Pampa Project

CENTRE FOR TRAINING OF PAMPATOYS

Both sewing and knitting are domestic activities that for centuries have been transmitted from mothers to daughters and from grandmothers to granddaughters. Family customs and heritage are bound up in the stitch and hem of each family and little family secrets transmitted from one generation to another in the course of the activity. This is why every woman who comes to Pampatoys already has some kind of previous knowledge about what we do. Yet they do not necessarily have the accuracy and neatness that we require. For that reason many of us have had to dedicate part of our time to teaching and schooling new members, in addition to making the dolls.

This individualized approach to training to bring each worker at Pampatoys up to the standard we require soon started using up too many of our resources of time and materials. We came to the conclusion that we needed to create a training centre where all those who wanted to join us had an appropriate place to learn the necessary skills. As a result, an ambitious goal took shape: to open the Pampatoy project to the community.

It is a daring venture, but we think it is worthwhile because in the course of the training process we gather not only new ideas and techniques but also open ourselves to an exchange on a deeper, human level. In a human community there is always someone to teach and someone to learn from.

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