I'm Sara Inês Serafim. I've been making jewellery by hand, in sterling silver, at my atelier in Vila Nova de Gaia, since 2017. Hoyara is where everything I don't say out loud lives.
I was born with profound deafness in both ears. When I was little, my mother began learning Portuguese Sign Language so she could speak with me. I grew up watching someone choose to make an enormous effort just so I wouldn't feel alone.
Today, when I make a piece by hand, the memory of that choice comes with me. I learned early that hands can say everything that matters. Mine keep trying.
I was 23. I spent a whole month in the Algarve. Every day I went to the same beach, sitting for hours looking at the sea, at the shells, at the small stones the water brought in. At night I'd go back to my room and draw what I'd seen.
When I returned, I already had a name for what I wanted to make. The first collections, Marítima, Shell, and Ondina, still hold the water of that summer.
Hoya carnosa is a plant that blooms every year around my birthday. When I joined its name to mine, Hoyara was born.
When I give a name to a piece, I do it thinking it will outlast fashion. Like the Hoya. Like my name.
'I want the jewel to be a mirror, not just an ornament.'Sara Inês Serafim, LuxWoman, 2025
I studied interior design at ESAD in Matosinhos, and jewellery at Alquimia-Lab in Porto. I keep learning with every piece I make.
I work with sterling silver 925, sourced from Portuguese suppliers. When a piece is gold-plated, it's 24-karat gold over silver. Every ring, every earring, every necklace is cut, soldered, filed, and polished by hand, at the atelier in Vila Nova de Gaia, one piece at a time.
Some take hours. Others take days. There are no production lines. When a piece leaves here, it's because it has passed through my hands from beginning to end.
In 2025, with the Portuguese Association of the Deaf, we co-organised the first Mercado Surdo in Portugal. Other times, I've hired entire teams of deaf people for collection launches. There's a fight for funding of sign language interpreters that won't stop while it's still needed.
Hoyara is, above all, a jewellery brand. And it's also a space where the deaf community has a voice, and where inclusion isn't a niche, it's the starting point.
2017
The year I founded Hoyara, in Vila Nova de Gaia.
925
Sterling silver in every piece, with or without 24K gold plating.
2025
We co-organised the first Mercado Surdo in Portugal, with APS.
Mercado Surdo: the success of Portugal's first edition
A celebration of opposites, roots, and self-acceptance: Hoyara Jewellery launches Inversus
Hoyara Jewellery, the Portuguese signature jewellery brand made to last a lifetime
Bruna Guedelha and Sara Inês Serafim join forces to celebrate self-love
These are the Portuguese jewellery brands you really need to know
Portojóia: a return to Porto to prove jewellery and digital art can go together
Deafness never stopped Sara from achieving her dreams
'They told me my place was among the deaf': Sara designs jewellery to prove nothing is impossible
Sara is deaf, launched a jewellery brand, and wants to prove nothing is impossible