The Córdoba Earrings: Process + Inspiration

One summer, I took an immersive study-abroad course in Spain that focused on literature and history. One of our assigned books, Spain: The Root and The Flower, opened my eyes to the many layers that make up the Mediterranean world.

Spain carries the imprint of countless civilizations, from prehistoric cave dwellers and dolmen builders to the Iberians, Greeks, Phoenicians, Celts, Romans, Visigoths, and Moors, and later the regional monarchies that shaped the country we know today.

I see echoes of that layered history in New Mexico, another place where cultures meet and overlap, including the influence of the Spanish who came here.

There are, of course, parts of this history that are difficult to sit with. But when I look specifically at the art, architecture, literature, music, and adornment that emerged from these intersections, I’m fascinated by how objects can carry those layers within a single design. The language of design holds the stories of the cultures that came before, and studying how forms and motifs evolved is something I find especially compelling.

Córdoba is a city in the south of Spain with one of the most beautifully preserved mosques in the country, La Mezquita. The Moors who built this place of prayer wanted it to feel like an orchard, with rows of columns and colorful arches that mimic a garden. When the Christian monarchy reconquered Spain, they built a cathedral right in the center of the mosque. Many people criticize the monarchs from 500 years ago for placing their Catholic mark on such a stunning space.

When I visited La Mezquita for the third time in 2023, my perspective shifted. I began to see how Spanish history had been captured and protected inside this architectural treasure. The Moors themselves borrowed columns from nearby Roman ruins and reused them in the mosque. This sacred space holds centuries of stories, and it inspired me to create a pair of earrings drawn from that visit.

Around the same time, I picked up a book at the Alhambra gift shop and was struck by the intricacy of repetitive design. The Moors, who loved geometry and saw it as a way to express their vision of heaven, cut and shaped tile and plaster into decorative panels that covered their walls. That stayed with me and sparked the idea to create individual shapes, or modules, that I could combine into different earring designs.

At first, I had no idea how I was going to piece everything together to recreate the feeling of standing inside the Mezquita. I wanted something that held a little bit of New Mexico, a little bit of Spain, and the modular forms inspired by the tiles and the sacred Moorish geometry found throughout their architecture.

Once my wax carvings were transformed into sterling silver castings, I could finally sit down and play. This part of the process had less to do with sketching and more to do with exploring the building blocks I had carved by hand. Just like working with real building blocks, I could create endless earring designs, so I had to narrow it down to the pieces that looked and felt the most true to what I wanted to express.

Creating these earrings helped me understand something deeply rooted in Spanish history, especially the influence of the Moors. Their use of repeated forms to build entirely new designs helped me see how history lives within each creation. It reminded me that every motif, every pattern, every choice of form carries a story, and translating that into my own work allowed me to connect with those layers in a meaningful way.

Et Voilà. The Córdoba Earrings.

Thanks so much for reading.

Take care for now,

Caitlin