"When you buy from an independent artist you are buying more than just a painting or a novel or a song...you are buying a piece of heart, a part of soul, a private moment in someone's life. Most important you are buying that artist more time to do something they are truly passionate about...something that puts the life into the living”

—Rebekah Joy Plett

ulumulu is a word for the spirit that accumulates in an object made, or used, with love and care. It's the residual love and care and skill of the maker that inheres in an object after it passes from their hands. It is the accumulated love that continues to collect in an object used by caring hands, or loved by a person. It's the love you sense using the handed-down, dented, worn, aluminum cup measure your grandmother used for decades to bake bread for her family. It's the love that stays with and makes special the child's favorite stuffed animal even after the child has grown.

Our products are designed to maximize function and aesthetic appeal without making compromises for the sake of mass production. They are made by hand by artisans earning a living wage in the US using simple tools and their years of accumulated skill. They are intended to become vessels for your and your family's love through generations.

about dean verhoeven

I'm ulumulu's designer,  creative director and chief artisan. Formally trained in engineering and physics, I've been a designer/maker since childhood. My creations all incorporate some element of improved function drawn from my technical knowledge, in combination with a bright, optimistic aesthetic design.

What I want to do in my life is make beautiful, and beautifully functional, tools for your everyday life. Please consider supporting what I do. Join me in bringing this vision to life.

e-mail me at dean@ulumulu.design !