Dori Alessio closes her therapeutic crafts workshop in Fuerteventura after three years

How much is a handmade piece worth? How do you put a price on the hours of work, the experimentation with materials or the story behind each creation? These are some of the questions facing Dori Alessio as she prepares to close her creative space after three years in operation.

“How do you put a value on it? How do you put a value on a piece of weaving?” the craftswoman asks in an interview with La Voz de Fuerteventura, reflecting on the difficulties of making a living from creativity and the limited financial recognition she believes craftwork receives. “I think artisans have traditionally been, I don’t know, not very highly regarded,” she laments.

As she prepares to close the premises, she has brought together much of her work in an exhibition where visitors can view and buy unique pieces, many made with natural materials, reclaimed objects and techniques she has explored over the years.

Some incorporate family mementoes, such as objects her parents brought with them when they came to Fuerteventura. Others are the result of experimenting with threads, raffia, fabrics and elements from the natural world she has watched grow.

Pricing the pieces has proved difficult. So much so that some price tags have been revised downwards. “I need them to go so I don’t have to put them back in boxes,” she admits.

A place to create and connect

For three years, the workshop has been a place to share knowledge, learn craft techniques and build personal relationships.

In recent months, six women had been attending. That was not enough to make the activity financially sustainable, but it had turned the space into a meeting place.

“It was like getting together around a table,” Alessio recalls. Some sessions were spent sewing or painting; others were an opportunity to chat over coffee or an herbal tea.

The craftswoman had hoped the project would turn her vocation into a stable profession. “I wanted this to be my job,” she admits, although in the end, “you can’t make it work with so few people”.

Her career began long before she opened the premises. Born in Argentina, she recalls that her mother taught her various handicrafts from an early age.

Over time, those skills took on a therapeutic dimension, particularly through her work with an association for people with Parkinson’s.

Through the Hemisferios iTrazos project, Alessio runs activities that encourage participants to use both hands, exercising the one we use less in order to balance the brain’s two hemispheres. The craftswoman links these practices to cognitive stimulation and personal wellbeing, and argues that people need to make time for hands-on activities alongside the demands of everyday life.

Exhibition and sale of unique creations

Dori Alessio has lived in Fuerteventura for 26 years. During that time, she has combined various professional projects with her creative work, setting up workshops in several venues.

Closing the workshop will not mean giving up this work. She will continue collaborating with the association for people with Parkinson’s and running workshops at the school in Triquivijate, through the parents’ association (AMPA), and at the Diferentes Iguales centre.

She admits she has yet to decide what comes next. “I need to take things calmly and let the doors that are meant to open, open, perhaps,” she explains.

Before saying goodbye to the workshop, she has organised an exhibition and sale of her creations, which visitors can attend for now this Wednesday, 21 October, from 7pm to 9pm, although she has not ruled out extending it.