I am committed to publishing a Founder's Edit every month — but the past six weeks have been a whirlwind in the best of ways, and I am excited to share all of it. This edition will serve as both April and May condensed into one. Consider it a dispatch from the field.
TWO TRIPS. TWO WORLDS.
My sourcing trips to Oaxaca and Milan came within weeks of each other, and I am still processing both. In terms of place, they couldn't be more different — and yet both hold a particular romanticism that I keep returning to.
Oaxaca is sensory in the most immediate way. The colonial zócalo where families gather with their children on warm evenings. The open-air markets where the novelty of scent, vibrant color, and community are all thriving at once. We were there during Semana Santa, which added another layer of richness entirely — ritual, tradition, and a pride in cultural heritage that I hadn't anticipated feeling so moved by. To witness processions and ceremony woven into the fabric of ordinary daily life was a reminder of what it looks like when a community truly holds onto what it came from.
The ceramicists I met in Oaxaca were particularly special — still practicing ancient traditions of throwing clay without a wheel and firing ceramics in the earth. These are not artisans performing heritage for visitors. They are carrying forward a living craft, and the objects that result carry that weight. I came home without product but with relationships and a deep respect for what I had witnessed. That felt like exactly the right outcome.
Juxtaposed with Oaxaca, my experience at Salone del Mobile was dizzying — the fashion, the design, the innovation, the beauty. Milan in April is unlike anywhere else, and I am still processing all of it.
I attended as three versions of myself simultaneously: as the founder of Materie, sourcing for the collection; as the principal of Matter Interiors, previewing for client projects; and for the first time, guiding clients through the fair for their new home here in Aspen. The meetings I had been most looking forward to — finally visiting with Leila Alwaheb and Lukas Dahlén of Ringvide, and with Fabiola Laccisaglia of Studio Nudo at the Sounds of Design installation — were everything I hoped they would be.
AN UPDATE ON THE BUSINESS.
I am thrilled to share that you will be seeing new product in early June from an artist I met in Milan — who happened to be showing right next to Fabiola of Studio Nudo at the Sounds of Design event. Utterly serendipitous and fitting. I will admit that at times, Materie takes on a life of its own and I feel like I am simply along for the ride. I have learned to trust that.
I have also just joined the 10th House Female Founder Collective — specifically the Founder's Operating Manual cohort — and I am already in awe of the talent, intellectualism, ambition, and drive from this group of women. I have connected with several who are helping me work through some of the bigger strategic questions I have been sitting with for what feels like forever. The timing feels right.
WHAT I'M THINKING ABOUT.
Six weeks of travel, sourcing, and conversation have left me with more questions than answers — which I have learned to recognize as a good sign.
I keep returning to the relationship between craft and place. In Oaxaca, the ceramics exist because of the earth they come from and the hands that have worked it for generations. In Gotland, a furniture maker builds chairs from elm trees felled to stop the spread of disease — wood that would otherwise go to waste. In Brianza, a Japanese firing technique traveled centuries to find its way into a small Italian workshop. Every object in the Materie collection has a geography. I want to do a better job of telling that story.
I am also thinking about pace. While things may seem quiet on the social media and marketing front, it has been the opposite behind the scenes. Materie is building in the way I always hoped it would — slowly, through relationships, with integrity. I am excited to kick off summer with this momentum.
Thank you for being here. As always, I am so grateful to share this journey with you.
— Nicole
