Elizabeth Kooij Martinez
Goldsmith & Founder
The Beginning
Elizabeth Kooij never set out to become a goldsmith.
For years, her world had been fashion, design and luxury. Then she became seriously ill with encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain that changed the course of her life. Recovery would take years, and the pace at which she had always lived was no longer possible.
Goldsmithing came into her life during that long period of recovery. Working with precious metal gave her something to focus on and brought a sense of calm, but it also sparked a genuine fascination with the craft. She loved the precision, the concentration needed for such detailed work and the feeling of creating something with her own hands.
That fascination stayed. As her skills developed, goldsmithing began to take on a different role in her life. What had started as part of her recovery was becoming a profession she had never imagined for herself. Elizabeth was not finding her way back to the life she had before. She was finding a new way forward.
Surrounded by Craft
Long before she began making jewellery herself, Elizabeth had already spent years surrounded by beautiful objects and the people who create them.
After completing a Master’s degree in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Planning, she worked for Swiss watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre. It was her first close encounter with haute horlogerie and with a world in which extraordinary attention can be devoted to the smallest detail.
Later, through her own business, she represented high-end Colombian designers in Europe. She worked closely with the designers themselves, introducing their statement pieces to a European audience and helping them gain international visibility.
At the time, Elizabeth was the person telling the stories of other makers. She could not have known that one day she would become one herself.
Becoming a Goldsmith
In September 2022, Elizabeth began studying jewellery-making from home with the Jewellers Academy in London. It became an important part of her recovery and gave her something she had been missing for a long time: a sense of direction.
She went on to complete diplomas in Silver Jewellery and Fine Jewellery, learning the traditional skills of the goldsmith and gradually developing her own approach to the craft.
It was during these years that a memory from childhood took on new meaning. On visits to Colombia, Elizabeth had always been fascinated by filigree jewellery. She remembers looking closely at the intricate patterns, trying to understand how something so delicate could possibly be made from metal. She never imagined she would one day learn the technique herself.
Filigree is now central to her work. Its connection to Colombia gives the craft a personal significance, but the fascination remains the same as it was all those years ago: what can be created from the finest threads of precious metal, a pair of hands and an extraordinary amount of patience.
Jewellers Academy Londen - Fine Jewellery Diploma
Led by Intuition
Elizabeth’s jewellery reflects who she is: passionate, feminine, strong and refined. Her Colombian and Dutch roots are both part of her work and can be seen in the way she uses colour, form and detail.
Elizabeth works intuitively and often lets the material guide her. Her collections begin with an idea or a theme, but she does not decide every detail beforehand. Much of a jewel takes shape while she is making it, and a design can change along the way.
This means that no two pieces are quite the same. Each jewel has something of its own, its own character and its own soul.
“To me, a jewel is not an object,
but a soul given form in precious metal.”
Elizabeth Kooij Martinez
Diosa del Alma
The name Diosa del Alma was inspired by Psyche, one of the most enduring figures in Greek mythology. Psyche was a mortal woman who fell in love with Eros. When their love was broken, she was set a series of seemingly impossible trials in her attempt to find him again. Her journey took her as far as the underworld, yet she continued. In the end, Psyche emerged transformed. She was granted immortality and became the goddess of the soul. Her story has long been associated with the butterfly, a symbol of the soul and of metamorphosis.
When Elizabeth first encountered the myth, it was this idea of transformation that stayed with her. Her own life had been interrupted without warning and could not simply return to what it had been. It had to take another shape. Goldsmithing became part of that new shape. What connected Elizabeth to Psyche was not the experience of loss itself, but the possibility of what might emerge afterwards. A life can change profoundly and still become something meaningful, even when it looks nothing like the life once imagined.
From that thought came Diosa del Alma, Spanish for Goddess of the Soul. The name brings together the mythology of Psyche, Elizabeth’s Colombian heritage and the transformation that ultimately led her to become a goldsmith.
What once seemed lost can come to life again in a form never imagined.
