For 35 years jewelry design has been Helman Cortes’ passion.
“Creating beautiful pieces of jewelry is a perfect blend of my skills in art and design,” he said. “My focus is on design, not simply selling the same jewelry that every other store has.”
Helman is owner of Cortes Jewelers, a neighborhood jewelry store in north Tampa located on Florida Avenue just south of Bearss that draws many customers from Lutz and Land O’ Lakes.
The store showcases Helman’s custom designs, many which incorporate gems and precious metals found in family heirlooms. Helman has a bachelor’s degree in art and brings a high level of design capabilities to his work.
Helman begins each custom piece with a hand-drawn sketch that brings his customer’s ideas to reality. After the customer is satisfied with his design, Helman proceeds to modeling the jewelry using state-of-the-art computer software.
He then creates a model of the jewelry using high-end 3D printers to show his customer precisely how their final piece will appear. Once the client approves the model, Helman casts it in gold, silver or platinum and then hand sets gems to the design’s specifications.
Cortes Jewelers is a full-service jeweler and is licensed to buy gold, silver, platinum and other metals, as well as gemstones.
“Our store is ideal for anyone wanting to sell their gold and jewels, because we use what we buy in the creation of new pieces of jewelry,” said Helman.
Helman is a second-generation jeweler. His family owned jewelry stores in Temple Terrace for many years, and Helman has worked alongside his father, Leonardo, a watchmaker, since they merged their jewelry businesses 25 years ago.
“There are not very many people left with my father’s skills,” says Helman proudly. “We do all watch repairs on-site and many local stores send their watch repair work to us.”
Helman’s uncle, Melco, is also an accomplished jeweler. Because of the family’s extensive experience, Cortes Jewelers does all of its own design and repair work.
“We do everything in-house,” said Helman. “This is a business built on trust. When you come in to Cortes Jewelers you’ll deal directly with the owners, not an impersonal sales staff.”
Cortes Jewelers is located at 14911 N. Florida Ave., Tampa. They can be reached at (813) 964-5665, or at CortesJewelers.net.
– Mike Matthew
This story was written by the advertising department.
