Today we’d like to introduce you to Maika Palazuelos.
Hi Maika, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I founded Panorammma during the pandemic while I was in the middle of moving apartments. At the time, I simply wanted to make furniture for myself — pieces I wished existed but couldn’t find, or whose style was far beyond my budget. What began as a personal exercise in designing objects for my own use gradually evolved into the studio.
From the beginning, the work developed through material experimentation and a desire to create objects that felt emotionally charged, sculptural, and slightly out of time.
As the studio grew, these ideas became more articulated through exhibitions . Today, Panorammma continues to function as a space for experimentation, where material research, narrative, and craftsmanship come together to create objects that feel both familiar and uncanny.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely hasn’t been a completely smooth road. The studio started very organically, without a business plan or external funding, so a lot of the process has involved learning through trial and error. In the beginning, one of the biggest challenges was simply figuring out how to produce the pieces I imagined with the limited resources I had access to at the time.
Running a business can take away from creative time. A large part of the work ends up being administrative, logistical, or operational, especially when producing collectible design pieces in heavy materials like marble and metal. Over time, logistics almost started to feel like part of the work itself. We think about shipping while we are designing a piece — how it will travel, how it will be packed, assembled, installed, or survive crossing borders. Those constraints inevitably shape the objects as well.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My work exists at the intersection of collectible design, sculpture, and material research. Through Panorammma, I create limited-edition furniture and objects that often function as narrative pieces as much as functional ones. I’m especially interested in creating objects that feel emotionally charged and slightly out of time; pieces that could belong simultaneously to the past, present, and an imagined future.
I specialize primarily in working with Mexican marble, endemic stones, metals, and industrial residues such as slag. I’m drawn to materials that carry geological, historical, or symbolic weight, and I like pushing them into unexpected forms or contexts. Material experimentation is a very important part of the process, but so is storytelling. Many of the pieces are informed by medieval imagery, colonial myths, fantasy, modernist furniture, and scenographic thinking. I’m interested in how historical references survive through collective imagination rather than historical accuracy.
I’m probably best known for creating objects that blur the line between furniture and artifact. Pieces like the Chainmail Chair reflect that approach, transforming chainmail, a material associated with armor, violence, and protection, into something soft, sculptural, and intimate. The work often operates through contradiction: heaviness and fragility, ornament and brutality, functionality and fiction.
What sets the studio apart is that the conceptual framework and the material process are inseparable. The logistics, sourcing, fabrication methods, and even shipping constraints become part of the design language itself. Since many of the works are produced in stone or metal, we often think about transportation, assembly, and structural limitations from the very beginning of the design process. Those practical realities shape the final object just as much as the conceptual references do.
What I’m most proud of is that the studio has developed a very distinct visual universe without trying to follow trends or fit neatly into one category. The work has grown very organically through experimentation, collaboration with artisans and fabricators, and a continuous curiosity about how objects can carry memory, mythology, and emotion beyond their practical use.
How do you think about luck?
I think luck and timing have definitely played an important role in the growth of the studio. Panorammma started at a moment when collectible design was beginning to gain much more visibility internationally, and there was a growing interest in work that existed between art and design. Entering the industry at that particular moment created opportunities that probably would have been much harder to access a few years later.
I’ve seen how quickly the field has changed. Some of the galleries I work with now receive such a high volume of inquiries that they no longer even review unsolicited emails from artists or designers wanting to collaborate. In that sense, I do feel fortunate to have entered during a period when the scene still felt more accessible and experimental.
Pricing:
- Chainmail Chair 4,600 usd
- Chainmail Camping Stool 2,650 usd
- Eoli Credenza 24,000 usd
- Play Time Table 6,500- 14,900 usd
- Fisherman Chair 8,000 usd
Contact Info:
- Website: https://panorammma.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/panorammma_/
