About MXIA 

We are a conscious design and fashion manufacturer from Iceland making mostly jewellery, clothing, and all things cool that we deem better products.

Our goal is to create beautiful and functional (comfortable) things that are manufactured with respect for people and the environment.

In an age where transparency and traceability is expected of manufacturers (we even know where our tomatoes come from in the supermarket) business ethics are more important than ever. All too often, production is outsourced to the cheapest bidder without consideration for the conditions and wages of the manufacturers or best practices for the environment (if only mother earth could speak - oh, but she does, doesn´t she...) and local skills and craftsmanship.

The world doesn´t need MORE products, we need BETTER ones.

We make it our business to make some of these “better” products that are designed to last - that everyone alike, fashion frenzy followers and indie world-do-gooders can enjoy.

We are Maria and her designer, branding, marketing and photography friends (& her two children, Tea and Jonatan and the best Jack Russel blend ever, Lúna).

For general enquiries, press enquiries, or if you are interested in stocking our
designer items, write to maria@mxia.org (Maria loves giving interviews).
 

The founder and designer

My name is María Ericsdottir Panduro and I grew up in this funky, white-brick-home, overlooking a gold river in Sierra Leone. A weird need for social justice has always followed me and my family following these six years in West Africa, where people, in a region so rich in natural resources have never benefitted from the diamonds and gold in the soil and rivers around them.

I am a designer and my passion is creating things from nothing and finding treasures everywhere. After designing and managing brands for almost 20 years, I decided I wanted to create my own brand. Only, I needed a product. Yes, I started on the opposite end (so to speak) and ended up soul searching a lot and finally figured out that I loved jewellery. I absolutely love all things glittery, I mean, the flashier and shinier, the better. Coming from a quite strict Christian background, I was always taught that the outer appearance didn´t matter and that true value depends on the pureness of what is within. I admit, it was difficult for me to allow myself this product, but I rebelled and did it anyway, not because I don´t agree, that appearances don´t really matter, but because I am sure that something good can come of creating beautiful things.

To begin with, it was a given that diamonds wouldn´t make the production list since we all know that the dirt diamond industry is simply just as corrupt as it always has been. And I had this idea that I wanted the country of origin to socially benefit from its own resources. But thats super hard when tax “systems” funnel payments info their own private drawers and pockets.

So I decided that I would stick to gold and silver and actually produced my first products in Spain. Being a newbie in the industry, I asked a lot of questions and turned all stones along the way. My designer mind loved all the challenges and I was guilty of taking the most time consuming and least trodden paths in almost every possible way.

I was a little over a year into my endeavours when, one day, I found myself introducing all my cool ideas to my only brother, Jon. He has this way of getting to the core of the matter very fast. He looked at me and said, “do you think the situation is any nicer in the gold industry"?

This was a turning point for me. Turns out that if you google “terrible conditions in gold mines” you get a whole other set of images than if you google just “gold mines.”

This sent me down another rabbit hole that I am forever grateful to have fallen into.

From Spain to Venice and India to London, I found myself on the 14. of february, 2018, with Anna Keyn (my wonderful friend and co-magic maker) on the train platform in Chichester, England, after having just interviewed Alan Frampton of CRED jewellery about Fairtrade gold.

I launched my first collection of jewellery made from ethically sourced and fully traceable gold from the SAMA mine in Uganda, alongside Anna, in Downtown Reykjavik on the Design Festival in March of 2018 (with the best, black ginger molasses cake baked by Svetlana Graudt with lemon frosting, a recipe from Claire of Violet Cakes (@violetcakeslondon) in Hackney, East London). I think this collection was the first of its kind in Iceland (99.9% sure).

We found wonderful fairtrade coffee in gold packaging under a picture of Jesus in a vegan health store to accompany the cake that day.

What a journey.

Thank you Anna, for teaching me that being a perfectionist, means that nothing in life is perfect. You wrote the sentence that I love, “She has an intense and rewarding relationship with espresso and typically starts the day by smelling freshly ground coffee because she thinks it smells like the feeling of being in love.”

Thank you Sara Flaaen, for writing your Bachelors Thesis on my project and showing up for the launch.

Thank you social designers of the world, for making it clearer to me that design is really about people, communication and making the world a better place.

Thank you Greg and Alan and David for finding a solution and taking my calls although I didn´t really know what I was talking about most of the time. Thank you Margaret Tuhumwire for your work in the EWAD. Thanks mom and dad for loaning me your credit card when I realised that I was missing a 0 in the initial calculations of the amount due before the launch. Thank you all for the advice that you can´t change the system characterised by corruption and greed but you can change yourself and the choices you make (and that consumers have the power to reshape industries).

Thank you Magga for brainstorming with me for a year and thank you Nina Knudsen for designing and pouring yourself into BLADE with me. Thank you Erla, Edi, Snæfríður, Högni, Laufey, Heiða, Annsy, Hrafnhildur, Edda, Vidar, Svetlana, Jon (for pushing me, hehe) and Ragnar for believing in me.

…

Just for fun... I´m a nordic mix, but mostly Icelandic although I also have a Spanish last name. I´m born in Denmark, raised in Africa, the UK, the US - Michigan, studied in California, Reykjavík and Copenhagen, and currently live in downtown Reykjavík. (To prove that I have an flighty, all-over-the-place mind I can add that the Spanish name comes from a Spanish soldier that fought in Napoleons army… in Denmark (the Spaniards joined Napoleons forces in northern Europe and then later abandoned his troops when Napoleon appointed his brother king of Spain (super dubious). The Spaniards “jumped ships” literally and left Denmark with the British, leaving fields of Andalusian horses behind in southern Fyn (a part of Denmark) - apparently, it was quite a sight. The horses were army horses and ended up attacking each other and were later killed. Sad. Anyway, I was told that the soldier named Isidoro Panduro stayed behind in Denmark because he fell in love with a this danish girl (awwww), but the truth of the matter is that he had recently fallen off a horse and broken his leg and couldn´t travel. But, yes, he later fell in love, or got married to a danish women (who is not described in the biography) and actually, never returned to Spain.) 

In closing… Should mention that I have worked within advertising and design in Reykjavik, Copenhagen and northern California, and in addition to designing for MXIA also run a little design studio called Karousel (founded 2012) and an art print shop called Reykjavik Art Print and have won a few design awards, you know, along the way (gotta have that in here as well).

I hope to stay open and become a better listener with age.

xx. -m 

Changing the gold industry
Millions of men, women and children work in unsafe and unregulated mines in approximately 70 different countries. The use of mercury and cyanide in gold mining poses serious health risks to workers, communities and the environment at large. To change the gold industry would be a crazy big goal for any entity - but then on the other hand, consumers worldwide have the power to do precisely that.

Inspired by Iceland
The nations dramatic volcanic landscapes and the prolonged light in the summer months are a source of inspiration. But more important than our physical surroundings, is the influence and mindset of fellow creatives in Iceland, their “can do” approach (an Island thing probably) and the flexibility in our community. The weather has taught us to be flex, in stormy weather you can be forced to change your plans and when the sun shines, it would be wise to drop what you´re doing and enjoy it.

Icelandic Design
As a relatively remote island in the North Atlantic, Iceland has been home to a distinctive culture since its settlement more than a thousand years ago. However, Icelands design tradition is relatively young. The center for Icelandic design proclaims that the lack of tradition has been a great advantage, ensuring a certain freedom characterised in originality, resourcefulness, individualism and innovation.