About Santa Fe

Mati by Kabana
Mati by Kabana, Kabana’s local boutiques in New Mexico, showcase the largest selection of Kabana found anywhere. Mati is also proud to represent many other jewelry designers as well as some of the finest Swiss watch brands.

Mati is locally owned and operated in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Kabana's History
Kabana was founded by Stavros Eleftheriou in 1975. Housed in what was once an old Mission Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this historic building is now home to the skilled goldsmiths and craftspeople that make Kabana's distinctive Collections. Kabana, renowned and undisputed Master of Inlay, is one of the few jewelry manufacturing companies in the United States that does not outsource any portion of our product. From the drawing table to finish, each piece is produced entirely in the United States. Our innovative design team creates pieces of exquisite beauty. Our artisans not only utilize the traditional methods of inlay but also take it to new heights of expertise. It is the combination of contemporary design, time-honored methods and our state of the art production facility that results in Kabana’s Collections.

Kabana stays faithful to the old traditions of handmade jewelry. However, to ensure and maintain our reputation for high precision and the quality of our product, Kabana employs the latest in technology with high tech machines and tools. Our almost non-existent personnel turnover has enabled us to train employees for many years, turning them into masters of skill.

We will always be our biggest competition, as we continue to pursue the ultimate, the unique, and the extraordinary.

Kabana’s jewelry is 100% made in the United States of America.

Major worldwide economical shifts have resulted in a dramatic new landscape in the realty of consumer’s goods. The temptation is often great for an industry to save a lot of money by finding much cheaper labors overseas. Many jewelers currently save on craftsmanship, by delocalizing their

production to Southwest Asia. But what they may save somewhere, they are bound to lose elsewhere, as this requires huge sacrifices regarding the quality of manufacturing. A loss in quality that will be suffered by the end consumer: poor design and manufacturing quality will eventually affect the experience of those who will wear this jewelry. The fact that Kabana is 100% made in the US is therefore
of prime importance. Made in the USA is therefore one direct consequence of the extremely high quality of Kabana’s jewelry products, especially as compared to the low standards characterizing the collections of its competitors producing in Asia.

Kabana produces a labor-intensive product. Cutting, polishing and setting inlays is a minute and time- consuming activity. In order to do so, Kabana provides many jobs in the USA, where the wages are higher than in Asia, but so are the craftsmanship and skills. It is also a great and loyal behavior, towards our country, and Kabana is extremely proud to support the local and national economy.

Finally, Kabana’s strength and most precious capital are its employees, many of which have been working here since its foundation. Kabana is a community, a family, deeply grounded in Albuquerque and New Mexico. It means that the design team, the sales people and the customer service work in the same building as the production team. Everyone can see what the other is doing, and everyone has a daily, global overview of the company’s activity and production; employees know the product very well and see creations evolving at each stage.

Producing at home is a positive contribution to the life of the community, and to the economy, local, state-wide and national. This is a fundamental feature of the company and a source of great pride at Kabana.

Craftsmanship
The secret behind Kabana’s ever-growing success stems from the union of two essential factors. The first one is Kabana’s design, outstanding, innovative, contemporary and delightfully feminine. The second factor is its perfect, tried-and-tested, renowned craftsmanship, ultimately resulting in Kabana’s legendary quality and comfort.

Such is Kabana, who remained faithful to these highly demanding standards of excellence, ever since 1975 when Stavros Eleftheriou founded the company. At Kabana, countless attentions go into the smallest crafting details. Wearing a piece of Kabana jewelry is a whole experience, made both of visual pleasure and of comfort. Kabana is adamant: a piece is great, only when its beauty 100% matches its comfort and flawlessness. That is why the manufacturing process insures, through various tough fabrication specifics and quality controls, that, people are both proud and happy to own and wear a Kabana piece. This is the goal of our craftspeople.

Kabana’s manufacturing process never surrenders to simplicity; on the contrary, we always push forward, building on our countless successes to come up with new and better crafting techniques,

to constantly enhance our jewelry. We achieve this through a perfect combination of traditional techniques, performed by hand in a timeless ritual and the latest available production technologies.

Inlay jewelry is a process as precise as it is intricate. Yet Kabana aims for that challenging difficulty, never forgetting that each crafted piece will eventually become a unique, significant piece of Jewelry. At Kabana, technical prowess means reaching even higher beauty and elegance. In the end, being so firm on quality and so forward-looking on craftsmanship will dramatically favor that what has to shine through: craftsmanship is in the extreme smoothness of the inlay, the wholeness of the piece and the extreme purity of its design. As Greek philosopher Aristotle (a precursor of Stavros) once said: “Quality is a habit, not an act”.