At the end of 2018, I was wrapping up a chapter of my life. I had finished high school and was about to make the leap to college. Like many young people my age, I had dreams, expectations, and a vision of what my future would look like. However, the months that followed would not unfold as I had hoped.
A series of personal and emotional events led me to go through one of the most difficult periods of my life. What began as a temporary crisis ended up becoming a time marked by uncertainty, anxiety, and a deep sense of disconnection. Little by little, I drifted away from my friends, my projects, and, in many ways, from myself.
During those months, my world seemed to grow smaller and smaller. In the midst of that process, something happened that, at the time, seemed insignificant. During a family trip, while we were talking about the kind of life I’d like to lead, one of my aunts told me about some cultured pearls she’d bought on a trip to the Philippines years earlier. She offered to give them to me.
The next day, I went to pick them up. I remember that dark bag full of sparkling pearls. I didn’t know anything about materials, design, or craftsmanship, but even so, I felt an impulse that’s hard to explain: I wanted to create something with them.
With my last savings, I bought some basic tools and began experimenting. What started as a simple distraction ended up becoming something much more important.
As I created, my mind found a sense of peace that I couldn’t find anywhere else. For the first time in a long time, I was able to focus solely on the present moment. Creating allowed me to breathe. Creating allowed me to observe. Creating allowed me to feel again.
Little by little, I discovered that beauty wasn’t something superficial. It was a way to connect with life. Over time, those early creations led me to participate in art fairs, meet people, and develop new skills—skills that would eventually lead me, on January 28, 2019, to build a brand called Belle Pierre. What began as a small personal project ended up becoming a school of learning, growth, and transformation. As I changed, so did the brand.
My interests evolved. My worldview expanded. My relationship with art, creativity, and people deepened. Over time, I realized that simply creating pieces was no longer enough. I needed to build something capable of representing the way I had come to understand life. That’s how Sibuterra was born. That’s how Sibuterra was born.