I am María Ibáñez Gabilondo and I have lived with my family in Santiago de Chile from 2014 to 2017. My work is my passion, I look for the most beautiful and genuine craftsmanship and bring it to my country, where I adapt it to the taste and trends, converting rustic looms into contemporary pieces of furniture and decoration.
In 2016 I opened an online store from where we serve all of Europe, since 2018 I have the support of María Fernández, who has the tidiest head in the world, and in May 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, we opened our showroom in Madrid, at 59 Nuria Street, where we serve by appointment. We’d love to have you stop by and see us!
The objective of Alfombras Étnicas is to give visibility and offer to the market the work of highly skilled artisans and workers who live in isolation high in the Andes.
I have traveled and continue to travel to different areas of the South American Altiplano, which includes northern Chile, southern Peru and western Bolivia, looking for the most spectacular blankets and looms in the best conditions to bring them to Spain.
Sometimes my family accompanies me, it is a good thing to be able to visit such spectacular places together. We take wonderful pictures that you can see on the blog.
Alfombras Étnicas has an important social aspect. In addition to participating in fair trade, respecting local prices, we allocate part of the profits to social causes in the Andean Altiplano. Throughout the year we carry out special actions, such as the Christmas sale of handmade nativity scenes to raise funds to build a soccer field for children and young people in Yucai, renovate the dining room of a school in Pomacanchi or, during the pandemic, support the Josefina Serrano Hospital in Cuzco, a town in the Sacred Valley of Peru.
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