JEWELRY BY DESIGN
The founder of Matteo, Matt Bleything, started making jewelry in Albuquerque at age 13, opening his first store at The Lodge Cloudcroft New Mexico in 1978, both making custom jewelry, and operating the store for over twenty years.
In 1995, he moved to Historic Mesilla New Mexico to open Matteo, inside La Posta restaurant.
While no longer making jewelry himself, years of developing relationships within the jewelry world have yielded a gallery of nearly 50 different local, national and international jewelry artisans, as well as other mediums, painting, sculpture, and ceramics. The one common thread is a commitment to design integrity, with the use of quality materials and construction, no matter if the price is $5, or $5,000.
The La Posta Compound, originally dating back to the 1840s, is on the National Register of Historic Buildings. The building is Territorial Style with a zaguan leading into a patio now used as a lobby for the restaurant and displays tropical plants, birds, and fish for all to see.
Constructed primarily of adobe bricks, the north and west sides of the building have doors and windows retaining the Greek revival sediments so typical of Territorial Style. The west wall still retains the parapet topped by a broad space where the Corn Exchange Hotel sign once was proudly displayed in the 1870s!
