculptural possibilities of the technique.

A parrot leans over the rim of the vessel, forming its handle. Rather than being modeled entirely in silver, the bird is covered with an intricate arrangement of colored stone.

Small, irregular pieces follow the form of the bird, creating a textured surface that contrasts with the smooth, reflective body of the pitcher.

A polished metal beak completes the composition.

The body bears the workshop's plateado mark, indicating silver plating over a base metal rather than solid sterling silver.

This distinction is important. It illustrates how the workshop could use different materials for different purposes while preserving the elaborate mosaic work that gives the object its artistic character.

The value of the technique lies not simply in the stones themselves, but in the skill required to transform separate fragments into a coherent sculptural surface.

Stone Inlay: Antonio Pineda's Onyx Necklace

Antonio Pineda approached stone and silver with a different aesthetic.

His Onyx-Inlaid Fringe Collar Necklace combines a substantial silver collar with a graduated fringe of geometric plaques.

Black onyx is cut into precisely shaped bands and chevrons that sit flush within the silver.

The result is strikingly graphic. The dark stone appears almost like a drawing made within the metal, emphasizing the geometry of the composition.

Unlike a raised cabochon, which projects above its setting, the flush inlay allows the stone and silver to read as a unified surface.

The necklace carries Pineda's ANTONIO crown signature, HECHO EN MEXICO, an eagle registration mark, and a 970 silver fineness mark.

These markings support its workshop attribution and historical context. The construction reveals something different: Pineda's ability to integrate contrasting materials into an exceptionally disciplined design.

How to Recognize Stone Mosaic and Inlay

In mosaic, look for individual pieces of stone and the joints between them.

The arrangement of these pieces can be central to the design, particularly when the mosaic follows a curved or sculptural surface.

In flush inlay, examine how the stone meets its surrounding setting. Carefully fitted pieces may have remarkably precise boundaries.

Not all colored stone decoration is inlay. Raised cabochons, bezel settings, composite materials, and applied ornaments use different approaches.

Why it matters: Stonework allowed Taxco's artists to introduce color, texture, and material contrast while drawing inspiration from Mexico's ancient artistic traditions. The finest examples demonstrate not only the beauty of the stones, but the precision required to make them part of a unified design.

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Silver Overlay and Metales Casados: Painting with Metals

One of the most distinctive developments in Taxco silver was the creative use of contrasting metals.

Silver, copper, and brass could be combined to produce effects that were almost painterly.

Different workshops developed their own approaches, using the natural colors of metals to define figures, backgrounds, and decorative patterns.

Two important methods were silver overlay and metales casados, or "married metals."

Although they can produce superficially similar effects, their construction is fundamentally different.

Silver Overlay: Contrasting Layers

Silver overlay, as discussed here, involves applying solid decorative silver elements over a surface made from another metal, commonly copper.

The silver sits above the underlying material. Its raised edges and contrasting color become part of the design.

This should not be confused with silver plating, in which a relatively thin coating of silver is deposited over another material.

Victoria de Taxco: Bowl with Pre-Columbian Mask

The Museum's Victoria de Taxco Bowl with Pre-Columbian Mask, Model No. 109, from the workshop of Ana Núñez Brilanti, is an exceptional example of contrasting metals used with restraint.

The shallow copper bowl provides a warm, hammered background for a silver mask inspired by pre-Columbian imagery.

The raised silver figure contrasts with the darker copper beneath it.

The result is both sculptural and graphic. The entire composition depends on the relationship between the two metals.

The bowl is marked VICTORIA / MEXICO, METALES, and the model number 109.

The METALES mark identifies a mixed-metal production line. It does not, by itself, identify the construction method.

Metales Casados: The Art of Married Metals

Metales casados takes the combination of contrasting metals in a different direction.

Rather than placing one metal over another, pieces of silver, copper, and brass are individually cut, fitted, and joined so that their surfaces meet along carefully worked boundaries.

The metals can form a nearly continuous plane, with their natural colors creating patterns or figurative compositions.

The technique is particularly associated with Jorge "Chato" Castillo and the Los Castillo workshop.

Chato and his silversmiths approached metal almost as a painter might approach color. Different alloys became elements of a composition, their contrasting tones defining forms and backgrounds.

