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Giselle and Margarita

"Hello, we are Giselle Dibos de Franco and Margarita Yachachín Salazar, and we are self-taught textile artists. Our craft is laborious and highly detailed. It requires much patience and imagination. We have to rescue the child we have within, and, in a way, return to our childhood.

"We have been working together since 2002, and our work is inspired by a desire to bring back to girls the love for playing with dolls, rather than virtual games that promote violence. Our greatest motivation is to see a little girl's smiling face when she sees our dolls. Another motive is that through our work, we're able to offer jobs to older women who otherwise would not have a source of income.

"More than anything, we wish to promote healthy entertainment and love, as well as showing the rest of the world what we're capable of doing here in Peru.

"We started in this field by just making clothes for dolls. Then we decided to make dolls for those clothes! Making cloth dolls allows us to try out different colors and textures. Peru is a multi-racial country, so we strive to represent our various ethnicities.

"In the beginning we sewed old curtains, cloth that friends would donate, and old jeans. We began by sewing them in the kitchen, and gradually we overtook the living room, then dining room, and so on. We eventually had to get out of the house and build a workshop. When we began we only had one sewing machine. We never imagined that our hobby would evolve so wonderfully.

"Not so long ago somebody bought one of our earliest dolls to give as a birthday present to her little girl. Later that evening the woman called us to say that her daughter had unwrapped the doll first, and was so taken by her that she ignored all her other birthday presents! She just wouldn't set her doll down for one second. This anecdote moved us to tears, and encouraged us to continue with our efforts.

"The biggest challenge we had to face was how to finance our work, and we both had to sacrifice our most valuable possessions to put together enough money to continue. That was a worthwhile sacrifice. We believe in what we are doing. Every single doll we make represents our passion and dedication. We love what we do.

"We were invited to San Diego, California to exhibit our dolls, and we were impressed to see how a little girl would just not move from where we were, because she loved one of our dolls. There was no moving the girl away from us, so the mother had to buy her the doll. Such experiences move us to happily continue doing what we're doing. It also makes us feel reassured in our decision to make these dolls.

"Each doll we make is created with love. We thank you for considering our dolls, and for helping us provide work to the group of great women who work with us.”