our Pichinku family
Dana and "the girls" have worked together since 2013, creating naturally dyed textiles and yarn. They come from very different worlds but have found communion and friendship in their shared passion for preserving artisanal crafts in Peru. Combined, the Pichinku girls have 50+ years of experience working with natural fibers and fiber arts.
Santusa
A tried-and-true “mother hen” personality, Santusa takes charge readily and with confidence, skills that certainly help at home with five kids: Ubaldina, Braulio, Guillermo, Sonya and David. Santusa leads production at the workshop, overseeing color accuracy and quality control. Also a very forward minded thinker, she’s often brainstorming improvements or different techniques to push Pichinku to the next level.
Angela
It’s no exaggeration that Angela’s wealth of knowledge about fibers and botanical dyes inspired Pichinku. A woman of few words, she displays her own brand of quiet confidence while spinning, weaving and dyeing. Angela is the oldest of her family and helped bring up her younger siblings, then raising three children of her own: Nico, Moeses and Carmen Rosa.
Ubaldina
Dana
Always the “wandering spirit” of her family, Dana jumped at the opportunity to work with textiles in Cusco after college. Armed with an Anthropology degree, fascination with Latin American culture and a “thrive in chaos” personality, a one-year contract extended to over 10 years working in the Andes.
Pichinku is her dream business, combining artisanal crafts with sustainable development practices and empowerment for indigenous women. Dana is at the helm of the yarn ship, directing production, ordering and marketing, as well as anything else that she can juggle. But despite an ever-growing "to do" list, she’ll embrace any excuse to be outside hovering over pots and playing with colors.