Company name: Sumaya

Specialty: Alpaca fabrics

Technique: Home knitting machine / hand knitting

Location: El Alto, Bolivia.

Type of company: Sole proprietor: Eva Callata: works with her sister and her cousin.

Year founded: 2012

Products for Caserita.com: She makes accessories and clothing from alpaca wool, and has been working with Caserita.com directly since 2012. She was already working with us through the Warmis group starting in 2010.

Her “Plus”:

• Her creativity: she has a gift for design.
• Her curiosity: she spends a lot of time getting to know the taste of Western markets.

Eva's principles in alpaca knitting

Eva Callata is a 30-year-old mother of 3. She comes from a mining family. After dedicating herself to the education of her children, she decided to work in the world of alpaca wool.

Eva started knitting by hand as a girl when she watched her older sister working. She liked knitting by hand for her families and her dolls, but she never imagined she would be a knitter in the future. As a girl, her dream was to join the Bellas Artes [Fine Arts] academy in the city of La Paz because she had a gift for design. Unfortunately, she could not because her parents wanted her to study medicine or law rather than art, and they could not send her to the university.

In 2000, she met her husband, and they had three children. She focused on her role as a mother and continued to knit by hand to make clothes for her children. One day in 2010, her husband came home with a knitting machine and told her it would be a good idea for her to learn to use it in order to turn her home activity into a professional one. Since Eva already had ability as a designer, it would be a good idea to set up her own workshop.

From that time, Eva decided to take some machine knitting courses because she was not familiar with the area. There she met a group of women, and together they founded the group Warmis. Thanks to this association, they began selling their products in a fashionable area in the city of La Paz. Then they started working with Caserita.com thanks to one of the group's members who got in touch with the manager. That was the beginning of Eva's work with Caserita.com.

Establishment of SUMAYA

After two years working with Warmis, Eva decided to set up her own workshop in 2012 to have more freedom and to take more initiative in creating clothing and accessories. Her workshop is located in her parents' home in the city of El Alto. Now she has four home knitting machines and works with her sister and cousin. Sometimes they hire extra help for large orders. Eva explained to us that it is hard to find people trained to work with them. Most of the time she works with relatives she trusts. She knows that training at the institutes is very basic, and she worries about not being able to meet the requirements when she has a large order. She tells me that it would be a challenge to find people who can meet her customers' requirements.

In view of the quality of her products both at the technical and creative levels, it is natural for Caserita.com to continue working with Eva and Sumaya. She works with us in a sustainable fashion and would like to find other customers to export her creations. Starting with nothing 4 years ago, Eva has mastered the knitting machine and creation of technical specifications through her efforts and perseverance.

Caserita.com is proud to be able to work with Eva Callata and her workshop, Sumaya: a small business with a big vision.