WORKING HANDS: Tania Enriquez

As a stationery brand, we are always curious how and what people use our stationery goods for. With this blog series, focusing on the hands at "work" and beyond, we ask five questions about the usage and meaning of the stationery tools to our friends in Los Angeles.

For the fourteenth WORKING HANDS, we visited a LA based jewelry maker, Tania Enriquez at her house / studio in Hollywood.

Hands wearing brass rings drawing in red pencil on a notebook cover beside a tape dispenser.

Q1. What do you do with Hightide stationeries - you have quite a collection from our shop!

Ohhh man, yes! I use the tape dispensers for my washi tapes for packaging my jewelry. I love the Workmate toolboxes for my pliers, small gems, precious metal wires and miscellaneous small objects to keep them safe and in order. As for the color pencils, I love using them when I draw on packaging as well.

Two green Storage Caddy trays open on a wooden table, one holding stickers, the other white tape unrolling.

Open red Penco Storage Caddy on a wooden table, filled with jewelry-making tools, wire and pliers.

Tania's hand-forged wearable metal work.

Handmade brass and silver wire jewelry pieces with spiral shapes laid on a dark leather board on a wooden table.

My top favorite Hightide item would be the leather tool bag for my heavy hammer and dapping block and various penco storage containers – they’re the best for organizing!

Tabby cat resting on a checked blanket beside a tan leather bag atop a stack of art and design books.

Q2. In our technology driven world, what does it mean to write by hand to you?

I enjoy it – it’s very personal and connects from brain to heart to hand, if that makes sense…

Jeweler Tania Enriquez leans over a wooden workbench, using a green pencil to mark a small metal piece.
Hand with a bracelet turning the page of a large open art book showing furniture and object photographs.

Tania is showing us her metal pieces, His and Hers Pill Boxes in the exhibition catalog, Built In at the Neutra VDL House from 2021.

Q3. Pencils or Mechanical Pencils?

Oof- both! I love sharpening pencils and I also love the sound of the clicking mechanical pencil.

Q4. What’s in your pen case?

Muji color gel pens, Le pen felt tip pens. color pencils, washi tapes and random wire scraps.

Hands wrapping a small parcel at a plywood desk, with tape dispensers, notebooks and pens nearby.

Q5. What is your most favorite stationery?

I love the muji memo pads – because they’re economical and super easy to use.

Open notebook with a handwritten to-do list in blue ink, resting on a box of colored pencils and a sketchbook.

Tania hand writes the order list for a Tokyo based shop, Mill Valley Yakumo, where her jewelries are available.

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Tania Enriquez is a LA based artist, who focuses on hand-forged metal work for wearables and objects. She practices Rest Objects, for those who appreciate some repose.