by Yvonne Wright • The Current Contributing Writer
When you come to a small town like Jim Thorpe you may not realize, at least not right away, that while browsing various shops in a leisurely manner you are bound to eventually come across one of our town’s real-life heroines, and perhaps one day a CNN Hero of the Year award recipient. Just to clarify the definition of a hero, a meaning of which has varied throughout time, such a person puts others before oneself for a good cause and typically exhibits characteristics of selfless conviction, bravery, compassion and courage.
Our country has been blessed with many men and women well deserving the hero’s title – often associated with military forces, health services, and law enforcement agencies; others may be more inconspicuously going about their lives with quiet dignity. We can also call somebody ‘a hero’ as a supplementary complement expressing great admiration; in short, heroes are champions to look up to.
One of such heroines I dearly admire is Maria Loyd, a Jim Thorpe based designer who is well established producing distinctive and environmentally sustainable products made from recycled and natural materials like leather (treated with plant-based dyes and oils) and Mola fabrics (traditional Colombian textiles), which she incorporates into stylishly contemporary footwear and fashion accessories.
Socially conscious, Maria believes that her best “creative and learning moments” come from her “Giving Back” campaign experiences, during which a percentage of her profits is donated and distributed among various indigenous schools in Colombia and to a lesser degree in other parts of the world (e.g., “Operation Rebuild Nepal”). Maria is also working closely with two champions for Native Peoples rights in North America, Don Wild Eagle and John Thorpe, and has committed a percentage of her business profits to American Aboriginal schools.
Maria loves children, and as she admits: “every single second shared with them I learn something, [it’s] enriching my soul, and makes me have those heart-touching experiences that come from their genuine imagination and innocence.” In Colombia, she is a role model and a beacon of hope for native tribal children. Every time she travels there she takes the time to organize seminars for new generations of Kuna Peoples, advising them on how to survive and overcome difficulties and plan for the future.
As a community focused business woman, Maria has provided financial resources to support many community programs in Jim Thorpe, such as: the Red Campaign (which she also founded) dedicated to helping the elderly; the Burn Camp program for children traumatized by fire incidents; the Pocono Wild Animals Hospital; the History Club at the Jim Thorpe High School; the Cyber Bullying prevention school program; the Foster Kids seminar on life skills; the Reading Program at the Dimmick Memorial Library; the Jim Thorpe High School runners, and girls basketball team; and the Entrepreneur Student Program (which Maria founded) to motivate young girls to become business women in the future.
When visiting Artisanal Gifts at 103 Broadway, one can experience first hand “the evolution of native fashion” as Maria calls it, by allowing oneself to be immersed in a different cultural realm. The painstakingly hand-crafted products are informed by the artist’s Colombian heritage and the indigenous peoples influence on art. Increasingly popular and sought after by customers for their vibrancy of colors, elegant styling, and exotic use of materials, these all natural hand-made-by-the-artist fashion accessories are sold under her private label Mabacol; splendidly promoting South American culture and its influence on our modern aesthetics.
Shopping Mabacol designs can be fun, because it is a unique boutique-brand that one can easily get exited about when perusing her unusual assortment of merchandise: rice-soled coffee bean shoes, ‘vegan’ cactus hand bags, playful backpacks, wallets and so on. There is also jewelry – artfully made earrings, bracelets and necklaces out of cantaloupe and açaí seeds, eucalyptus leaves, preserved orange peels, real-flower petals, and tree sap resins, all cleverly assembled into fashionable designs that can jazz up anyone’s wardrobe.
Maria’s line of ‘short’ boots have been one of her greatest and best selling creations to date, appreciated by many for their undeniably pleasant aesthetics, comfort and practicality; sentiments well supported by many online testimonies.
Ensuring that her customers receive courteous and efficient service, Maria keeps innovating her work, updating her designs and displaying them in a most appealing way. She often turns to the Media for broader product appeal and advertisement by giving interviews on Discover NEPA, TV Channel 69, Channel 16, Harrisburg TV 21 News, Green Philly Media, and Pocono Radio 96.7. The artist has also been written about in local newspapers (The Morning Call, Times News and The Jim Thorpe Current), and has participated in prestigious, international art-&-trade shows in Milan/Italy, Berlin/Germany, and in Paris/France.
Undeniably, Maria’s energy and her enthusiasm for running a business can be infectious, but the underlaying emotion that drives the designer’s engine is not entirely for the sake of profit – although, there is nothing wrong with wanting to make a living. Maria Loyd is an embodiment of a generous giver, benefactor and a supporter of various international charities, whose heart is as big as the country she adopted in 2004.