But the visual effect depended on exceptionally demanding craftsmanship.

Every boundary required careful preparation and fitting. The precision of the joins could determine whether the finished image appeared unified or fragmented.

An Exceptional Example: Los Castillo's Aztec Warrior Box

The Museum's Los Castillo Aztec Warrior Box with Metales Casados and Stone Mosaic, Design No. 931 combines contrasting metals with stone mosaic.

An Aztec warrior appears against a field of blue stone, with silver, copper, and brass used to distinguish elements of the figure and its elaborate decoration.

The metals function almost like pigments, while the surrounding mosaic provides a contrasting field of color and texture.

The blue stone has not been conclusively identified. Its color suggests several possible minerals, but photographs alone cannot establish the material.

The box carries a Los Castillo hallmark and the design number 931.

These markings help identify the workshop and design. The visible construction, considered alongside documented workshop techniques, helps explain how the composition was achieved.

How to Distinguish Overlay from Metales Casados

The essential distinction is the relationship between the metal surfaces.

In silver overlay, one metal is applied above another. The edge of the applied element is typically visible as a change in height.

In metales casados, contrasting metals are fitted together along adjoining boundaries, generally creating a shared surface rather than a raised application.

A close-up view of the joints is often more informative than the overall appearance.

Neither a METALES hallmark nor a materials list containing silver, copper, and brass is sufficient to establish the technique.

Why it matters: Mixed-metal techniques demonstrate how Taxco's artists expanded the possibilities of silver design beyond the use of a single precious metal. In the finest examples, technical precision enabled a distinctly modern artistic effect: compositions created through the natural colors and properties of the metals themselves.

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Articulated Construction: Engineering Jewelry to Move

How can heavy silver jewelry move so naturally?

Some of the Mexican Silver Renaissance's most ambitious jewelry presents an apparent contradiction.

The pieces look monumental, substantial, and sometimes almost architectural. Yet many are remarkably wearable.

The solution was sophisticated engineering.

Rather than constructing a necklace or bracelet as a single rigid form, silversmiths assembled individually shaped elements using hinges, pins, links, and overlapping joints.

These connections allowed substantial pieces to flex, curve, and move with the body.

In the best examples, the engineering was not concealed as an unfortunate necessity. It became an essential part of the design.

The result was jewelry that combined the visual power of sculpture with the flexibility required for comfortable wear.

Antonio Pineda's Roof-Tile Amethyst Necklace

The Museum's Antonio Pineda Roof-Tile Amethyst and Silver Necklace is an outstanding example.

The necklace consists of graduated, overlapping silver elements that resemble the curved tiles of a traditional roof.

Each fluted link contains a cylindrical amethyst element, while the repeated forms broaden into a dramatic fan-like collar.

The links are individually formed and connected so the necklace can follow the contours of the neck.

As it moves, light catches the ridges of the silver and falls into the spaces between the overlapping elements.

The construction creates much of the necklace's visual rhythm.

The necklace is documented by Gobi Stromberg in Silver Seduction: The Art of Mexican Modernist Antonio Pineda as design YY546, executed in 970 silver and associated with the period beginning in 1953.

Pineda's achievement was not simply making jewelry larger or more dramatic. It was understanding how substantial forms could be divided, connected, and balanced to remain wearable.

Los Castillo's Feather Gauntlets: Structure Becomes Design

The Los Castillo Feather Gauntlet Bracelets discussed earlier solve a related challenge.

A gauntlet must follow the taper of the forearm rather than encircle the wrist like an ordinary bracelet.

The workshop constructed each bracelet from a series of tapered panels joined by vertical hinges.

The taper creates the conical silhouette. The hinges allow the bracelet to open and accommodate the arm.

At the same time, each panel forms part of the feather composition, with the vertical seams reinforcing the repeated decorative pattern.

The bracelet's engineering and ornament are inseparable.

This integration of construction and design is one of the defining characteristics of exceptional handwrought Taxco jewelry.

How to Recognize Articulated Construction

Examine how the individual parts connect.

Look for hinge pins, linked panels, overlapping edges, and carefully constructed joints.

On necklaces, consider how the elements graduate in size and change direction to follow the body.

