I grew up in a very energetic home full of artists, designers, and craftspeople working on costumes and theater sets, sewing on beads and lace, painting, hammering, sawing, papier mâché-ing and plaster of paris-ing sculpture for festivals, exhibitions and parades. My surroundings were made up of exotic ornaments: glass beads poured from drawers, each room decorated with antique furniture, moriones masks and gold statues, higantes leaning on the walls, intricate mirrors everywhere, local weaves, silk, metal trees (!!) and wood carvings from the mountains… everything was interesting and beautiful. Thankfully my family allowed me to play freely among the brilliant chaos with my cousins, and I would like to think that we didn’t break anything :)

Freedom to get wild that early on allowed me to be inspired, creative and unafraid to experiment. This kind of environment extended to my growing-up years in school where we were encouraged to express ourselves, be our own person and accept the uniqueness in yourself and in your classmates, no matter how weird, no matter how ordinary. (I proudly belonged to the former). It was very liberating!

At our industrial design classes at the university, I was trained in the exactness of math and numbers to create things which people will use, and where one millimeter can determine the fate of your future. We were taught to focus on details, curves, lines and angles, and think of others for whom we were designing for, very altruistic. You can only continue once you gained skills in choosing the right materials, heights, widths, lengths, and use precision and accuracy with every decision. The discipline was amazing!

I knew I had to find the balance of wild creativity with the sophistication of design to produce work that is beautiful. This is how I have been doing my work since.