María Camarena Bernard

Maria Camarena first founded her studio in 2012 in Guadalajara Mexico designing and manufacturing custom made furniture. Her passion for traveling and discovering new ways of life and new knowledge brought her to Providence RI where her studio is coming to life again after getting an MFA in Furniture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. Maria aims an understanding of the material on an intimate level through a constant hands-on study. Her work pushes boundaries on what sustainability means to design both, one of a kind and mass production pieces showing a strong commitment with ethical production process and renewable materials pairing form and function. Wood, textiles and ceramics the materials that apear more often in her furniture and home goods adding sometimes details of metals to give better functionality and strength when necessary. The result are straight forward objects thoughtfully crafted that reflect warm austerity and simple sophistication for a cozy everyday surrounding. Experimentation on concept and materials have lead her to be in the top 5 designs in the Battery Park Chair Competition with her Maple Chair in 2013 and shown her Million Loop sits in La Triennale di Milano 2016 and ICFF 2016. And her work has being featured in numerous publications such as Dwell, Design Milk, Mexico Design, The New York Times, Core 77 among others.