ROMEO AND JULIET VOLCANO VERSION

So my name is Aris, I’m from Mexico. And the object I’ve brought—it’s always on my hand—is a ring. I made it myself.

I started taking jewelry classes long ago with my dad. And after a while, you start thinking: What can I do that’s more special—not just commercial? So I thought I would make a ring that had the volcanoes from Mexico—Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl.

They have a very nice legend, and they’re quite famous worldwide, I think. So I thought it would be great to just carry a little piece of my home country with me everywhere I go. I immortalized the volcanoes on the ring.

— So I’m gonna trash this part—I will destroy the legend now…

So the legend goes: there was this princess (Iztaccíhuatl), and this warrior (Popocatépetl). And obviously, because princesses and warriors don’t mix, the father didn’t want them to be together. He sent the warrior off on a mission—like, go to war, defend our country, something like that.

Then the father was like, Sorry—he died in a battle. You now need to pick someone else. And she was very sad, and maybe died of heartbreak or something like that.

Then the warrior came back and realized that his girl wasn’t there anymore.

Anyway, the point is: girl, guy… tragedy. Kind of like a Romeo and Juliet—volcano version.

If you see the shape of the volcanoes, Iztaccíhuatl looks like a sleeping lady—a sleeping beauty. And Popocatépetl is like a knight kneeling beside her.

If you look it up on Google, it’s very touching.

The outline on the ring follows the shape of the mountains. This is Popo, okay? And this is Iztaccíhuatl. You have to use your imagination—it’s a sleeping lady!

Use your imagination!

My job is actually as a 3D animator, so everything I do is digital. Working with jewelry—doing something physical—it’s really nice and rewarding. You’re working with your hands, you’re seeing it as it comes together.

It’s tangible. It’s real.

And it’s really nice to have a final product you can hold and say:
"Look - I made this."