Artisan Partners

Tiodoro & Juana

(Palco, Puno)

Tiodoro and Juana have dedicated their lives to the creation of beautifully soft, hand-woven alpaca textiles. During the 2000s, Tiodoro and Juana decided to revive their ancestral practice of alpaca rearing and, combined with their knowledge of natural dye plants and weaving, have come to produce a variety of hand-woven textiles created on both the floor and backstrap looms. From raising and shearing the alpaca to making the textile, everything takes place at their home in Palca, a small village in the Puno region. Selected alpacas are sheared every November and December during the Peruvian “summer,” when they can survive (and benefit from) losing some of their wool. After the shearing ceremony, the wool is cleaned and hand-spun using a pushka (drop spindle). Some wool is dyed, while the rest maintains its natural color. Finally, Tiodoro and Juana begin the weaving process.

Destilería Andina

(Ollantaytambo, Cusco)

Distilería Andina’s creative team makes a spirit called Matacuy, based on a secret ancestral recipe that highlights the specific flavors of the land, traditions and cultures surrounding the Sacred Valley. Matacuy is created with a compound of local herbs that are extracted in Andean sugar cane and distilled in a copper still on an Inca terrace at 9200 feet above sea level. The low boiling point at high altitude, plus the infusion of botanicals like cypress and orange blossom, creates a smooth, crisp flavor unlike anything you’ve tasted before. 

In 2020, Aula partnered with Andre Querol, lead distiller at the Destilería. Together, we opened Aulita, our restaurant and boutique in Cusco’s historic center that fuses locally-sourced flavors from the Peruvian Amazon and highlands. Here, our artisan partners have more space to display their work, and we’re able to expand our network to new partners, including coffee growers, potato farmers, natural winemakers and artisanal brewers. Come visit us in Cusco or at our second location in the Sacred Valley between Cusco and Machu Picchu.

Pichinku

(Calca, Cusco)

Pichinku is a social enterprise based in the small town of Lamay, where the team of four women hand-dye yarn using dye plants foraged from the hills and valleys of the Cusco area. A deep and ever-growing knowledge of dye plants and methods guides Pichinku’s process, as they create color palettes and combinations based on the dye material, time of harvest and dye techniques. Each skein of yarn is hand-dyed and dried in the sun, after which it is separated into individual lots for sale.