"My work is a family endeavor and our designs are ancestral ones. Everything Peruvian is in our hands."
Ubaldina Paucar Achancaray was born in Cuzco on May 16, 1953. Proud of her Peruvian heritage, she remembers watching her father paint in LOW relief. So as a young girl, she decided to study handicrafts in the artisan school near the famous archeological site of Intihuatana. She learned weaving on the handloom, ceramics, painting and jewelry crafting, eventually excelling at all of them.
After moving to an urban area, Dina decided to work and study. She received a degree in nursing and worked as a nurse until 1975, when she again turned to art. She taught her husband ceramic techniques, and today the whole family works in one artisan form or another. Her daughter is a painter, and all the children are studying in high school or college. "In the arts, there is always something new to learn," Dina says. "My work is a family endeavor and our designs are ancestral ones. Everything Peruvian is in our hands."
