Manufaturing in Portugal: local handmade homeware to last
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Mariamélia
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MANUFATURA EM PORTUGUÊS 

Portuguese
manufacturing




   



Mariamélia is a local project based in Porto, that works solely with Portuguese manufacturers and artisans, essentially from the north of the country.






Mariamélia is dedicated to the universe of local manufacturing in Portugal by developing and selecting significant objects together with local craftsmen and artisans. These artisans dominate rare technologies and work on a small scale, sometimes with semi-industrial processes. Mariamélia is focused on objects for the home,  selecting significant objects for living well at home. All our products are made with high-quality and in small quantities to last for a long time. Our goal is to develop and select objects that are a mirror of a more minimalist but also a more informed philosophy of life.

Our product motto is based on four pillars:  small-scale, transparency, fair value, and honesty.


I believe that this is the only way to choose objects in a true way, that respects those who make them but also guarantees their longevity and durability.

Mariamélia wants to bring not only the idea of truth through objects but also meaning: the pertinence of an object both within the house and in our life. Whether it's in the kitchen, the patio, the bedroom, or the living room, life at home shall have a soul in every presence. Because if we’re surrounded by objects that are the best, we don't need many. Surrounded by objects full of truth (because the gestures of making are still there), we know we are at home. This is where I want you to feel: at home. Be very welcome!



Mariamélia believes in manufacturing. Not as an end in itself, but as a practice that allows constant improvement of a product through know-how, through the absorption of practical knowledge, through the repetition of gestures and the pleasure of making. Mariamélia believes in unique objects, that are culturally significant. We don't want to develop objects just as style exercises. We believe in a consequence in design processes: an improvement or a clarification — an illumination, sshould it be a design, a finishing, a material, or a function. Mariamélia advocates for a more conscious form of consumption, which includes responsible objects: durable, natural and locally produced, with knowledge of the origin of the materials. An informed object, but also significant, in the sense that it introduces something new. Mariamélia sees objects as an extension of the body and the house. An intermediary of gestures. As a way of humanizing everyday life, of civilization, of respect for the environment and for others. We believe in the truth of objects, a sense of honesty. All this only seems possible to us through artisanal or semi-industrial manufacturing work, in limited series. A scale that defines not only the quality standard we demand, but the very rhythm of production of the products. A scale and a humanized pace, which does not sacrifice any of the premises: natural materials of sustainable production and manufacture by qualified local artisans. Mariamélia believes in valuing the act of consumption, highlighting the quality and lifespan of objects based on the intrinsic quality of its materials and design, but also on their symbolic characteristics. We want to be able to feed a sense of dream through objects, that can rescue us from the constant cynicism of today's life, by valuing the work of those who produce sensitive things with their hands. At Mariamélia we want to take care of this sensitivity, and blend it with a contemporary look, so that memory has to do with a construction on tradition and not only a repetition of past formulas.





I'm Filipa, a designer who works regularly with a network of artisans and small local producers, developing original products and curating traditional handcrafted pieces. I occasionally collaborate with artists and create close relationships of trust with all the artisans and manufacturers with whom I collaborate in product development.
I have studied design, but my practice lies somewhere between curating handcrafted and semi-industrial products and researching new formats of consumption and material production.
Mariamélia was born in 2014, and in 2018 it became a more solid project, expanding partnerships with artisans and producers from different areas.

I regularly write about material culture and consumption in Mariamélia's monthly newsletter. The photos on this website were made (unsless otherwise noted) by Matilde Viegas, an important partner of this project.
You can contact me or follow me here:
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CONTACTS
info@mariamelia.com
+351 962 896 408*
PORTO, PORTUGAL

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