Fabiola González is from San Bartolomé, lives in Masdache and from a very young age learned from her mother, a seamstress, the art of sewing to then help in a sewing workshop during the summers.
“At 18 years old I took a sewing course on my own, but then I never picked up a needle again, until three years ago, suddenly, I had a piece of fabric at home and I said with this I can make a bag”, and she got to work.
The first bag with recycled fabric she made for herself, but in doing so, González explains that “a desire was born, a connection with a part of me that recovered the excitement of sewing. I felt very good creating, I liked it very much. After the first one came another, then two and so on.”
The sweet potato entrepreneur likes to combine colors in her pieces and preserve the original design of the fabrics: “if it's a pair of jeans, keep the pockets, the zippers, I like the bag to be innovative, creative, different…It's the recycled fabric itself that inspires the idea. I always look for different things, my own designs, that stand out from the rest.”
Recycling fabrics has a double prize
For Fabiola González, recycling fabrics has a double prize. On the one hand, it recovers stories: “The fabric says many things. When people give you a pair of pants or a shirt, very often it has a very special value, a story, a memory of youth,”
On the other hand, it contributes to reducing pollution: “It gives me great joy to recover materials. I am very aware of all the pollution caused by the production of the clothing industry, what is thrown away and the chemicals that end up in the water, for example,” explains the designer from San Bartolomé.
Thus, González's bags are unique pieces. “I practically don't repeat with the same fabric, because normally I only have a small piece. Even when I want to copy a model and make it the same, I always end up doing something different.” The bags are completed with handles, hardware, and zippers that are new.
Among the pieces by the Lanzarote artisan there are bags of different sizes: Bigger, smaller, fanny packs, backpacks too, I like to have variety.”
A passionate lover of craftsmanship and flea markets
Fabiola González sells most of her bags at the flea markets and at the Craft Fairs of Lanzarote and the Canary Islands. She knows them well, because before delving into the creation of bags with recycled materials, she already worked at flea markets helping artisan friends sell their production, a task she now combines with her work as an artisan.
Asked about her main clients, the designer from San Bartolomé explains: "Foreigners buy very well from me, especially Germans, who are very aware of material recycling and greatly value craftsmanship.”
From an economic point of view, the bags are for Fabiola a complement to her usual work at the flea market. Although she would like to live exclusively from her pieces, she is not in a hurry.
“Right now I'm still sewing with an old machine my mother gave me”, but thanks to a grant from the Government of the Canary Islands, González will have a new machine to produce faster.
“I take it easy because I have the peace of mind that I have a job I love, because I also sell crafts, even if they are not mine.”
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