Paula Ortega is a material-led artist and maker. Her practice centres on sustainability, process and material behaviour: how things are made, used and valued.

She began in opera singing and music composition before moving into audiovisual communication and digital media. Over time, her focus shifted towards tactile making through jewellery, sculpture and long-term material research.

Loofah, the dried fibrous fruit of the loofah plant, often mistaken for a sea sponge, was familiar to her from childhood in Argentina as an everyday object, but it was only after moving to the UK that it became central to her practice. For the past fifteen years, she has worked with loofah as a way to explore value, transformation and the shifting status of everyday materials.

Paula works in a hands-on, self-directed way, developing new techniques as each project requires. Her approach is meticulous and investigative, shaped by close attention to loofah’s structure, irregularity and internal complexity, and by a longstanding fascination with patterns found in nature, particularly fractal and repeating structures.

In 2017–18 she retrained in cosmetic formulation and went on to develop Whitfords, a 100% plastic- and petroleum-free vegan skincare brand, recognised for its award-winning loofah FibrePods packaging and innovative formulas.

After several years running Whitfords, Paula stepped away from production to return to studio practice. She is currently developing a new body of sculptural work with loofah, bringing together material research, environmental questions and a renewed interest in scale, surface and form.