How we got here

Mariana Fonseca trained as a goldsmith's apprentice under Jorge Melo at Ourivesaria Melo in Porto, where she spent eight years learning to set stones before she could set her own agenda. She moved to Lisbon in 2015, spent a year buying loose chalcedony at the Feira da Ladra, and opened Authentic Chalcedony in 2017 with a table at the Mercado de Arroios and nine rings. She reads lapidary journals on Sunday mornings and keeps a small notebook of stone sketches that she has never shown anyone. Her benchmark for a finished piece is whether she would wear it on a long walk.