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CRAFTS
Carmen González Bello – Doll maker and dressmaker
“As a dressmaker, I am always interested in everything related to children” FMHOY - Fuerteventura Carmen González, is a young entrepreneur who left her homeland of Cadiz to come and live in Fuerteventura. She tells us that she has already lived more than half her life on the island and that when she goes to see her family, she misses the island after a few days. Have you always dedicated yourself to sewing? My grandmother was a dressmaker and my mother and my aunt also sewed, but not professionally. Since I was a child, I was attracted to the sewing machine and of course, I wasn’t allowed to use it. Later, my grandmother gave me hers, and I still have and cherish it. When I was 16, one day when my mother went to do her shopping, since we always had some fabric in the house, I used a pattern from a Burda magazine to make myself a jacket. When my mother saw me, she was surprised and then allowed me to start sewing and learn more. So, you have been sewing since then? For more than 15 years now and as a dressmaker, I am always interested in everything related to children, small clothes for babies, small hats, etc. And how long have you been a dollmaker? Professionally, as a self-employed person, about four yearsand I even had a shop that I had to close at the beginning of the pandemic. I used to work in various activities and this was a complement, but at some stage, I hardly had time to sew and that’s when I decided to become self-employed. I started making dolls for the children of relatives, then I got more and more involved and my friends encouraged me to get my licence as a handicraft maker and sell my creations.
Now that you don’t have the shop, how do clients come to you? It is more difficult, but I participate in all the handicraft fairs in the islands and in as many markets as I can. However, because of the pandemic, both fairs and markets are almost non-existent. I am, therefore, taking advantage of this time to create more stock and prepare new designs for future expositions. We hope to have a fair in September in Lanzarote and also a “mini-fair” in Antigua in November and Tenerife in December... as long as the situation doesn’t get more
complicated! And how have you been able to survive during the past difficult eighteen months? Thanks to courses that we have organised with the Cabildo, I have been teaching creative sewing lessons for adults in various ayuntamientos. If someone wishes to contact you after reading this article, how can they do it? I have a webpage that is accessible on Facebook with my brand Gugudoll and on Instagram with gugudollsolea.