Our Story: Faith, Family, and Handmade Jewelry
Two sisters, a story between Venezuela and Madrid, and a dream built with our own hands.
At Aktual, we believe a piece of jewelry can hold much more than beauty.
Behind every piece are the hands that make it, a story, a craft, and, in our case, also a family and a faith that have been with us throughout the journey.
We are Katy and María Isabel, two Venezuelan sisters and the artisans behind Aktual.
Our story begins in Venezuela
We grew up in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, in a large family of nine siblings.
Our mother was a seamstress, and from a young age we watched her transform fabrics with her own hands, taking care with every detail. Our father, a tireless entrepreneur, taught us another fundamental part of our story: to work, look for opportunities, and try again when things don’t turn out as we hoped.
Perhaps that’s why creating and entrepreneurship have always felt so natural to us.
We both studied Social Communications, although our professional paths were different for many years. Katy went into pastry-making, while María Isabel found her calling in handmade jewelry—a passion that would end up changing our lives.
Aktual was born in 2010
Aktual began in Barquisimeto in 2010, when María Isabel was 18 years old.
What began as a small business grew and evolved along with our own story.
Years later, the situation in Venezuela led us to start over in Spain.
Emigrating meant leaving a lot behind, adapting to a new life, and rebuilding a project from scratch. But Aktual came with us.
And Madrid became its new home.
From Venezuela to a small workshop in Madrid
With a great deal of hard work and deep trust in God, we opened our workshop at Calle Fomento 6, right in the center of Madrid, very close to the Royal Palace, Plaza de España, and Gran Vía.
It’s a small space, but it’s very much our own.
Here we design, cut, solder, file, and polish Aktual’s jewelry. Here we welcome people who come looking for a special piece. And around our own worktables, we also teach others to make jewelry with their hands.
We like to think of it as an open-door workshop.
We don’t hide the process behind a shop. The process is part of it.
A chapter that’s also part of our story
For a few months, Aktual also had a second space at Calle Menorca 20, in the Retiro neighborhood.
It was a brief but very special chapter, full of lessons and wonderful people who came to see us.
At the end of 2025, we decided to close that space and focus all our energy once again on Fomento 6.
It wasn’t going backward.
It was choosing where to direct our energy and continuing to build a clearer, more authentic version of Aktual from there.
Today, the two of us are back together in one workshop, creating, teaching, and growing this dream around the same table.
Jewelry made by us
When we say handmade jewelry, we mean something very specific: our jewelry really does pass through our hands.
We cut, solder, hammer, sand, polish, paint, and combine materials until an idea becomes a finished piece.
We mainly work with brass, 925 sterling silver, stainless steel, semi-precious stones, pearls, mother-of-pearl, glass, and hand-painted resin, depending on the design.
We’re not looking to make thousands of exactly identical pieces.
We like every piece of jewelry to have a story we can tell.
And jewelry you can now make yourself
Over time, we realized we didn’t want to limit ourselves to creating our own collections.
We wanted to share the experience.
That’s how our handmade jewelry workshops in Madrid came about, where we open up our worktable to people who want to experience making a piece of jewelry from scratch.
We’re especially moved when someone who has never touched a jeweler’s saw, a file, or a blowtorch walks out a few hours later with a piece they made with their own hands.
That’s why there’s a phrase that sums up Aktual so well today:
Jewelry made by us. Jewelry you can make yourself.
When our workshop made it onto television
Along the way, things have happened that we never could have imagined.
Our workshop at Fomento 6 was chosen as a filming location for Antena 3’s series La Encrucijada, becoming the jewelry workshop of one of its characters.
For a few days, the space where we usually work and welcome our students became a television set.
Seeing our tables, tools, and little workshop become part of a production like that was one of those moments we’ll always remember with great affection and gratitude.
The faith that guides us
Our story can’t be told without talking about our faith in God.
It has been there in the happy moments, but especially when we didn’t know what would happen next.
Our devotion to the Virgin Mary is also part of that journey and the way we approach this project.
We don’t believe entrepreneurship means everything will always go well. We’ve had to start over, make mistakes, close chapters, and make difficult decisions.
But our faith has taught us to trust, give thanks, and keep working even when we can’t clearly see what comes next.
We’re still here
After all these years, Aktual still has the essence of the little project that began in Venezuela.
Only now, it’s two sisters around a jewelry worktable in Madrid.
We’re still designing new pieces, soldering, sanding, packing orders, welcoming customers, teaching workshops, and dreaming about what we still have to build.
Aktual is our story, but it’s also being filled with the stories of those who walk through our door.
Of someone finding a piece of jewelry for someone special.
Of someone stopping by just to look and ending up chatting with us.
And of someone sitting down at a jewelry worktable for the first time and discovering they can make something with their own hands, too.
If you’re in Madrid, we’d love for you to come and meet us.
Our workshop
📍 Visit us at:
Aktual Handmade Jewelry Workshop
– Calle Fomento 6 · Royal Palace · Madrid
Palacio neighborhood · Central Madrid
Thank you for supporting craftsmanship, small businesses, and the dreams that are still built by hand.
Katy and María Isabel 💛
📲 Follow us on Instagram: @aktualaccesorios