Nairar Sarañani Artisans is the name of the company belonging to Marcelina Gonzalez Zamora, or Doña Marcela, a professional hand-knitter who has been working with Caserita ever since we started our online company.
Her aunt taught her knitting and weaving techniques at the beginning of the 80s. She learned how to make all types of clothing and accessories of fibers from alpaca, llama and sheep. Since then, Doña Marcela's company has grown until today she has two shops in the tourist areas of the city of La Paz.
Currently, the company has seven employees who divide up the work: two knitters, her husband and her two children who work in the workshop while she and her niece take care of sales in the shops and making deliveries to different customers. She also sells wholesale to vendors in Chile and Argentina.
Doña Marcela's new designs are inspired by current fashion and by products she sees at the garment fairs. Today she produces mainly socks, ponchos, sweaters, scarves, leggings, caps and gloves in her shop.
Currently the workshop is in her home where she stores the wool for washing and dying in the traditional way. The workshop is equipped with a machine to spin the fibers, but sometimes Marcela and her artisans spin it by hand. Only after completing this process do they begin to knit. The knitters use different techniques and tools: they knit by hand, weave on a rustic loom or use the home knitting machine.
Doña Marcela loves her work because she is gratified to be able to make a piece of clothing with her own hands, starting with spinning the wool though the finished product. She also teaches her skills to her two children along with her enjoyment of the profession. So with a lot of effort and the support of her family, Doña Marcela has become one of the most important artisans and suppliers of wool garments in the artisan market of the city of La Paz.