MAESTRO is a design and craft project founded by Zapotec artist and designer Porfirio Gutiérrez, creating functional and utilitarian objects rooted in Zapotec making traditions. MAESTRO operates as a collective practice grounded in shared making and ongoing relationships between tradition and contemporary design.

Based in Ventura, California, the project works collectively with members of the Teotitlán del Valle community in Oaxaca to produce objects shaped by intention, care, and restraint.

MAESTRO reintroduces Zapotec ancestral philosophies of making, guided by the cycles of nature and the availability of materials. Working within these principles, the project engages materials as living forms and proposes a rethinking of value—one that recognizes the interdependence of makers, materials, consumers, and the environment.