In September of 2002, Camelia, our protagonist of today’s post, took one of the most important decisions of her life: emigrate to another country. Some years later, in 2012, she was presented with another important change in her life, this time in the workplace and much less traumatic than the first one, but which also meant that she had to get out of her comfort zone again: quit a job where she had been working for 11 years on her own and make the leap to the world of entrepreneurship, creating her own company. Today I have the pleasure to present you Camelia Ríos, a jewel of a person, whom I had the pleasure to meet last November of 2017.
Camelia Ríos is a Venezuelan architect with Spanish roots who in one of her best personal and professional moments had to emigrate from the country where she was born, in the same way that her parents had to when they “had” to emigrate from Spain to Venezuela. In the case of Camelia, it was a failed kidnapping at gunpoint which made her take the difficult decision to emigrate to Spain. Thanks to her dual nationality, her work and professionalism and, above all, to the complicity and understanding of her partner (current husband and father of her two children), Camelia, who had just had her first daughter less than 3 months ago, came to Madrid to start a new life, of course, with a very interesting job offer in her area.
Unfortunately, after going through a traumatic work experience and saying goodbye to 9 months of work in “the capital”, Camelia had the opportunity to re-start her life again, this time in Oviedo, where she is currently living. The 3 years of testing needed to acclimatize and see if life gave them a future like the one they deserved and for which they had been trained, have become 16 years. Today, our enterpreneur woman can brag about working on something she is passionate about, the combination of architecture and the world of jewelry, and about doing it surrounded by her family, which she has managed to reunite in Spain.
Camelia has been a university professor, has worked as an architect in an architecture studio, as a furniture designer, as an interior designer and has created her own company “CAMELIA RIOS“. I dare to say that this is, for the moment, the most important project of her professional life, not only because of the passion she gives off through her works (some jewels that won’t leave you indifferent), but because she has managed to channel all her knowledge, training and skills she has and has developed herself as an architect in an art that has little to envy other artists in the world of fashion and design in general.
Oh, also because, as she herself told me a few days ago:
“Dreams, when followed and pursued, are achieved.”
Being the first one of the class (I don’t get why she says it half-heartedly), made her start working very soon and being able to demonstrate her talent and skills in the world of architecture. It’s sad that a promising future would be truncated, for a time, by a very unpleasant chapter no one should live, which made Camelia start working almost from scratch in a country where being an “immigrant” 16 years ago was considered a stigma.
I believe I am not mistaken when I define Camelia as a brave, determined, hardworking, constant, very persevering, innovative, creative woman who is passionate about her work and always striving to the fullest.
The pieces she creates are unique, made with noble materials and inspired by architectural projects. The silver, the leather, the bull horn, the bronze (bathed in gold), the bone, the ebony wood or the semiprecious stones are some of the materials with which Camelia works, leaving her soul and hands in each of her creations. They are many hours of work that this artist dedicates to “carving” and “weaving” her pieces with the intention that women who have their own and different style are happy to acquire them to show off in our day to day or exclusive events.
This enterpreneur woman has walked her works through cities such as Barcelona, Madrid, San Sebastian, Marbella and, of course, Bilbao. She has collaborated with great fashion designers and has exhibited at fairs, fashion shows and events in the fashion industry. And there have been quite a few architects who have come to contemplate her work, because that’s the way it is, being an architect goes a long way!
Today her creations are exhibited in art galleries and sold in Europe and America.
And because in this case an image is NOT worth a thousand words, but opens your appetite and leaves us with the desire, I encourage you to enjoy her collections on her website, if you have the opportunity to meet Camelia and her jewelry, don’t lose it. She will be in San Sebastian during Easter Week.
Oh, and if you want to contact her, I’ll pass on her information:
- C/ Valdés, 2B 6ºB / 33012 Oviedo (Asturias)
- Telephone: 647681669
- e-mail: c.rios@cameliarios.es
- Website: www.cameliarios.es
Be happy.
Translated by María Ubierna Quintanilla and supervised by Arantza Arruti.