Editor’s Note
**Editor’s Note:** This profile highlights the resilience of Isabel Martín Murillo, a single mother and artisan from Toledo who balances early-morning craftsmanship with parenting, building an international jewelry brand from a home workshop.
Isabel Martín Murillo wakes up at four in the morning to shape earrings and bake her jewelry before the sun rises, while the rest of the world sleeps. At 39, this woman from Magán (Toledo) is not only a self-employed artisan but also a separated mother of a six-year-old girl.
Under the brand ‘MurilloJewelry’, this entrepreneur has managed to sell pieces in New York or Australia from her humble workshop—a room in her mother’s house. This Sunday, March 8, from EL ESPAÑOL de Castilla-La Mancha, we delve into this beautiful story on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
Isabel is a dental prosthetist by training, and her life revolved around clinics until 2020, the year that changed everything.
At that moment, she found an outlet in her mother, a woman who “has always made art” with her hands, and Isabel decided to showcase her work on social media.
What started as entertainment with basic steel costume jewelry evolved into polymer clay, and little by little, her mother’s artisan skill rubbed off on her. For a time, she balanced the dental clinic while growing her online business.
She maintained this modus operandi until 2023, when the volume of customers allowed her to go all in and register as self-employed.
In a market unbalanced by industrial production and the low prices of multinational jewelry companies, Isabel has found her niche:
Her customers, mostly women, are spread across Spain but also on other continents like New York or Australia.
March 8 is often filled with grand headlines about equality, but Isabel’s reality is much more pragmatic and sacrificial. She designs, molds, bakes, photographs, manages the website, and acts as community manager.
This is added to her role as a mother:
Work-life balance sometimes becomes a juggling act.
In this equation, Isabel’s mother once again becomes the key piece. While Isabel records live streams for social media, mainly on TikTok where she has nearly 13,000 followers, her mother takes care of the little girl:
When asked if one can make a living from craftsmanship in a town like Magán, she responds firmly:
Despite not yet being able to afford a specific kiln and having to use the one at home, she doesn’t look back.
Her dream is to have a larger workshop with a physical store that becomes a space for artisan beauty.
This Sunday, March 8, Isabel will likely be shaping her next unique piece, reminding us that International Women’s Day is also about those self-employed women who build the future with their own hands.