Who is Julio Cuellar

Julio Cuellar was born in 1983 in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. At the age of 19 Julio left his town to study english abroad in Vancouver, BC , the west coast of Canada. From the first day of arrival he decided that Canada would be his new home.

At the age of 28 he became friends with a renowned west coast indigenous  jeweler and Artist Ivan Thomas whom gave him the first push and taught him the basics of jewelry. From there on, Julio worked with another talented jeweler Ray Hayder and learning advanced techniques.

Ivan Thomas ( on the left) and Julio Cuellar ( on the right ) circa 2011, on his first day of jewelry studies.

As a big fan of tattoo culture and an avid collector Julio became friends with most local tattoo artists in the city and frequented the scene, although he loved tattoo imagery and culture he didn’t  gravitate towards becoming a tattooer like his friends but had an idea in mind to mix both tattoo imagery and jewelry making. In 2014 he started a relationship with Marcella Rangel a local tattoo Artist that shared the same love and interest for fashion , tattoos and specially jewellery.

Julio Cuellar getting tattooed by Dejan Furlan at a house party in Vancouver. Marcella is the 6th person from left to right , June 2014.

They started merging their craftsmanship, Julio in jewelry making and Marcella with her long experience with drawing and painting.

Julio on the left and Marcella Rangel on the right at their basement home/studio, 2014.

Within 6 months Marcella was pregnant and living in a basement apartment they started a jewelry studio in the middle of the living room where all pieces where made. The style became very popular within the tattoo scene world wide as the pieces where one of a kind and something no one had seen before.

Main st Basement apartment. Home and Studio

 Until this present date Julio is the head of the studio, takes care of all stages of making the piece, from speaking personally with each client on consultations, sourcing all diamonds and specialty gem stones all the way to engraving each piece carefully by hand. He is a one of a kind person in many ways and is proud to have built a brand that values each client singularity, with honesty and most respect for his craft.

Julio Cuellar at the Tianguis in his home town Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. 2024