On bracelets, look for the way a curved or tapered form is divided into movable sections.

The reverse of a piece can be especially revealing. Components that appear seamless from the front may expose sophisticated mechanisms when viewed from behind.

Why it matters: Articulated construction demonstrates that great jewelry design is also an exercise in engineering. The finest Taxco silversmiths understood not only how an object should look, but how it should behave when worn. Their technical solutions made ambitious sculptural designs practical without sacrificing their visual impact.

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What Construction Reveals About a Piece

Learning to recognize these techniques changes the way we examine Mexican silver.

It also provides useful evidence for collectors and researchers.

A hallmark may identify a workshop, establish a likely period of production, and indicate the stated fineness of the silver. Construction offers a different kind of information.

The techniques visible in an object reveal how it was made and may help establish whether its workmanship is consistent with documented examples from a particular workshop.

For example, champlevé enamel on a piece bearing Margot de Taxco's Eagle 16 mark is consistent with her documented production beginning in the mid-1950s.

A precisely fitted mixed-metal composition on a piece bearing a Los Castillo hallmark is consistent with techniques associated with that workshop.

Likewise, a substantially constructed necklace employing complex articulated links may be consistent with Antonio Pineda's documented approach to jewelry design.

These observations can strengthen an attribution or identify a reason for further investigation.

But technique is not a signature.

Multiple workshops employed repoussé, chasing, stone setting, and articulated construction. Skilled artisans outside Taxco also used these methods, and techniques can be reproduced.

Construction alone cannot establish a maker, determine an exact date, or prove authenticity.

A sound attribution considers the object's marks, materials, construction, documented design comparisons, and historical record together.

For more information on maker identification and dating, see the Museum's Guide to Taxco Silver Hallmarks and browse our hallmark reference.

Why Craftsmanship Still Matters

The Mexican Silver Renaissance produced objects that remain strikingly modern decades after they were made.

Their enduring appeal reflects more than the originality of their designs. It also reflects the extraordinary craftsmanship that made those designs possible.

Look closely at a Taxco silver piece and you begin to see the decisions behind it: where a silversmith raised a curve, how two metals were joined, why a hinge was hidden or deliberately incorporated into the design.

Details that might initially seem decorative reveal the skill, ingenuity, and patience involved in making the object.

They also reveal something about the extraordinary collaboration that defined Taxco's great workshops.

Designers and master silversmiths worked together, combining artistic imagination with generations of accumulated technical knowledge. Their willingness to experiment produced jewelry and decorative objects that were innovative in form, remarkable in execution, and unmistakably connected to Mexico's artistic heritage.

The greatest achievement of the Mexican Silver Renaissance was not any single technique. It was the way these methods were brought together to create a new artistic language.

Understanding how these objects were made allows us to appreciate them more fully—not simply as beautiful jewelry or decorative silver, but as works of art shaped by extraordinary human skill.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between repoussé and chasing?

Repoussé creates raised relief by working a sheet of metal from behind. Chasing works the front surface with specialized tools to refine contours, add texture, or define details. The techniques are often used together, with repoussé establishing the underlying form and chasing completing its surface.

What is champlevé enamel?

Champlevé is a technique in which powdered glass is fired into recesses formed in metal. The surrounding metal remains visible, separating the colored fields. Margot de Taxco became particularly associated with champlevé enamel jewelry beginning in the mid-1950s.

What is the difference between stone mosaic and stone inlay?

Stone inlay involves fitting shaped stones into prepared recesses or settings. Stone mosaic is a form of inlay that uses numerous smaller pieces to create a surface, pattern, or image. The terms overlap, and describing the visible construction is often more useful than relying on the label alone.

What is metales casados?

Metales casados, or "married metals," is a technique in which contrasting metals such as silver, copper, and brass are precisely cut, fitted, and joined into a composition. The technique is particularly associated with Jorge "Chato" Castillo and the Los Castillo workshop.

Is silver overlay the same as metales casados?

No. In decorative silver overlay, silver elements are applied over another metal, creating distinct layers. In metales casados, contrasting metals are fitted together along adjoining boundaries, generally forming a shared surface.

What does handwrought mean in Mexican silver?

