Mariadela Araujo

My name is Mariadela Araujo, I’m a textile artist and designer from Caracas currently based in Barcelona.

My studio practice is still small but with a strong projection and a defined and recognizable design style, bold, colorful with a very intuitive management of the textures, while experimenting and mastering the traditional techniques such as tapestry weaving, embroidery, knitting and sewing, applied to unconventional products and works such as paintings, installations, or design objects.

I’m formally trained as a fashion designer, visual artist, weaver and florist, all this knowledge provides me with an accurate view, to find tools to see through and develop my ideas, the best way as a professional.

I created Mariadela Araujo Studio in January 2018, after running several projects always linked to art and design, but is then when I began to dedicate all my time to the development of a textile studio with a strong base in tapestry weaving, colour research and large format installations for indoors or outdoors. But my studio is also well known as a training center, and lately, I started as a lead manager of the weaving department of Casa Aymat, an art and craft center in Barcelona.

My business objectives are:

My Studio is producing at the moment some textiles design projects in collaboration with some fashion brands and clients from Europe. Meanwhile, I’m working as a consultant and teacher in some art institutes and as a freelancer.

My goal is to keep participating in art and design fairs, events that are very important to me, because they make me improve myself and my practice and let me be a better professional and provide me to reach my target audience and upgrade my network.

My learnings from the Crafting Business Programme:

After the Crafting business programme, I feel more confident about the definition of my project, I find the way to build a more structured brand, regarding the approach to the finances and the management of marketing campaigns to promote my studio.

The program gave me the tools to identify my mistakes and correct them, to be able to define my target audience and sectorized it and apply methods to establish priorities and improve my profitability.

I felt very lucky to be part of this program.

My 5 top tips that I have learnt on this journey:

1. This program helped me to crystallize myself as a brand and the value of my proposal as a professional.
2. To understand the importance of defining your target audience.
3. That it is OK to speak about money.
4. The power of collaborations.
5. Crafts is luxury.