“Alquimia Textil” (“Textile Alchemy”) is a collaborative exploration project with researcher and fashion designer Maria Lucia Muñoz. It showcases the natural dyeing techniques practiced by the artisans of Pumaqwasin in Chinchero, Cusco.

This work brings visibility to and helps preserve these ancestral dyeing techniques, which demand many hours of meticulous work and often go unnoticed or underestimated within the textile industry. These traditional processes are increasingly being replaced by industrial methods. By unveiling each step of the dyeing process, we highlight its value and importance, while connecting with the local community and emphasizing the significance of the manual labor they practice.

In these photographs you can find three types of dyes: qolle (Buddleja coriacea), a shrub or small tree, whose flowers produce a variety of shades of yellow; ch’illka (genus Baccharis), a shrub whose leaves and stems are used to prepare ocher and green dyes; and the famous cochineal (Dactylopius coccus), a small insect from the Andean valleys, from which tones are extracted in a wide spectrum that varies between red, carmine and purple.