Meet Marinho Nobre of Venice, CA

Today we’d like to introduce you to Marinho Nobre.

Hi Marinho, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Sonictopia came out of sheer inspiration from nature and my life with music. I wanted to pursue a passion I long had by creating objects that exposed the beauty of less common woods.

Being in the world of the music business for quite sometime and growing up as a builder of my own instruments in a woodshed in Brazil when I was young, it made sense for me to create music themed art. Perhaps even musical instruments that are less usual. Using less common and more attractive woods with the intent of exploring their grain, textures, colors and beauty to enhance the joy of the one who acquires it.

Functional Art. For the everyday. Be a musician, music lover, audiophile, DJ, interior designer or simply regular folks who who want to ad a touch of nature, color and music to their creative spaces.

So in 2024 I built a workshop with all I could possibly need and got hands on designing, crafting and working all other vehicles to get this art as a business. There is a well set Shop inside Etsy as well as gradual connections with the art community in Venice, the place I call home…

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?
I wish it was, but like most small businesses, there are bumps on the road, some small and some bigger…
Logistics, shipping delays from suppliers, faulty machinery, scam attempts from so called “marketing providers”
and so on.

One of my biggest challenges was actually bringing the vision of an art object to reality. Contours, colors, finishes, structural integrity are some of the factors that will always surprise you when you try to think outside the box…

Those struggles however, do bring you the knowledge to evolve and the experience that will allow you to avoid issues next time around. I m a bit of a perfectionist even to create the imperfect and in the strangest ways, I find quite a bit of joy on that particular pain and challenge.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
In a nutshell, I call myself a “grind-artist” (sculpting wood with a grinder) I think of a shape, a color, a texture then go heads on to make that real. On the background side of things, I am a musician, composer and producer who also has a big love for artistic wood-crafting. I love that chemistry as it somehow transcends and blends both passions into one.

I envision my shop as a boutique outlet with high end products. As opposed to the average store mass producing, stocking and expanding, I tend to aim towards unique one-off pieces which once gone, they are gone.

The silver lining is that the customer becomes the owner of a very unique piece and no one else will have another one like it. And while I do have multiples of a single run in some products, even those will have a unique finish signature. There is not a single one like the other. They all come with a small plaque containing the year of making and a serial number.

Uniqueness, taste and usefulness is what I’d like to think I offer to my shoppers, who come from different backgrounds, but all appreciate the beauty of individual crafts.

What does success mean to you?
“To live and prosper doing what you love while adding to the lives of others.”

Pricing:

• Handcrafted Tribal SeedPod Shaker $75
• Custom Sculpted Rare Woods Headphone Stands $195/249
• Ukulele/Small String Instrument Gallery Wall Frame $175

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sonictopia.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonictopia/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573915890116