Handwrought refers to metalwork shaped and constructed primarily through manual processes rather than produced entirely through mechanized manufacturing. Taxco's larger workshops often employed teams of specialized artisans, so handwrought does not necessarily mean that one person made an entire object.

Why is handwrought Taxco silver considered important?

During the Mexican Silver Renaissance, skilled silversmiths combined traditional techniques with innovative modernist design. Their craftsmanship made possible complex sculptural relief, intricate inlay, sophisticated mixed-metal compositions, and highly engineered jewelry. The resulting objects are appreciated for both their artistic originality and the technical skill required to create them.

Can a technique identify who made a Taxco silver piece?

No single technique establishes a maker or proves authenticity. However, construction can provide useful supporting evidence when compared with documented workshop examples, hallmarks, materials, and historical records.

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Explore the Artists and Workshops

The techniques in this guide were developed, refined, and practiced by generations of remarkable Mexican silversmiths.

Each major workshop developed its own artistic identity, combining familiar methods with distinctive approaches to design and construction.

Explore the artists and workshops represented in the Museum's collection:

• Los Castillo — Sculptural silverwork, mixed metals, stone mosaic, and inventive decorative techniques.
• Margot de Taxco — Expressive silver designs and exceptional champlevé enamel.
• Antonio Pineda — Architectural modernism, precise stone settings, and sophisticated articulated construction.
• Victoria de Taxco — Distinctive mixed-metal compositions and the creative integration of silver with other materials.

Browse the Museum's complete directory of artists and workshops to discover more of the people behind the Mexican Silver Renaissance.

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Sources and Further Reading

Sources

• Gobi Stromberg, Silver Seduction: The Art of Mexican Modernist Antonio Pineda (Fowler Museum at UCLA, 2008). Particularly the discussion of the grand talleres, specialized silversmiths, the collaborative production process, and technical innovations of the Taxco School. The Roof-Tile Amethyst Necklace is documented on p. 119, fig. 139, as design YY546 in 970 silver.
• Penny Chittim Morrill and Carole A. Berk, Mexican Silver: 20th Century Handwrought Jewelry & Metalwork (Schiffer Publishing). Historical and technical reference for the major Taxco workshops, including Victoria de Taxco's mixed-metal production, Los Castillo's decorative techniques, and the terminology used by practicing silversmiths.
• Penny C. Morrill, Silver Masters of Mexico (1996). Reference for early Los Castillo repoussé pectorals and the workshop's bracelet designs of the 1940s.
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Regal Repoussé," Perspectives. Technical explanation of repoussé as a process in which metal is worked from behind to create raised relief on the front. https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/regal-repousse
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Metalworking: Champlevé Enameling," Perspectives. Explanation of vitreous enamel fused into recesses formed in metal. https://www.metmuseum.org/perspectives/metalworking-champleve-enameling
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art, collection records for Margot de Taxco enamel work, objects 181357 and 198113. Collection references only; images not reproduced. https://collections.lacma.org/object/181357 and https://collections.lacma.org/object/198113
• Fowler Museum at UCLA, Silver Seduction: The Art of Mexican Modernist Antonio Pineda (2008), exhibition description. Discussion of Pineda's innovative construction methods, including the use of faceted, hinged, and hollowed elements to create substantial but wearable jewelry. https://fowler.ucla.edu/exhibitions/silver-seduction-the-art-of-mexican-modernist-antonio-pineda/
• Museum of Mexican Silver collection records: MoMS-002289 (Los Castillo Glyph Necklace, Design No. 152); MoMS-001089 (Margot de Taxco Cornflower Clamper Cuff); MoMS-001139 (Los Castillo Feather Gauntlet Bracelets); MoMS-001054 (Margot de Taxco Design 5832 Necklace); MoMS-001125 (Los Castillo Parrot-Handled Pitcher); MoMS-002054 (Antonio Pineda Onyx-Inlaid Fringe Collar Necklace); MoMS-002047 (Victoria de Taxco Bowl, Model No. 109); MoMS-002046 (Los Castillo Aztec Warrior Box, Design No. 931); and MoMS-002121 (Antonio Pineda Roof-Tile Amethyst and Silver Necklace).