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Elena Aspillaga

Born in Lima on February 23, 1973, Elena Aspillaga's interest in art began at an early age. She was only five years old when she won a prize in painting in a contest organized by Banco Continental. Her landscape with perspective remained on exhibit in the Lima Art Museum for several months. That was the beginning, and her father encouraged the girl to continue in art.

"I majored in communications in the Universidad Femenina Sagrado Corazón while taking classes in art and painting in the Centro Cultural Peruano Japones," she recalls. "I loved this kind of work. My inspiration comes from my moods or the experiences of everyday life. In 2002, I decided to work with leather, using the Japanese technique known as shibori, a resist dye technique that is usually applied to silk. [The fabric is folded, crumpled, twisted or stitched, then bound or knotted before the dye is applied.] In this way, I created several very pretty handbags. After graduation, I went on to study leatherwork in the CEO Maria Auxiliadora. This included making patterns, tooled leather, chiseled motifs and shibori in leather. My designs are all hand-crafted and are innovative, creative, and the perfect complement to femininity."