We’re Mad For Madomar: Founder, Marina Cutrale, Is Telling Us All About The Brand
I find it inspiring to see people around me going after what they want and taking risks. It seems that more and more people are taking the leap and starting their own brands & businesses.
Being your own boss has never been more appealing!
This is why I was so excited to see that a friend of mine, Marina, had recently launched her own handmade jewellery brand. She started in London and has since moved out to Brazil to continue running the brand and creating her beautiful jewellery pieces. I wanted to hear all about it and let you all into the wonderful world that is her brand, Madomar.
Founder, Matina Cutrale
L: What is Madomar?
M: Madomar is a brand I started to share my jewellery creations.
L: What made you want to start you own brand?
M: I’ve always been making things throughout my life, from paintings, home decor, graphic design to 3d modelling and animation. I’ve had people be interested in what I was making in the past but I wanted to combine all I have learned and all of my interests into one brand. Jewellery is something I love and creating a brand like this alone requires me to use all my skills in one place. It allows me to combine my tactile skills and the intangible ones, from the making of the pieces to the marketing of them.
L: What does Madomar mean to you?
M: Madomar is my playground. It means endless possibilities I guess because I’m in control, but it also means a lot of listening because I want to help people find jewellery that they love and that makes them feel more adventurous and sexy within my pieces.
‘Madomar’ also is a combination of 'Ma' from Marina (my name), which means 'from the sea' in Latin, and 'Do Mar' which translates to 'from the sea' in Portuguese. Which I thought was an appropriate name for the brand as I have always been fascinated and felt connected to the sea.
L: Can you briefly talk us through the process of creating your beautiful pieces?
M: I like to be inspired by a few different things, for example I like to think of themes or colours for each collection, the last ‘Found in the Depths’ collection I made focused mostly on blues and greens and I wanted the pieces to resemble algae and waves. My biggest source of inspo is my grandma, she has the sickest jewellery collection and she’s always telling me stories of how she got each piece and who made them. I have also been adding pieces to a collection I called ‘The Trove’ these are pendants I’ve found in little markets. Once I’ve separated the little pieces I want to incorporate into a necklace I’ll play around with the arrangement and go from there.
L: Is there anything that you found was easier or harder about starting your own business?
M: I’m not gonna lie I’m finding this quite difficult, the making of the pieces is the funnest part for me but introducing new people to the brand and to who I am is the difficult part. I’ve just moved to Brazil, so I also know that figuring out some of the backend things like shipping will be a bit of a challenge.
L: What have you learnt so far?
M: I’ve only just started so I feel like I have a lot to learn. But I’ve realised that consistency is key, and it’s much harder than it seems, I am not always good at it but I’m working hard to get there.
L: Do you have any advice or words of wisdom for people who might be wanting to start their own brand?
M: I would say make sure it’s something you don’t mind doing 24/7. I think it’s really important you are passionate about at least one core part of the business, because there will always be parts that are not so fun.
L: What’s your favourite piece so far and what is the meaning behind it?
M: My favourite piece is called ’Tangles’ in the ‘Found in the Depths’ collection. I wanted to make a necklace that encompassed the idea of a shipwreck’s treasures tangled within the seaweed at the bottom of the oceans floor. It has this double loop that hangs and lays on the chest really nicely and was made using Amazonite beads, cat eye glass beads and silver-plated crosses.
L: What can we expect from Madomar in the rest of 2023?
M: For now I create more imitation style/ fashion style jewellery that is jewellery that uses a lot of beads, gemstones and for the most part inexpensive metals. I think this is great because this jewellery type allows people to experiment with different styles and trends. But my goal is to grow Madomar to a place where I can hone in on my specific style and use high quality metals and precious or semi-precious stones. In the future I’d love to focus on creating rings specifically, because that is where my heart lies, but never limiting my creativity to one specific thing.
I am taking a wax modelling in jewellery making course so I hope after some practice I can start to share my new creations; hopefully within this year.