A hard worker with a determined spirit since her childhood, Maria likes to challenge herself by setting goals and fulfilling them. One of such goals was to set up a successful business enterprise (i.e., Artisanal Gifts LLC and the Mabacol label), with the main purpose of generating the financial means to help others, especially children.
Today, Maria’s life reads like an inspirational success story, but her accomplishments didn’t come easily. “Having a difficult childhood made me an example of hope” confesses Maria warmly with a hint of pride, quoting her appropriated slogan ‘Yes! You Can!!!’ Parentless, and often living on weekly rations of cheese and bread, Maria’s circumstances improved when the government of the Republic of Colombia included little Maria along with other socially disadvantaged children in a new, government sponsored social-learning program “the Artesanías de Colombia” (Handicrafts of Colombia) still active today.
“Back in the 1960s” Maria reminiscences fondly, “the first lady at the time, Dr. Graciela de Samper, created a beautiful program to teach children living in poor conditions how to survive by hand-creating pieces of art for sale, and she encouraged them to express their feelings, desires, happiness, sadness and their natural environment though art.” Mrs. Samper hoped to facilitate an independent future of self-sufficient adults; furthermore, native communities from the entire country were inserted into the program in order to achieve an exchange of learning among the children, which in turn created a cultural immersion of various native and non indigenous cultures into one national cultural identity.
Just like the other children in the program, Maria was sent to villages along the Andes mountains, away from the harshness of urban environments to live among the Colombian Native tribes with a primary purpose of learning their ancient cultural practices and art techniques.
“I started to work at the age of seven” Maria remembers, “and when I was nine, I began hand-creating my art pieces and selling them at art shows.” Eventually, Maria became one of ten especially gifted children whose works, considered the best, were regularly included in the biggest arts-&-crafts shows in Colombia. Being a keen learner, she quickly acquired a lot of practical skills, from sheep shearing and wool spinning to weaving wool tapestries, and hand-making Mola textiles using the ancient indigenous technique of reverse stitching, layer over layer.
Eventually, Maria finished her education in Colombia by studying at night and working during the day, completing her diploma in marketing. The best part of the program was to learn how to create a business, promote and sell one’s art, and how to maintain a balanced budget for moving forward. Maria is now happily sharing this valuable knowledge with others through her own educational seminars (first in Colombia, and then in the US), as part of her life’s commitment to “give back to society” (for example, in the upcoming 2023 semester she will be targeting such topics as: paying bills, eating smart, and surviving on $10 a week!).
In 2004, Maria expatriated to the United States, escaping the dangers of political unrest due to the guerrilla warfare being waged against the Colombian government at that time. Upon arriving in New York City (with no prior knowledge of the English language), Maria was fortunate in securing a well paying job in Manhattan in the beauty and fashion industry – an employment which she continued for the next several years, producing beautifully hand-made fabrics and textiles for customized high-end women’s fashions which stylistically incorporated her South American patterns and color schemes.
Always resourceful, Maria soon began to organize educational seminars for Spanish speaking entrepreneurs in the fashion industry (e.g., Chamber of Commerce – Queens, NY), and offered individual consultations to women in the hair-dressing profession to help them grow their businesses.
And, when everything seemed to be going well, a serious car accident occurred in 2014, badly injuring Maria’s back. Unable to work, or even live a normal life, defiant Maria needed to do something about her situation, and learning more about the workings of her body: muscles, joint movement, and even food digestion seemed like a path worth taking. She enrolled at the Lehigh Carbon Community Collage in Schnecksville, PA, where she acquired knowledge in physiotherapy at the personal-trainer level, which proved very helpful in her recovery.
Consequently, Maria also realized that “to be able to look elegant and walk comfortably” she needed to design her own shoes – hence, coming up with a style that is still her best selling footwear design to date! It was then, during her long and painful recovery that Maria decided to leave New York for Pennsylvania and to establish her own business, Artisanal Gifts and Mabacol brand, which first opened in 2015 at the Lehigh Valley Mall in Allentown, and then moved to Jim Thorpe in 2017, becoming one of our town’s hottest boutiques.
I am clearly running out of editorial space in my efforts to tell Maria Loyd’s story, but please keep in mind that while shopping her unique brand of hand-made footwear and fashion accessories you are not only supporting a local business, among a great many more in our beautiful town, but also, you will be contributing to all the charities and social projects this remarkable woman supports and has plans for in the future – it is truly art in the service of people!
Yvonne Wright is the owner of STUDIO YNW at 100 West Broadway in Jim Thorpe.
She can be reached at studio.ynw@gmail.com
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