Today we’d like to introduce you to Paula Berti And Citlalli Martinez.
Paula Berti and Citlalli Martinez, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
(this is Paula writing)
We started as a hobby when Citlalli fell in love with a crochet doll in a trip to Mexico. She purchased a needle and yarn, a good YouTube video for left handed crochet artists and started crocheting. I loved her work and since I had basic skills since I was a child, we started knitting together once a week as a hobby and stress releaser. Many time is three of us with our friend Victoria, another amazing artist.
Then I personalized the first doll to look like my sister (a radio personality) and her friend (a drone operator). We did their hair to match them and we included little gadgets to match them. From then it all became more and more personalized. My mother’s travels with her passport and ticket, our swim coach has a backpack with a folder full of workouts (literally). I am a middle school teacher and Citlalli made me as a teacher with the school logo and the “Mrs. Berti” stitched to my jacket, we have an Olympic swimmer with her sunglasses and another swimmer dressed just as her doll. Citlalli made one looking like her sister with the ceramists apron, a copy of her ophthalmologist, her son also has one, and I made one to look like my cousin who was getting married, matching her highlights.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We started crocheting as a hobby in 2017 with Citlalli as our “pattern interpreter”, some stitches are truly hard to understand. Citlalli has been more actively crocheting, she is a wonderful artist and crochets beautifully. I started with her and love the craft, but in 2019 I started teaching middle school and I have been slower at my crochet. We still sit and chitchat while we work, but at a slower pace. We love personalizing the dolls.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
We are both engineers in our countries. Citlalli is a Electronics Systems Engineer and I am a Materials Engineer – specification in Polymers (plastics) but we had the creative vine, I guess. We just exploited it later.
Crochet is not something that can be done in a machine, it is always hand made, the difference with our work is that we like to personalize it. We try to match you hair, favor it color, sports or hobbies or careers, so the dolls look more like you. When we finish a doll and we hand it to the recipient, the faces light up and is very rewarding.
We also do other items, like flowers, animals and more. Anything can be personalized!
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
The biggest support is to appreciate the hand work, not only ours, but in general artisan’s work. We use cotton yarn of all colors and pillow stuffing, donations are always welcome.
Follow us in Instagram at personalizedcrochet and you can always send us private messages.
Image Credits
We use or base our work on the patterns from www.etsy.com/shop/CAROcreated
