page_title: Ana Karen Allende
hierarchical_section_title: Ana Karen Allende
caption_attribution_description: Ana Karen Allende of Retacitos painting doll http://retacitosjuguetes.blogspot.mx/
context_page_description: Ana Karen Allende is a Mexican artisan from the Mexico City borough of Coyoacán, who specializes in creating rag dolls and soft fabric animals. The tradition of making rag dolls in Mexico extends back to the pre-Hispanic period with the making of rag dolls reaching its peak in the 19th century. Allende's first doll was made when her sister was about to turn fifteen. For quinceañera celebrations in Xochimilco, it is customary to give the girl her “last doll” as a means of marking her transition from child to adult. Allende decided to make this doll herself, using sewing skills taught to her by her grandmother. Soon after, she began to make dolls for her friends and family, and the attention they received prompted her to think of selling them.
  Allende started her own small business called Retacitos in 2002 involving other members of her family, such as her at that time husband Sinhúe Lucas, along with contracting various single mothers in her area to work. She sells directly to the public only on Saturdays at the Art Bazaar in the San Ángel neighborhood. Her other sales are mainly to stores and museums.
context_section_description: Ana Karen Allende is a Mexican artisan from the Mexico City borough of Coyoacán, who specializes in creating rag dolls and soft fabric animals. The tradition of making rag dolls in Mexico extends back to the pre-Hispanic period with the making of rag dolls reaching its peak in the 19th century. Allende's first doll was made when her sister was about to turn fifteen. For quinceañera celebrations in Xochimilco, it is customary to give the girl her “last doll” as a means of marking her transition from child to adult. Allende decided to make this doll herself, using sewing skills taught to her by her grandmother. Soon after, she began to make dolls for her friends and family, and the attention they received prompted her to think of selling them.
  Allende started her own small business called Retacitos (Scraps) in 2002 involving other members of her family, such as her at that time husband Sinhúe Lucas, along with contracting various single mothers in her area to work. She sells directly to the public only on Saturdays at the Art Bazaar in the San Ángel neighborhood. Her other sales are mainly to stores and museums. She receives a number of custom orders including making dolls that look like famous people such as Frida Kahlo and even those that look like the purchaser. Allende states that her goal is to revive the craft of doll making but in a more modern form. She generally sticks to forms familiar to Mexican concepts of cultural identity such as lucha libre wrestlers, angels, traditional rag dolls, horses, mermaids, rabbits, etc. She has been recognized as an authentic Mexican craftswoman since 2010 by the government of Mexico City, her work has been exhibited in various museums and cultural events and has won the 3rd place at the VI Bienal Internacional de Arte Textil Contemporáneo WTA (2012) and the 1st place in the toys category at the Gran Premio de Arte Popular of FONART (2006) among other distinctions.
caption: Ana Karen Allende painting a doll
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D60", "Image Orientation": "Rotated 90 CCW", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.00", "Image DateTime": "2012:04:14 18:02:45", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "216", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "26712", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9074", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "21/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:04:14 18:02:45", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:04:14 18:02:45", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode, return light detected", "EXIF FocalLength": "24", "EXIF SubSecTime": "60", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "60", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "60", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3872", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2592", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "26572", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "36", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}