Welcome, and thank you for your interest!
I am Maria Stultz.
Ever since I can remember, my biggest passion has been to design and make products to serve my needs. My mind is visual, practical, and convinced that she can do—or learn to do—almost everything herself. And so, my ideas usually involve detailed work and multi-step processes that attempt to create beauty and function out of simple and raw materials. That is the kind of artist I am: I enjoy creating products that derive their soul from artistic transformation through a process I’ve crafted; not from the pre-made beauty of costly inputs.
Every item you find here began as a burning idea; one for which I wanted to create my own artwork, handprint my own design, draw form and color stitching an applique, experiment with a new technique, tool, or material… I rarely make things that take little effort or can be economically reproduced over and over. I make because my soul seeks to express individuality through design and handcraft.
Transformation and experimentation are my creative engines, so I like to use humble and repurposed materials (wood pruned from my garden, solid colored textiles, repurposed garments, paper scraps, etc.) I’m sensitive to waste and love to creatively repurpose materials and ideas. My products are beautiful because of the design and craft that went into making them, not because of precious materials, designer prints, or pre-made components.
I’m inspired by nature, function, and the practical needs in my life as a designer and mother of a boy. My products then are comfortable, casual, practical, durable, and expressive of my earthy sense of beauty.
I am a designer. A maker. A creator of OOAK goods (even this website), driven by play, DIY spirit, and the joy to execute the next creative idea in my mind.
Mafe is short for “Maria Fernanda”, the name I was given at birth in Colombia. It’s how my family and early friends know me. It’s my past.
Maria is the easy name I gave Americans when I moved to the U.S. in my twenties. It has become my name. It’s my present.
I am both: Mafe and Maria; Spanish and English; Colombian and half–gringa. I feel both divided and enriched by these two worlds, and no doubt, they both reflect in my ideas and finished products.
My background also includes Industrial engineering, corporate finance, web design and development, and—most expansive above all—special-needs motherhood.