The value of being an artisan 4.0

This is the title of my TEDx conference in 2019, an international meeting that was held in my city in Ourense. Different speakers dealt with social issues, innovation, ecology, rural world, sustainability and experiences around work and even technology. An unforgettable experience for many reasons: meeting my colleagues, all incredible people with stories worthy of being heard and meeting so many hundreds of people and being able to share my ideas with them, was unique. And to demonstrate the value of being an artisan.

Article from La Región

In November the TEDxXardín do Posío was held and I was invited to tell my experience as a craftswoman and what it meant to me personally and professionally to break away from a stable job to perform a creative activity such as textile crafts, giving it a twist towards innovation in materials and processes but retaining all the values that craftsmanship has intrinsically and all this from a small town in Galicia.

Sometimes the most complex personal decisions bring us new possibilities for the future if we keep a different outlook, although change is never easy.

From a rural environment, during these years I have been studying processes and training in different disciplines, in material research centers that have led me to develop my profession as an Artisan Textile Designer in a different way, taking advantage of all the resources at my disposal.

 I have tried to keep all the positive aspects of craftsmanship, respect for materials, sustainability, care in production and respect for people and processes. But we live in a world that demands an adaptation in designs and materials for the future and the artisan activity also knows a lot about this.

This talk tells how you can merge the best of each world to work responsibly both in the craft sector, where quality is a premise and responsibility in the work is intrinsic to the profession, how to transfer these values to other sectors both design, how the industry or technology where we must be aware of the footprint we leave. Craftsmanship should not renounce innovation, nor can these sectors miss out on what a craftsman or this sector can bring them in terms of good work, the use of materials and eco-design.

This is why I believe it is very important that small companies, in small places, can be innovative in our processes, while at the same time being aware of the social and environmental changes that we can carry out for the good of the people.

Through one of our products, Deleite, which represents people-centered design, I invite you to think that we are made of emotions, which are what guide us. And that our innovation should always be focused on improving the lives of these people and the world around us.

I hope you enjoy this talk at the Youtube link below.

For me it has been a unique experience, to be able to share my ideas and work with so many different people.

I hope that through the TEDx page it will help many artisans to innovate and companies to work with an artisan vision of the future.