Mariposa began in 1980 as a small family business that transformed soft-drink bottles down in Mexico into modern glassware. Back then we had no idea that we'd eventually become a leader in handmade tableware, embracing the arts of ceramics, aluminum, cutlery, and glass in myriad forms and textures from around the world.
Yet we were already pursuing several goals. To bring innovative design to a refined, age-old process where little had changed for centuries. To make a local art international — subtle, beautiful, and contemporary.
Why bother to keep such crafts alive, in an age when seemingly nothing is made by hand any more? In a word, because they're better.
At Mariposa our many unique collections are a result of the strong and original aesthetic of our designers combined with the superior technique of all our artisans worldwide. We never take their mastery for granted, for it comes from generations working together to learn a process and an art, growing up amid a handmade way of life.
Often a designer forces craftsmen to find new solutions to new problems. We love to propose a challenging new piece, then watch them find a way to solve the problems without losing the precision or the warmth of the designer's intent, or the character that springs from the tiniest details.
What keeps a craft fresh is a willingness to remake itself constantly, to be ready to innovate on established techniques, to renew the tradition by using different textures and forms.
Some Mariposa collections are inspired by the natural order of the natural world, and our home within it. Some are devoted to the gourmet pleasures of food, the sensuous beauty of the harvest. Some derive from traditional patterns, which we give a modern, fanciful, or provocative edge.
In the end, the designer must always respect the individual piece's function — for no matter how special it looks, if it doesn't sit happily in your hand or on the table, it doesn't work.
With travel as our muse, for over twenty years we’ve sought out the finest artisans worldwide to give life to our innovative design ideas with superb materials and age-old techniques.
We’ve found inspiration everywhere, in memorable forms and textures—from classicism of Europe to the new craftsmen of Asia, from traditional to high style, from the rustic to the sophisticated.
We make what we love. The choicest glassware in the world. Ceramics shaped and handpainted by our superior crafthouses. Aluminum serveware of an unsurpassed elegant sleekness, because our artisans can handle difficulties. And we’re constantly innovating with recycled bottle-glass.
In country after country, we have been welcomed into their houses and feasts as well as their workshops. We've learned from each other, and built up a mutual affection and understanding — bonds that now go back many years.