Claudia Menéndez

Guatemala City

Claudia Menéndez is a visual artist and designer who is passionate about color theory and patterns. After earning a video editing degree in Madrid and BFA degrees in Film, Video & New Media and Fiber & Material Studies from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, she returned to Guatemala City to launch her studio, Nebula Handmade.

Claudia’s process re-mixes traditional Guatemalan motifs with contemporary graphic design. “Each community in Guatemala has their own colors, theme, birds, trees… everything has a meaning that is connected to community and history,” she explains. Inspired by traditional textiles, she uses digital tools to prototype ideas, and then reproduces them physically, through beading, embroidery, weaving and printmaking. Claudia highly values experimentation. For example, she combines traditional textile techniques with novel materials such as melted plastics and concepts like pixelization, resulting in one of a kind creations.

To manufacture her signature handbags, pillows and bracelets, Claudia collaborates with beading and embroidery artisans in Santiago Atitlán. She is passionate about fair trade, artisan empowerment and the value of heritage crafts: “Guatemala needs to understand that the value of their artisans and to show that we can have a thriving business and a thriving community as well.”