Mother Made: GUBI Presents a Celebration of Craft, Culture, and the Transformative Power of Women
This Mother’s Day (in certain parts of the world), GUBI presents Mother Made, an evocative exhibition that redefines how we celebrate creation—not only as the act of giving life but as a timeless, transformative force of art, culture, and community. At its heart lies the story of women as creators, storytellers, and changemakers—woven into three extraordinary reimaginings of GUBI’s iconic Pacha Chair.
The exhibition combines the refined vision of textile artist Nina Ferlov with the soul-stirring craft of Pura Utz, a Guatemalan collective that empowers women artisans. Together, their handcrafted editions transcend the conventional bounds of design, becoming living tributes to heritage, identity, and resilience.
Each chair is more than a piece of furniture—it is a tactile narrative of care, passed down and reinterpreted through generations. The project not only illuminates the deep cultural and symbolic roots of textile craftsmanship but also supports an urgent and enduring cause: the economic and creative empowerment of women.
A Chair Rooted in Earth and Spirit
From the highlands of Guatemala, Pura Utz offers a radiant homage to Pachamama, the Andean Earth Mother, with their richly symbolic Pachamama Chair. This sculptural piece—hand-beaded with an astonishing 244,000 glass beads—results from two intensive weeks of collaboration between six full-time artisans. Using intuitive flatwork techniques and no fixed pattern, the piece blossoms organically, mirroring nature’s asymmetry and wild elegance.
Floral motifs rise in delicate three-dimensional forms, symbolising fertility cycles, birth, and renewal. Upholstered in Dedar’s Lupo Special Diagonal Bouclé, and grounded by a Pearl Gold swivel base, the chair is not only visually stunning—it is an act of devotion to ancestral knowledge and the living craft of community.
Founded in 2018 by Bernabela Sapalú and Anna Waller Andrés, Pura Utz now supports over 50 women artisans in Santiago Atitlán, offering fair wages, dignified work, and a platform to carry forward Mayan traditions in a modern context. Their name, which translates to “pure quality” in the Mayan language, encapsulates their ethos of beauty, integrity, and empowerment.
Threads of Wisdom
Danish artist Nina Ferlov continues the conversation with grace and quiet strength in her two reimagined Pacha Chairs. A master of layered embroidery and painterly textiles, Ferlov crafts poetic compositions that feel as ephemeral as watercolours, yet as grounded as generational wisdom.
Silk scraps and threads are stitched together into flowing narratives—abstract yet emotionally resonant—symbolising knowledge's slow, rhythmic passing from woman to woman, mother to daughter, artist to apprentice. Education, Ferlov suggests, is nourishment: an invisible inheritance that builds, strengthens, and binds communities.
As with Pura Utz’s creation, Ferlov’s pieces are upholstered in Dedar’s Bouclé and finished in Pearl Gold. But the hand-stitched surfaces—the layers of labour, memory, and intention—render each chair utterly unique and profoundly human.
Design With Purpose
All three chairs will be sold through a charity auction hosted by Palsgaard Kunstauktioner, running online until June 3rd. Proceeds from the auction will directly support initiatives that uplift women artisans and preserve the cultural legacies embedded in their work.
Mother Made reminds us that design is not merely about aesthetics or function—it is about meaning. It is about honouring the hands that create, the traditions that endure, and the quiet revolutions unfolding in ateliers, studios, and villages across the world.
In celebrating these women, GUBI invites us to look closer—to see not just objects of beauty, but vessels of history, symbols of resistance, and seeds of a more equitable, inspired future.
The three reimagined Pacha Chairs will be available through a charity auction hosted by Palsgaard Kunstauktioner, running online until June 3. For more information, click the link below.
